It ’s not often thatstolenorforgottenlibrary book getreturnedto their true owner — especially if they ’re highly valuable . And yet , as thePittsburgh Post - Gazettereports , the custodians of Pittsburgh ’s Carnegie Library got a pleasant surprise when a missing 400 - year - old Bible was returned to them this week .
The Geneva Bible , which was published in 1615 following the dismission of the King James Bible , was among hundreds of rarefied items that were stolen from the Carnegie Library ’s collection as part of a decades - long scheme . It had been sold to the Leiden American Pilgrim Museum in the Netherlands for $ 1200 , but system were made to fall it to Pittsburgh when the museum ’s owner find out it had been slip . The Bible is similar to one that was brought to the New World on theMayflowerin 1620 , according to Robert Allan Jones , the limited agent who oversee the Pittsburgh FBI berth .
" This Bible is more than a bit of evidence in a case , " Jones said at a press group discussion . " It is a invaluable artifact of religious significance to people of many trust . "
It ’s also arare versionof a Geneva Bible , called a Breeches Bible . This name references a printing change to the third chapter of Genesis , in which Adam and Eve were said to have woven fig leaf into breeches to cover their naked bodies .
The theft was allegedly an inner caper that spanned two decades , bringing the total legal injury to $ 8 million and making it one of the large library rip-off ever recorded . A library archivist and a local bookseller were point with the law-breaking .
So far , investigators have been able to recover more than 40 book and a number of single-valued function , denture , and pamphlet . The Carnegie Library’srare booksroom has been closed since 2017 because it ’s an alive crime scene , but library staff hope to work towards itsreopeningover the next year .
[ h / tPittsburgh Post - Gazette ]
