6 hours ago
Lithuania sentences thief of rare Russian books
VILNIUS: A Lithuanian court on Monday sentenced a Georgian national for stealing rare editions of Russian literary classics, accusing him of belonging to a group behind a spate of similar thefts across Europe.
Mikheil Zamtaradze was sentenced 'for stealing, as part of an organised group, 19th-century publications valued at 606,000 euros that have high cultural and historical value,' judge Mindaugas Ražanskas told reporters at the Vilnius City District Court.
He was sentenced to three years and four months in prison.
The Georgian national was arrested in Belgium in 2023 and transferred to Lithuania later the same year.
He is now due to be taken to France, where he is accused of similar thefts.
He admitted stealing 17 books, including works by Alexander Pushkin and Nikolai Gogol, from the Vilnius University Library in May 2023.
During a court hearing in April, Zamtaradze said the book thefts were commissioned by a Russian employee of a Moscow auction house, according to Lithuanian media.
He claimed the man had also provided him with a fake ID for entering the university, as well as the forgeries to be placed at the library in place of the stolen works.
Zamtaradze said he smuggled the books through Belarus and was paid 30,000 euros in cryptocurrency.
The culprit worked as part of a group operating across Lithuania, Poland, France, Switzerland, and Georgia, Lithuanian prosecutors said.
Authorities also arrested two other Georgian nationals, but their cases are being tried separately.
The European Union Agency for Criminal Justice Cooperation coordinated legal actions across European countries in November 2023 after similar thefts from libraries in France, Germany, Poland, Latvia, Estonia, and Switzerland.
At least some of the stolen books were reportedly later sold at auctions in Russia.
Vilnius University has now enacted additional security measures to prevent similar thefts, VU chancellor Raimundas Balciunaitis told AFP in a written response.
'Access to rare documents will be granted only after prior agreement with the staff in charge,' he said.
