The Book Crook

All signs pointed to Priore. In fact, about six months before the audit, Priore argued fiercely against any kind of external and independent inventory. His coworkers also noted that he was getting increasingly obstinate about letting others poke around the Oliver Room. Investigators also found some pretty fishy emails exchanged between him and the bookseller.

Priore was suspended from his job the same month as the audit and fired two months later. Late that summer, police searched his home, the bookshop, and a warehouse. He finally confessed, saying he had sometimes simply carried books out with him, and other times used an X-Acto knife to cut out the most valuable parts and leave the bindings behind. Ultimately, Priore claimed he was doing it to pay for his kids’ tuition at private school and university, and to cover the rent on his home.

Although the auditors determined that over $8 million in books and other materials went missing, they declared that the real value is actually inestimable. Many of the items are simply irreplaceable, meaning they aren’t available for purchase anywhere, at any price. They were the only copy known to exist, and many of them were completely destroyed when Priore cut them up and removed their illustrations.

Crimes like that of Priore and the bookseller usually carry a sentence of 9-16 months in jail. Sometimes a jail sentence could stretch to 25 months or could include some probationary period. Many officials in the library system and government worried that such sentences weren’t strong enough. “This crime was not just a crime against my library, or the Carnegie Library,” wrote the head of a library that had unwittingly purchased stolen books. “It was a cultural heritage crime against us all.” The director of another library system wrote that rare book theft is a crime to culture and the public. Furthermore, such crimes also scare donors away from gifting precious cultural artifacts to libraries in the future. Dozens of officials wrote to the courts asking that Priore and his partner be given the strictest possible maximum sentences.