text: 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. ||||| Books of significant value were stolen from a West London warehouse on the night of 29th January while in transit for the California Book Fair. A full police investigation is underway! 
   
   For a complete list of all stolen books, please view the PDF below! 
   
   For more details of individual copies, please contact the dealers directly, contact details to be found in the list of stolen books. 
   
   If anyone offers you any of these titles, please contact the Police SCD6-ArtandAntiquesUnit@met.police.uk and quote crime reference number 0502127/17 
   
   ABA Secretary Camilla Szymanowska on +44 (0) 20 7421 4681 secretary@aba.org.uk 
   
   or ABA Security Chair Brian Lake on +44 (0) 20 7631 4220 brian@jarndyce.co.uk immediately! ||||| 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.”
target: – 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.)