“The Texas Independence Collection” of maps, letters, and government documents dating back to 1822 was scheduled to be sold by London auction house Sotheby’s June 18, according to the June 17 San Antonio Express-News.
“It’s a superb group of primary documents,” Selby Kiffer, senior vice president in Sotheby’s books and manuscripts department, told the Express-News. “We are fully aware there is a problem with Texas material; that’s why we’ve been very careful in checking with the library directly. Having been told directly by the library that they couldn’t conclusively say anything else was theirs, we saw nothing wrong with going on with the sale.”
W. Thomas Taylor, author of Texfake: An Account of the Theft and Forgery of Early Texas Printed Documents (1991), helped authenticate the materials and has circulated a letter stating that some of the items in the auction may belong to the Texas State Library. Starting in the mid-1960s, almost 1,000 items have gone missing from the state library and archives, most ending up in the hand of unknowing private collectors.
State archivist Chris LaPlante told the Express-News, “There was a real interest in collecting Texana in the mid-1960s, and it fueled the theft of these documents.” He added that at the time, the documents were stored in World War II–era hangars and not well protected.
Posted June 18, 2004.