”Cold case” – The story of inside thefts at the National library of Sweden

At least 62 books were stolen from the National library of Sweden between1994-2004. The inside thefts was carried out by the head for the manuscript department, a senior librarian who admitted having stealing books, after an ongoing secret inventory revealed systematic inside thefts. The thefts were reported to the police and the senior librarian was put into custody. The senior librarian unfortunately committed suicide in 2004 before the trial, and after this the investigation focused on fencing with a suspect at the German auction house who sold all the stolen books. Despite several leads and evidence the police investigation was closed down in 2006. In 2011 however, the library discovered one of these stolen books for sale online at website for a book seller in NYC. The bookseller had bought the stolen book further down the chain of buyers. This was the first book out of seven that has been restituted by the library so far. We are currently working hard to restitute all of the remaining stolen books. In 2014 we convinced the Swedish police to reopen the investigation and have also cooperated with law enforcement in several other European countries. In addition to this, we have cooperated with law enforcement in the U.S. During these years we have learnt a lot about inside thefts and how to cooperate with law enforcement agencies, as well as the importance of knowing the provenance for the books in our collections. We also want to pinpoint how important it is for libraries to be transparent and open when being exposed for inside thefts. Libraries must act to thefts, report them and spread lists of stolen books so that booksellers are alerted. The library has also experienced the German auction houses lack of due-diligence.