[MSN] Spain. National library regains stolen 500-year-old maps

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National library regains stolen 500-year-old maps


Paul Hamilos in Madrid
Monday November 12, 2007
The Guardian 


Two of the world's rarest maps will be returned to their rightful home in
Madrid's national library today after a worldwide map hunt that took
investigators Argentina, the UK, US and Australia.
The 15th century maps, valued at about £50,000 each, were among 19
illustrations stolen from the library in August by a Uruguayan man who
evaded security by posing as a researcher and cut pages from collections
using a Stanley knife.

Ten of the stolen items are due to be presented to the national library by
the interior minister, Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba, this morning, including
eight other maps that were handed to an Argentinian judge by the thief last
month.
One of the maps is cosmographic, from a rare 1482 edition of Ptolemy's
Geographia, a compilation based on the work of the Greek scholar Claudius
Ptolemy, who lived in Egypt in the second century. The map is said to have
played a crucial part in altering the course of world history, inspiring the
search for India by Christopher Columbus, who, by mistake, landed in the
Americas in 1492, laying the foundations for the Spanish empire.

The second map dates from 1507 and shows the recently discovered continent,
named the New World. It is thought to be one of only four such examples
still in existence.

The theft of the maps caused national outrage in Spain, which cost the head
of the national library, Rosa Regàs, her job and led to accusations that the
government was not doing enough to protect its national heritage. The two
maps were found by an FBI agent working in the New York art world and were
handed over to Spain by the FBI director, Robert Muller, in Washington last
week, before being brought back to Europe.

Last month César Goméz Rivero, a Uruguayan-born Spanish citizen believed to
be on the run in South America, sent his lawyer to negotiate an immunity
deal with a judge in Buenos Aires in exchange for handing over eight of the
19 maps he still had in his possession.

The judge rejected the deal but kept the maps, which will be handed over
today. Mr Goméz was released on bail and Spanish authorities are seeking his
extradition to face charges in Madrid.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/