“We really hope to bounce back. From the information provided, we can see that many books have indeed been found. We hope to recover as much as we have lost,” Chancellor of the higher education institution Raimundas Balčiūnaitis told BNS on Thursday.
Law enforcement agencies announced Thursday an international operation this week that included the arrests of four Sackartwell citizens suspected of possessing valuable 19th-century artefacts. thefts of Russian classic books from libraries in various European countries.
In total, the group is suspected of stealing 170 books worth approximately 2.5 million from libraries in Lithuania, France, Germany, Poland, Latvia, Estonia and Switzerland. euros.
About 150 publications were found during the searches and will be checked to determine if they match those stolen from the libraries.
“We are happy with the actions of law enforcement and the success of the international investigation, as far as we can hear. We don’t have any more information because, as you know, the pre-trial is still ongoing,” said R. Balčiūnaitis.
“We look forward to the next stages when we know more about what the officers have found.” We are waiting and ready to cooperate,” he added.
It is suspected that in May 2023, members of this organized criminal group arrested in Sakartvele stole 17 books of great historical and cultural significance, worth about 440 thousand, from the Rare Readings Reading Room and the Professors Reading Room of the VU library. euros.
According to R. Balčiūnaitis, although VU strengthened the security of the reading rooms after the theft, it was probably not possible to take the necessary measures to prevent it before the incident.
According to him, the data show that the crime was committed in an extremely professional manner, it was prepared for a long time and a lot of resources were allocated.
“We do not think that we have made any mistakes,” said the VU chancellor.
“New Storage Practices”
R.Balčiūnaitis said that after the theft VU reviewed various library procedures, including customer service and book issuing, and implemented new security technologies, which he did not elaborate on.
“We did our own internal investigation, found out, cooperated both with police officers and libraries of other states, shared our experience,” said the chancellor.
“It will shape new storage practices,” he added.
Culture Minister Simonas Kairys also said that the thefts are a good opportunity to revise security procedures wherever there are cultural values.
“Such cases always make us look at whether we are doing everything right. We will take a look. If we have a place to look deeper or coordinate inter-institutionally, we will do that,” the minister told BNS.
He claimed that he discussed security issues with the heads of institutions subordinate to the Ministry of Culture this year during annual interviews.
“It’s not just about theft, but also about new forms of protest, such as climate activists. We need to adapt to that,” said S. Kairys, referring to the actions of protesters in the West in denigrating art values with the aim of drawing attention to climate change.
According to the law enforcement, the data collected during the investigations allow us to reasonably believe that the Kartvelians who possibly stole books in Europe did so in various ways.
Sometimes they used false identities, posing as researchers when ordering books from libraries. While some members of the group interacted with library staff to distract them, other suspects replaced the stolen books with their forgeries. In other cases, members of the group simply broke into libraries and stole books that they had already checked out in advance, according to the reports of Eurojust and the Lithuanian Prosecutor’s Office.
Last year, the AFP news agency published evidence that books stolen in Poland ended up at Russian auctions.
The chancellor of VU said that he had no data that this had happened with the books stolen from their university.
Tags: law enforcement thief Russian classic books hopes recover missing publications
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