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Thieves of Gutenberg Bible are Sentenced in Russia

6/6/2014
Logo of Moscow State University.

Logo of Moscow State University.

On June 6, 2014 BBC.com reported that Russia sentenced three agents belonging to its Federal Security Service (FSB) for attempting to sell a Gutenberg Bible that had been stolen from Lomonosov Moscow State University. Colonel Sergei Vedischev was sentenced to more than three years in a penal colony. His two accomplices received a lighter sentence for trying to find a buyer. The thieves offered the Bible to a collector for under $1.15 million dollars, perhaps one-twentieth of its value in 2014.

Regarding the theft, Eric White commented on the Ex-Libris newsgroup on June 8, 2014:

"This is the paper copy that had been in Leipzig until the Soviet army took it in 1945; it was held secretly until just a few years ago.  No one I know has actually been able to see it."

 

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