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Some 200 “irreplaceable” books worth more than 2.5 million pounds sterling (4.7 million New Zealand dollars), which were stolen from a warehouse in London, have been found buried under the floor of a house in an area rural Romania, according to police.
Photo: Screenshot from BBC
The works include the first editions of Galileo and Isaac Newton.
They were kidnapped by thieves in January 2017 who punched holes in the roof of a warehouse in Feltham, west London, and then rappelled in, dodging sensors.
The men were identified as part of a Romanian organized crime gang.
The gang is responsible for a string of high-value warehouse thefts across the UK, London’s Metropolitan Police said in a statement.
Officers discovered the books underground during a search of a house in the Neamt region of northeastern Romania on Wednesday.
Part of the loot found in Romania.
Photo: Screenshot from BBC
The finding follows raids in 45 addresses in the UK, Romania and Italy in June 2019, researchers say. Thirteen people have been charged, 12 of whom have already pleaded guilty.
The hoard includes rare versions of Dante and sketches by Spanish painter Francisco de Goya, as well as titles for Galileo and Isaac Newton dating from the 16th and 17th centuries.
“These books are extremely valuable, but more importantly, they are irreplaceable and of great importance to international cultural heritage,” said Detective Inspector Andy Durham of the Southern Command of Crime Specialists of the Metropolitan Police.
The works were stored in a warehouse before being transported to a specialized book auction in Las Vegas, United States, when they were stolen.
The thieves broke through the roof of the warehouse in Feltham, near Heathrow Airport, and rappelled 12 meters to the ground, dodging motion sensors, according to the AFP news agency.
They then spent hours rummaging through the bags before setting off on the same route.
Investigators say the Romanian gang brings its members to the UK to commit specific crimes, and then expels them shortly thereafter, with different members getting stolen property out of the country using alternative transport methods.
The group is said to be linked to several prominent Romanian crime families that are part of the Clamparu crime group.
-BBC
