British Man Jailed for Mutilating Antique Maps, Travelogues

Travel Blog  •  Eva Holland  •  01.22.09 | 4:10 PM ET

A wealthy British book collector has been sentenced to two years in prison for stealing from the British Library. Farhad Hakimzadeh had used a scalpel to slice pages and maps out of more than 150 rare books, most dating to the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries. His subject matter of choice? “The engagement by West European travellers with Mesopotamia, Persia and the Mogul empire—roughly the area from modern Syria to Bangladesh.” A British Library staffer called Hakimzadeh’s actions “an attack on the nation’s collective memory of its own past,” and added that he had damaged “our historical record with how this country has engaged in that part of the world.” 

Sadly, cases of high-profile book vandalism and theft aren’t uncommon—but they never fail to shock me. (The theft, also from the British Library, of some of the first-ever maps of Canada a few years ago hit especially close to home.) I don’t want to get too Orwellian here, but something about the theft and destruction of irreplaceable historical documents, the literal dismantling of our physical historical record, strikes me as deeply sinister. It’s a relief to hear that there’s now one less perp running loose in the stacks.


Eva Holland is co-editor of World Hum. She is a former associate editor at Up Here and Up Here Business magazines, and a contributor to Vela. She's based in Canada's Yukon territory.


2 Comments for British Man Jailed for Mutilating Antique Maps, Travelogues

Emmanuelle Archer 01.22.09 | 11:57 PM ET

This really saddens me- like you said, the only consolation is that this particular thief has now been nabbed. Many more are still on the loose, though.

I remember reading about a spate of stolen manuscripts in Eastern European libraries and museums back in the late ‘90s. Apparently, Galileo, Copernicus and Ptolemy were particularly popular targets. The article was in French, otherwise I would try to track it down and link to it. It also explained how stolen books would surface on eBay, page by page or even one image or illuminated capital at a time. Awful.

Michael Yessis 01.23.09 | 10:38 AM ET

Agreed, Eva. Completely sinister. Good to know this guy is no longer stalking the stacks.

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