As many of you know, the Institute of Art and Law, the British Library and the Union Internationale des Avocats are organising a conference next month on the theft and recovery of books, manuscripts and maps. The one-day conference is entitled The Written Heritage of Mankind in Peril and will be hosted by the British Library, taking place on Friday 26 June.

An article running in today’s Guardian by Dalya Alberge discusses the overlooked problem of book theft, as well as the increasing importance of restitution, with reference to the conference and to a number of conference speakers: Professor Norman Palmer, Jutta von Falkenhausen, Howard Spiegler and Jerker Ryden. In the article, the book thieves are referred to as “tome raiders”…