Book Theft, EU Copyright, and Kafka

摘要

When thousands of rare books were stolen from the Girolamini Library in Naples, Italy, in 2012, it exemplified the scale that rare book thefts can reach. (See "Getting Away With History" in the November 2013 issue of Information Today.) Following a recent conference in London, efforts to curb the trade in stolen rare books and manuscripts should intensify. The British Library-hosted event, The Written Heritage of Mankind in Peril: Theft, Retrieval, Sale and Restitution of Rare Books, Maps and Manuscripts, featured presentations by various luminaries of the rare book world, including the International League of Antiquarian Booksellers' (ILAB) president, Norbert Donhofer. He told attendees that ILAB will up its game in a bid to put the brakes on stolen rare books trafficking.