A Paris court has handed down prison sentences ranging from 18 months suspended to seven years to six Georgian nationals convicted of stealing rare editions of Russian literary classics from prestigious libraries in Paris and Lyon. The verdict, delivered late Friday, marks the culmination of an investigation into what prosecutors described as a “massive, organised operation, planned and carried out with meticulous care and cynicism.”
Elaborate Scheme Targeted Rare Books
The stolen items included a first edition of Alexander Pushkin’s Boris Godunov (1825), as well as works by Mikhail Lermontov and Nikolai Gogol. According to the investigation, the thieves would visit libraries to consult rare volumes, photograph and measure them, then return later to replace them with nearly undetectable facsimiles. At the National Library of France (BnF) alone, the loss is estimated at €770,000.
Two of the defendants were tried in absentia, having been arrested in Georgia, which does not extradite its nationals. The ringleader, Mikheil Z., 50, received the harshest sentence: seven years in prison and a permanent ban from French territory. He had previously been sentenced in Lithuania to three years and four months for similar thefts of 19th-century publications valued at over €600,000. Another defendant, Beqa T., 49, was sentenced to four years in addition to a prior term of three and a half years imposed in Estonia.
Europe-Wide Pattern
The case is part of a broader wave of library thefts across Europe since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Similar incidents have been reported in Germany, Switzerland, and the Czech Republic. A joint investigation team under Europol and Eurojust led to several arrests in 2024. French magistrates have suggested the thefts may be part of a coordinated effort to repatriate Russian cultural heritage, amid heightened tensions between Moscow and Europe.
In June 2024, the Russian auction house Litfond, which specialises in rare antiquarian books, listed a second edition of Pushkin’s poem The Prisoner of the Caucasus that matched a copy stolen from the BnF. The auction house told French authorities it had documents showing the book was acquired from a Russian owner between 2014 and 2015.
None of the stolen works have been recovered. However, Alexandre de Konn, lawyer for the BnF, told AFP that the institution “has not lost hope” of finding them. The case echoes other high-profile cultural property thefts in France, such as the unsolved Louvre jewellery heist, but with a distinct geopolitical dimension.
The verdict comes as France grapples with broader judicial challenges, including a shortage of judges that has drawn comparisons across Europe. The sentences reflect the seriousness with which French courts view the organised theft of cultural heritage, a crime that carries penalties of up to seven years in prison.
