Document theft is the crime of stealing documents of historical, literary, or cultural interest from public or private archives, often for the purpose of sale to private collectors.
In many cases, document thieves occupy positions of trust, or have established records of legitimate accomplishment, prior to their crimes. Examples of notable convicted document thieves include former New York state archivist Daniel D. Lorello[1], biographer Edward J. Renehan, Jr.[2], and antiquities dealer E. Forbes Smiley III, who stole nearly 100 maps from libraries in the United States and Great Britain over the course of eight years.[3]
In addition to letters, maps, and other manuscript material, rare books also attract the attention of document thieves. John Charles Gilkey, for instance, stole hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of rare books over the course of many years. These crimes were largely the product of a personal obsession, illustrating the range of motives in document thefts.[4]