Bibliomania can be a symptom of obsessive–compulsive disorder which involves the collecting or even hoarding of books to the point where social relations or health are damaged.
Art theft, sometimes called artnapping, is the stealing of paintings, sculptures, or other forms of visual art from galleries, museums or other public and private locations. Stolen art is often resold or used by criminals as collateral to secure loans. Only a small percentage of stolen art is recovered—an estimated 10%. Many nations operate police squads to investigate art theft and illegal trade in stolen art and antiquities.
Stéphane Breitwieser is a French art thief and author, notorious for his art thefts between 1995 and 2001. He admitted to stealing 239 artworks and other exhibits from 172 museums while travelling around Europe and working as a waiter, an average of one theft every 15 days. The Guardian called him "arguably the world's most consistent art thief". He has also been called "one of the most prolific and successful art thieves who have ever lived", and "one of the greatest art thieves of all time". His thefts resulted in the destruction of many works of art, destroyed by his family to conceal evidence of his crimes.
Stephen Carrie Blumberg is best known as a bibliomane who lived in Ottumwa, Iowa. After being arrested for stealing more than 23,600 books worth US$5.3 million in 1990, he became known as the Book Bandit and was recognized as the most successful book thief in the history of the United States.
Hoity Toity is a board game created by Klaus Teuber in 1990.
Guglielmo Libri Carucci dalla Sommaja was an Italian count and mathematician, who became known for his love and subsequent theft of ancient and precious manuscripts. After being appointed the Inspector of Libraries in France, Libri began stealing the books he was responsible for. He fled to England when the theft was discovered, along with 30,000 books and manuscripts inside 18 trunks. In France, he was sentenced to 10 years in jail in absentia; some of the stolen works were returned when he died, but many remained missing.
Gary Charles Evans was an American thief and confessed serial killer in and around the Capital District, New York. His penchant for stealing antiques and his multiple escapes from custody — including one that ended in his death — made him headline news in the area on numerous occasions.
The Natural History Museum at Tring was the private museum of Lionel Walter, 2nd Baron Rothschild; today it is under the control of the Natural History Museum, London. It houses one of the finest collections of stuffed mammals, birds, reptiles and insects in the United Kingdom. It was known as the Walter Rothschild Zoological Museum until April 2007. The museum is located on Akeman Street, in Tring, Hertfordshire.
Edward Forbes Smiley III is an American former rare map dealer and convicted art thief. He was found guilty in 2006 of stealing 97 rare maps originally valued at more than US$3 million, and sentenced to 42 months in prison.
Horse theft is the crime of stealing horses. A person engaged in stealing horses is known as a horse thief. Historically, punishments were often severe for horse theft, with several cultures pronouncing the sentence of death upon actual or presumed thieves. Several societies were formed in the United States to prevent horse theft and apprehend horse thieves. However, horse theft continues to occur throughout the world, as horses are stolen for their meat, for ransom, or in disputes between their owners and other persons. Horse theft today is comparable to automobile theft, a crime punishable by felony jail time.
Darius McCollum is an American man primarily known for posing as a New York City Subway motorman, bus driver, and subway train operator due to his fixation with trains and public transport. McCollum is a U.S. resident with a long arrest record for crimes related to the transit system operated by the city's Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA). He has been fascinated with buses and trains since his childhood and is autistic.
Book store shoplifting is a problem for book sellers and has sometimes led stores to keep certain volumes behind store counters.
John Charles Gilkey is a prolific serial book and document thief who has stolen approximately US$200,000 worth of rare books and manuscripts. Gilkey used Modern Library's List of 100 Best Novels as a guide to what items he would steal. Unlike most book thieves who steal for a profit, his motives for the thefts were personal: he saw an expansive library as a sign of being upper-class.
Blane David Nordahl is an American cat burglar, who was given the nickname "Burglar to the Stars" after his exploits at the homes of individuals such as Ivana Trump, Steven Spielberg, Curt Gowdy and Bruce Springsteen. A highly skilled burglar, at five feet-four inches and 150 pounds, Nordahl targeted the homes of wealthy individuals across the East Coast and showed an exclusive interest in stealing hallmarked antique Sterling silver. Despite his skill, he was arrested at least eight times and spent many years in prison. The exact sum of his thefts is uncertain, but a November 2000 U.S. News & World Report article attributed to him 150 burglaries across 10 states, to a value of $3 million. A 2004 profile the The New Yorker quoted an estimate that he had stolen over $10 million worth of silver in fifteen states.
Nick Wilding is a British-born American historian. He became internationally known after exposing as a forgery a copy of Galileo’s “Sidereus Nuncius” that purportedly included Galileo’s own watercolors of the moon.
Operation Icarus is a police investigation into the organised theft and black market trade of religious and church artefacts in England and Wales. The investigation, led by West Mercia Police, commenced in 2013 and has subsequently been declared a major incident. According to ArtWatch UK—an organisation which campaigns for the protection of works of art and architecture—the investigation has uncovered "the systematic plundering of churches in England and Wales [that] has gone largely unnoticed for up to ten years." Detective Inspector Martyn Barnes, head of the operation, said: "Some of the items that have been taken are described as priceless because they are unique. Some of them may fetch tens of thousands of pounds on the black market; others go for £50, £60. We believe that some of these crimes date back to 2002—2003."
Adrian Mark Greenwood was a British historian, biographer, author, and art dealer, with a particular interest in nineteenth-century British military history. As well as hundreds of articles on antiques and collecting, he wrote two books on military history.
John Mark Tillmann was a Canadian art thief and white supremacist who, for over two decades, stole over 10,000 antiques and art objects from museums, galleries, archives, and antique shops mainly in Atlantic Canada.
Still Life with Candlestick is an oil painting created in 1922 by the French artist Fernand Léger.
The great book theft was the largest book theft in Danish history. Almost 3,200 works, estimated in 2003 to have a value of DKK150-300 million, were stolen from the Royal Library in Copenhagen. The perpetrator was an employee at the library who stole the works between 1970 and 1978, but the case was only resolved in 2003. Most works have since been recovered, but a few hundred remain missing. It has been called the most significant cultural theft in Denmark since the Golden Horns of Gallehus were stolen in 1802.
