A gang of thieves has reportedly stolen over £2 million worth of rare books from a warehouse near Heathrow airport in a "Mission Impossible"-style heist, The Mail on Sunday reports. 
 
 The newspaper reports that over 160 rare books were stolen, including works by Galileo, Isaac Newton, and Leonardo da Vinci. 
 
 Thieves reportedly gained access to the warehouse in Feltham, Middlesex by climbing onto the roof, cutting holes through the reinforced skylights, and then abseiling down into the building. 
 
 The heist, which took place on the evening of January 29, was captured on the warehouse's CCTV cameras, The Mail on Sunday reports. 
 
 Thieves were observed ignoring all other items stored in the warehouse, instead targeting four containers that stored rare books. A source told The Mail on Sunday that the gang of criminals checked the contents of the containers against a list, "throwing the ones they didn't want away." The books were being stored in the warehouse temporarily as they made their way to the California Book Fair. 
 
 The gang then placed the rare books into holdalls and pulled them onto the roof of the building using ropes. The bags were then placed into a van and driven away. 
 
 The Mail on Sunday reports that the thieves likely stole the books to order, as it would be difficult to resell the titles. The newspaper says that scientific works, of the type stolen in the raid, "are particularly in demand." It speculates that a wealthy collector known as "the Astronomer" may have ordered gangs to steal books for him. 
 
 The most valuable book stolen in the raid is a 1566 edition of "De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium" by Copernicus. The book, which can be translated as "On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres," set out Copernicus' theory that the Sun is at the centre of the universe, not the Earth. 
 
 The owner of the rare Copernicus book stolen in the raid, identified only as a dealer from Padua in Italy, told The Mail on Sunday that "It was clearly a robbery done to order. It was a specialised gang. They took only books, nothing else." 
 
 The International League of Antiquarian Booksellers has published two separate lists detailing every book believed to have been stolen in the heist. It lists two dealers who have had stock stolen from them: Librario Bado e Mart s.a.s. di Bado R. e C. from Padua, Italy, and Michael Kühn from Berlin, Germany. 
 
 Another book that is believed to have been stolen is a 1656 Galileo book titled "Opere di Galileo Galilei," another early scientific work about the universe. 
 
 A copy of "Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica" by Isaac Newton was also stolen in the raid. The book was a landmark work covering physics and mathematics. 
 
 A 1506 edition of Dante's "Divine Comedy" was also stolen in the raid. ||||| Books Shortcuts Mission impossible: trying to flog a stolen 500-year-old Dante manuscript Tome raiders have stolen more than 160 rare books by abseiling into a warehouse, but they may struggle to cash in on their £2m crime The theft of rare books, manuscripts and maps is thought to be on the rise. Photograph: Alberto Pizzoli/AFP/Getty Images 
 
 In a rare book heist described as “extraordinary” for its Mission: Impossible-style stealth, a gang of thieves has stolen more than £2m worth of antiquarian books from a London warehouse. The three tome-raiders evaded the security system by boring holes through reinforced glass skylights and abseiling 40ft on ropes into the repository. The haul of more than 160 books included a 1566 copy of De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium by Copernicus, worth an estimated £215,000, as well as works by Galileo, Isaac Newton, Leonardo da Vinci and a 1569 edition of Dante’s Divine Comedy. 
 
 The question is, what happens to the books now? How might they be sold? And who would buy them? “Criminals first try to cash out on these crimes,” leading art lawyer Chris Marinello, CEO of London based Art Recovery International, tells me. “They are looking for buyers and the more publicity the crime gets, they more difficult it becomes to sell these items. Placing them on international databases, such as ARTIVE.org, which records stolen objects so they can not be sold knowingly in the marketplace, means reputable dealers and collectors will not touch them.” 
 
 Marinello, who has been working to reduce the trade in illicit cultural heritage for three decades, explains that this, unfortunately, is when the “second crime” often takes places. “The books might then be broken up,” he says. “Some of the illuminated manuscripts and engravings contained therein might be traded in the art market, where many buyers don’t know they were cut out of rare books. It becomes a lot more difficult to trace.” 
 
 The theft of rare books, manuscripts and maps from libraries and other repositories is thought to be on the rise. An alarmingly titled conference at the British Library in 2015, The Written Heritage of Mankind in Peril, was prompted by two major heists at European libraries, both of which turned out to be inside jobs. What continues to confound the international rare book market – estimated to be worth $500m (£380m) a year – is how easily stolen books are fenced and resold. 
 
 So what’s the solution? “It’s urgent at this point that the victims come forward and record these losses,” Marinello says. “It’s really important to make these books unsellable by disseminating that information. That’s the key. In my experience the books will either turn up very shortly or when the criminals know they can’t sell them they’ll go underground and be traded or sold at 5%-10% of their true value. We might expect a ransom demand as well from someone looking to shake down an insurance company. The next few days and weeks are very important from an investigative point of view.” 
 
 Does he believe, as some are saying, that the books might have been stolen to order by a specialist collector? “I would strongly refute that,” he replies. “I think this was more likely similar to the Lufthansa heist in Goodfellas, where somebody had inside information that they were being kept in a warehouse and were particularly valuable. Then someone allowed that information to leak out, and criminals took advantage.” ||||| One book dealer thought to have lost £1 million in antique works in he heist said he has been left devastated by the raid. 
 
 Alessandro Meda Riquier said 51 books, including by Galileo and rare editions of Dante's Divine Comedy, had been taken. 
 
 He told Sky News: "I'm very upset because this is not something you can buy everywhere. 
 
 "Behind these books there is a lot of work because we have to search to try to find out where the books are - auction houses, collectors, colleagues - and there's big research behind these books." 
 
 He added: "They are not only taking money away from me but also a big part of my job." 
 
 The books were being stored at the warehouse as they were due to be flown to the United States, reportedly for this weekend’s 50th California International Antiquarian Book Fair. 
 
 The Metropolitan Police confirmed that a “number of valuable books” had been taken in the theft and appealed for information. 
 
 A spokesman said: "Detectives are investigating a commercial burglary which occurred between January 29 to 30, 2017. A warehouse in Feltham was broken into and a number of valuable books were stolen." 
 
 Anyone with information should contact police via 101, or contact Crimestoppers anonymously. ||||| A patron steps out of the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh in the Oakland section of Pittsburgh on Friday. Authorities have charged a library archivist and a co-owner of an antique bookstore with stealing millions of dollars’ worth of material from the library. (Gene J. Puskar/AP) 
 
 Gravity. Constitutional democracy. The free market. 
 
 Once, sketches of these profound ideas were preserved and made available for viewing by appointment weekdays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. in a third-floor room at the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh. 
 
 That is, until the collection’s archivist plucked them from the shelves, authorities say, and deposited them at a rare bookshop on his way home from work. Isaac Newton’s “Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica,” worth $900,000, vanished. So did “The Journal of Major George Washington” and a 1787 first-edition book that carried Thomas Jefferson’s signature. “An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations” by Adam Smith, too. 
 
 The archivist, Gregory Priore, 61, and the bookshop’s co-owner, John Schulman, 54, stand accused of stealing rare books, illustrations, photographs and maps — worth more than $8 million — over a 20-year period. They were charged last week with theft, conspiracy, forgery, receiving stolen property and other counts in the removal of 320 items and the destruction of 16 others. Together they “cannibalized” the collection, according to an affidavit filed by the Allegheny County District Attorney’s Office. About $1 million worth of material, including Newton’s “Principia,” has been recovered, but other records, including Washington’s journal, are still missing. 
 
 “Greed came over me,” Priore told investigators, according to the affidavit. “I did it, but Schulman spurred me on.” 
 
 Robert G. Del Greco Jr., who represents Schulman, said in an emailed statement, “The complaint sets forth serious allegations, and we are treating them as such.” He called his client a “titan in the book community.” Attorneys representing Priore could not be reached for comment. 
 
 On Wednesday attorneys for Schulman fought the district attorney’s motion to freeze two of his bank accounts — a measure that prosecutors said would preserve money for restitution in the event of a conviction. In a countermotion, Schulman’s attorneys said Caliban Book Shop, which does business about a block from the library, is his family’s only source of income and supports his wife, who is a co-owner, as well as two sons. A hearing about the frozen bank accounts is scheduled for Monday, according to local news reports. 
 
 Schulman dealt the purloined items on eBay and other online platforms, according to investigators, though it is not clear how much money he allegedly made from the transactions. Between 2010 and 2017, meanwhile, Priore garnered roughly $117,000 in checks from the bookstore, authorities have determined, and he purportedly deposited $17,000 in cash over the same time period. 
 
 One of Priore’s accounts was also frozen. He became the sole archivist of the William R. Oliver Special Collections Room, stocked with about 30,000 items, in 1992. A desk at the front of the room allowed him to survey visitors, who deposited their belongings in storage lockers before perusing tracts of John Calvin, treatises of Edmund Burke or prints of the American West by Edward Curtis. 
 
 The library placed Priore on leave in April 2017 and fired him in June, after an audit revealed discrepancies with the holdings documented in a 1991 survey, according to the affidavit. The locks were changed, and the room remains closed. 
 
 A complaint led detectives to open a criminal investigation that summer. They executed search warrants at Priore’s residence as well as at the Caliban Book Shop and a Caliban warehouse just outside the city. Priore told detectives he had first approached Schulman in the late 1990s about selling some items from the Oliver Room. He said he had used an X-Acto knife to remove maps and illustrations from books, according to the affidavit, placing small items in manila folders and simply rolling up larger ones before he walked out of the building. The archivist told detectives that he used the money to stay “afloat” — to pay his rent and make tuition payments for his children. “I loved that room, my whole working life,” he said, according to the affidavit. 
 
 Art appraisers helped detectives identify scores of stolen items at the Caliban warehouse, material that has since been returned to the Oliver Room. The search also turned up a stamp used to mark “withdrawn” on books, giving their removal from the library the appearance of legitimacy — a practice that Schulman told detectives he had given up because he felt it “was not the correct thing to do,” according to the affidavit. But there lay the stamp. 
 
 
 
 The Caliban Book Shop, in the Oakland section of Pittsburgh, is co-owned by John Schulman. He is charged with theft, among other counts, in the disappearance of about 300 items from the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh. (Gene J. Puskar/AP) 
 
 Some of the most precious items traveled twisted paths to big-ticket sales. The affidavit charts how Caliban sold “De la France et des Etats-Unis,” the first-edition book signed by Jefferson, to Bartleby’s Books for $5,000 in 2013. It changed hands twice more and landed with Bauman Rare Books, which listed it online for $95,000. When informed of its origins, Bauman turned over the book to detectives, according to the affidavit. 
 
 Peter Harrington, who sells rare books in London, bought Newton’s “Principia” from Caliban in 2013, based on “made-up documentation” that it had been properly obtained from the library. He managed to recover the book from a private buyer and has returned it to Pittsburgh. 
 
 “Libraries need to be responsible for making sure they actually look after their books,” he said in a phone interview, calling the alleged theft especially surprising because it appears to have been an inside job. “It’s a breach of trust.” 
 
 If the valuation turns out to be accurate, the alleged library theft in Pittsburgh would be one of the largest in history. 
 
 James Richard Shinn was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 1982 after disguising himself as a professor and amassing mainly travel and natural history books, worth more than $100,000, from college libraries all over the country. In 2006, E. Forbes Smiley III was sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison for stealing nearly 100 maps, valued at $3 million, including 20 from Yale’s Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. 
 
 These heists pale in comparison with the one detectives believe was executed by the archivist and the co-owner of Caliban, a bookshop that shares a name with the complex Shakespeare character described as a “villain” and a “poor credulous monster.” 
 
 In a statement, the Carnegie Library said it was “deeply disappointed that two people we knew well and trusted are at the center of this case.”
– It was a heist worthy of Hollywood: Thieves targeted a London warehouse temporarily holding some of the world's rarest books, cut through its skylights, rappelled down, and made off with more than $3 million in bounty, reports the Telegraph. In total, the trio nabbed more than 160 books, and Business Insider notes that CCTV cameras show the thieves ignoring everything in the warehouse but four containers, the contents of which they checked against a list. "This was a big job," Alessandro Meda Riquier, a dealer who lost about $1.6 million worth of books in the heist, tells the CBC. "Police said that it took more than three hours to complete." The International League of Antiquarian Booksellers has published the complete list of stolen publications, but the "jewel" is a 1566 edition of De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium by Copernicus, the book in which he theorized that the sun, not the Earth, is at the center of our solar system. Other notables include a 1506 edition of Dante's Divine Comedy, and a copy of Isaac Newton's Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica. It smacks of an inside job, an art attorney tells the Guardian, likening it to the Lufthansa heist in the movie Goodfellas. "Somebody had inside information that they were being kept in a warehouse and were particularly valuable," he says. "Then someone allowed that information to leak out, and criminals took advantage.” (One book dealer was murdered for his copy of a children's classic.)