[CPProt.net] More on NE map thefts

[MSN CPPnet (Ton Cremers)]

From: http://www.bangornews.com/news/templates/?a=116885

Man with Sebec ties charged in map thefts Friday, July 22, 2005 - Bangor
Daily News 

SEBEC - An international dealer in antique maps and atlases who has ties to
Sebec is expected to appear next month in a Connecticut higher court for the
alleged theft of maps valued at more than $50,000 from the Beinecke Rare
Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University.

Edward Forbes Smiley III, 49, of Edgartown, Mass., on Martha's Vineyard,
owns a summer home on Sebec Lake. He also owns the Sebec Village Shops,
which houses a restaurant, a general store and the town's post office.
Smiley was charged with stealing three irreplaceable maps, including a rare
map of early New England. He was arrested in June by Connecticut
authorities.

A Web site maintained by Smiley notes that he has worked for collectors and
institutions, helping them build collections of early maps and atlases
relating to the discovery and settlement of North America for 25 years from
offices in New York City and Martha's Vineyard. 

"We buy worldwide very aggressively, and sell very actively to dealers and
collectors," Smiley's Web site states. The Web site indicates that Smiley
recently sold maps of New Netherlands, New England, Virginia and Maryland
and had for sale maps of New England and of America, all dating back to the
17th century.

A call for comment made Thursday to Smiley's home in Martha's Vineyard was
not returned nor could Smiley be reached at his Sebec cottage. An employee
at the Sebec Village Shops said she thought Smiley still was in
Massachusetts. 

The Sebec business was opened several years ago to benefit local residents,
according to its Web site, but not all relations have been smooth,
especially with a neighboring marina-ice cream business. Smiley contested
the issuance of a permit to the competing business, but it was upheld in
court, according to published reports.

According to the Web site for the Sebec business, "The vision of E.
Forbes Smiley, the business owner, was to contribute to the economy as well
as the quality of life in Sebec. He has developed a business managed by
local residents with the flexibility to incorporate their own ideas and
talents. These businesses have been appreciated and enjoyed by many in the
area."

"He was a wonderful man who is giving a gift to the town of Sebec in
creating the restaurant down in the village," said Elizabeth Ellis, a member
of the Sebec Historical Society, of which Smiley is an "honored member."

"I feel like this is a very unfortunate thing," she said. "I just know how
he treated the people of Sebec."

It was an X-Acto knife blade found on a reading room floor of the Yale
University library that led to Smiley's apprehension, according to Maxine
Wilensky, Connecticut senior assistant state's attorney. She said Thursday
that Smiley had been charged with three counts of larceny in the first
degree because the value of the items exceeded $10,000. Bail was set for
Smiley at $175,000, according to published reports.

Wilensky said Smiley will make his initial court appearance on the charges
Aug. 9 in Connecticut Part A Court in Hartford. If convicted, Smiley could
face 20 years in prison on each count, she said. 

As a result of the charges, the FBI issued an alert to institutions holding
rare maps in their collections to review their records and collections as
soon as possible to determine whether Smiley reviewed books or maps in their
possession and to determine whether any maps were believed missing. The FBI
has been in contact with certain other rare book libraries and learned that
those institutions are finding rare maps missing from volumes that Smiley
had viewed, according to the alert.

David Nutty, director of university libraries at the University of Southern
Maine, which has one of the larger map collections in northern New England,
acknowledged Thursday that he had received the FBI alert. 

"We are familiar with him," Nutty said of Smiley, who has visited the
university's libraries. In addition, the library has used Smiley's services
to purchase items, he said Thursday.

Nutty said library officials had done a thorough inspection of its materials
and found nothing missing, nor have they purchased any materials taken from
another institution.

Bill Cook, local historian of special collections at Bangor Public Library,
said Thursday that he had not received an FBI alert about Smiley. "I wish we
had known about the FBI alert," Cook said, adding that the library does have
a map collection.

According to an affidavit filed in Connecticut Superior Court, a Yale
librarian picked a knife blade from the floor and alerted her supervisor,
who toured the room and spotted a man poring over rare maps.


Officials checked the library's register and identified the man as Smiley.
After learning his identity, a library official checked the Internet and
discovered that Smiley was a dealer in rare maps, according to the
affidavit. 

The Beinecke library's head of public services then called Yale's other
library, Sterling Memorial, and discovered that Smiley was a suspect in
another alleged theft of rare documents that was never reported because of
lack of proof, the affidavit stated.

Library officials placed Smiley under video surveillance while police
watched his actions. When Smiley allegedly was observed fidgeting with the
inside pocket of his jacket, police were called.

Detective Martin Buonfiglio of the Yale University Police Department said in
the affidavit that he followed Smiley after he left the library and
confronted him after he went into the British Arts Museum. When Buonfiglio
asked whether the X-Acto blade was his, Smiley allegedly became very nervous
and replied, "Yes, it is. I must have dropped it, I have a cold." 

Smiley reportedly gave Buonfiglio permission to inspect the contents of his
briefcase, where Buonfiglio found several rare maps and documents.

Smiley reportedly told authorities that the maps were his and that he took
them to the library to compare the quality of his maps to the quality of the
library's maps. 

One of the maps in Smiley's possession reportedly was taken from a book
called "Advertisements for the Unexperienced Planters of New England."
Library officials confirmed that the 1614 map, which was described as having
a portrait of Capt. John Smith, founder of Jamestown, and valued at about
$50,000, was missing.

Other maps that Smiley had in his possession were valued at more than
$876,000, according to the affidavit.

Library officials, after matching records of what Smiley had inspected on
June 8, confirmed that three of the maps allegedly had been stolen from the
library by Smiley on that day, the affidavit stated. 

Diana Bowley



   Jim Carmin
   John Wilson Room Librarian
   Multnomah County Library
   Room 2M-C
   801 SW 10th Ave.
   Portland, OR 97205
   503-988-6287 (phone)
   503-988-5226 (fax)
   jimc at multcolib.org