A minimum of 500 classical books, which were stolen from Italian libraries three years ago, were returned by German authorities on Friday. Polish Renaissance mathematician, Nicolaus Copernicus, and Italian physicist, Galileo Galilei, authored some of the books that are worth over 2.5 million euros.
The books have been seized at an auction house in Munich, Germany.
In April 2012, Massimo De Caro, was convicted and fired for stealing books from the Girolamini Library in Naples, Italy. Mr. De Caro was the library’s director, and he was accused of embezzlement with four accomplices from Argentina and Ukraine. Mr. De Caro was sentenced to 7 years in prison after 1500 books were announced missing from the library.
One of over 500 ancient books, with original editions of Galileo Galilei and Nicolaus Copernicus among them, is presented by German police during a news conference at the Munich Federal state police headquarters
Prosecutor, Vincenzo Piscitelli, in Munich said, that Mr. De Caro abused his position as the library’s director to steal the books when his job was to secure and keep them safe.
“He deactivated the security alarm systems, carried out his activities during night hours or during the holidays when library staff were not there,” Mr. Piscitelli told Reuters. “He was alone, he had the keys, everyone knew he was the director. Therefore he was able to work in complete freedom.”
German prosecutors still don’t know how many books were actually stolen.
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