Action Movies Still Happen

Using glass cutters, two thieves cut a hole in the skylight of a warehouse. They rappelled forty feet down to the floor to avoid the motion sensors that would have spoiled their plans. It seems like they spent a non-trivial amount of time searching for their bounty.

But they found it. They then absconded back through their skylight entrance and made off with their prizes.

What they were after: rare and historically important BOOKS.

This $2.5-million book heist took place in London. They got one of Copernicus' 1566 heretical De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium as well as a 1569 copy of Dante's The Divine Comedy.

There are two theories to the thieves benefactors. The first is that a nefarious collector is behind it, finding some criminals to get the books for their own collection. Sounds like a bad movie plot, but the support goes like this: the stolen books were owned by two of the world's foremost antiquarian book collectors, a tiny list to begin with; they were being housed in the warehouse for an upcoming auction that only the other collectors care about; and the stolen books were specifically taken over other books in the same crates.

The CEO of Art Recovery International, Chris Marinello, puts forth the second theory of who stole the books: the "Goodfellas" theory. This theory posits that someone who works the warehouse got some information, did a little research, and tipped some folks off to the locations of important crates and their contents, and is sitting back ready to collect the cash from the book sales.

One problem is that these books are so rare and valuable and well known that there is no international fence for them, meaning that in the "Goodfellas" theory, the thieves would have to be breaking the books up and selling them as fragments to collectors who don't know any better.

I kinda hope for the first theory, because then it means there are people who love important books more than me. I mean, I know that already. Plus: I LOVE THAT THERE ARE PEOPLE STEALING IMPORTANT BOOKS.

If it was me and my collection that I was trying to liquidate to fix financial issues, or free up some cash for family obligations, or even a stupid yacht party, I'd be fired up. But still...