Who says a love of reading doesn’t pay? Sometimes, though, the payoff can translate into years in prison.
Six Georgian nationals appeared before a Paris court on Tuesday for stealing rare editions of classics of Russian literature from prestigious French libraries, including works by Alexander Pushkin whose name in Russia is often accompanied (albeit with a hint of irony) by the phrase “Pushkin is everything to us”, a measure of his importance to Russian culture.
This trial is the latest in a string of similar thefts carried out in recent years in libraries across Europe, suspected of being the work of an organised network.
The thefts targeted rare Russian classics worth a total of several million euros, including works by leading 19th‑century authors such as Pushkin, the father of “Eugene Onegin”, and Nikolai Gogol, the author of the immortal “Dead Souls”.
The defendants, tried in France, are being prosecuted for criminal conspiracy and attempted theft. Some of them also face charges of stealing cultural works on display.
