NEW HAVEN, Conn.-
A renowned antique map dealer who admitted stealing nearly 100 rare maps was sentenced Wednesday to 3 1/2 years in prison, after one librarian described him as a “thief who assaulted history.”
E. Forbes Smiley III, 50, also was tentatively ordered to pay restitution of $1.9 million. He is scheduled to report to prison Jan. 4.
Smiley, who faced up to six years in prison under federal sentencing guidelines, stole the maps over eight years from the New York and Boston public libraries, the Newberry Library in Chicago, the Harvard and Yale university libraries and the British Library in London. The oldest maps dated back to the 1500s and some are the first records of settlements, territories and discoveries in America, experts said.
“Your honor, I have hurt many people,” Smiley said in court. “I stole very valuable research materials from institutions that made it their business to provide those materials to the public for valuable research. I am deeply ashamed of having done that.”
Smiley, who pleaded guilty in June, was arrested after a Yale librarian found a razor blade on the floor. The arrest prompted Yale and other top map libraries to review their security procedures.
Authorities say Smiley acted out of resentment toward the prestigious libraries and to pay for his expensive tastes and mounting debts.
U.S. District Judge Janet Bond Arterton said she wanted to send a dual message with the sentence. Prosecutors did not ask for a specific a sentence, but recommended Smiley be given credit for his cooperation with the investigation.
“If you steal human treasurers, then you will go to prison, but if you help recover them, this will be taken into account and weighed in the balance,” Arterton said.
Leaders of the prestigious libraries urged a stiff sentence, saying he took world treasures and left a trail of victims.
“It will go down in criminal and library history as one of the largest, most prolonged, premeditated and systematic of all thefts from libraries, and with no mitigating circumstances,” British Library Director Clive Field said during the sentencing hearing.
The maps marked the discovery of new lands, traced wars and peace treaties, new settlements and disappearances of people, said David Ferriero of the New York Public Library.
“I am here today to talk about the actions of a thief–a thief who assaulted history, betrayed personal trust and caused irreparable loss of treasures whose value to future scholarship will now never be known,” Ferriero said.
Field and other librarians said Smiley stole world treasures, hurt staff morale, mutilated the maps, harmed scholars who count on the documents, and shattered the trust that is essential between libraries and their patrons.
Smiley sought a sentence of up to three years, saying his extensive cooperation with authorities led to the recovery of most of the maps.
“It is not a slap on the wrist,” said Richard Reeve, Smiley’s attorney.
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