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With apologies to those who've seen this item posted elsewhere. >Cultural 'Robin Hoods' in book raid >BY RICHARD OWEN > >ITALIAN police said yesterday that they were baffled by the theft of >100,000 school and university textbooks, including Greek and Latin >primers, in a "military-style raid" on a book depot in Turin. Police >said a dozen armed men dressed in black had held up staff at a >warehouse beonging to the Loescher publishing house, founded in 1867 >and specialising in classical textbooks. >The ten staff at the depot were held at gunpoint for two hours while >the robbers loaded three articulated lorries with Latin and Greek >dictionaries and standard school texts on history and geography. The >books had been packed in cartons ready for distribution to schools and >universities during the summer, before the start of the academic term >in September. >"We are the Robin Hoods of culture," the robbers announced as they >left. "We are stealing books to give them to less fortunate Italians". >Riccardo Botrini, head of Loescher, said he believed the theft was >"the first of its kind". La Stampa said that in an age of electronic >multimedia it was "encouraging that some people think books were worth >stealing at all". > >(Times of London) > >__________________________________- > >The Museum Security Network >http://museum-security.org/ >http://www.xs4all.nl/~securma/ >archive of messages sent: >http://museum-security.org/artcrime.html > > *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* Karen McKenzie Chief Librarian E.P. Taylor Research Library & Archives Art Gallery of Ontario 317 Dundas Street West Toronto, ON M5T 1G4 CANADA Phone (416) 979-6660 Ext. 389 [log in to unmask] Fax (416) 979-6602 <http://www.ago.net>