Not So Smiley Now

How did a Martha's Vineyard blueblood get away with so many map thefts?

To hear the name of E. Forbes Smiley III of Martha's Vineyard you might immediately assume he is a respectable member of upper crust society. He looks the part, too. Tall, thin, wire-framed glasses and tweedy sportscoats.

But it turns out, Smiley is a serial map thief who has confessed to having stolen over 100 maps worth over $3 million dollars. He was caught by an astute librarian at Yale University who noticed an exacto blade on the floor next to him. Smiley used the blade to carefully slice the maps out of very old and rare books.

Smiley is also a map dealer which gives him entree as a scholar into rare book & map collections all over the world. And apparently Smiley had been using his cache (real or perceived) for years to get into collections to hand pick the maps he would steal.

Smiley is cooperating in the recovery of these maps though some of them are lost forever. It is also rumored that some museums are too embarassed to come forward to report missing maps.

I am surprised that he was able to have such access to any rare collection. In most museums or rare book collections, the rooms are guarded at all times to prevent theft. But these places must have been comfortable with Smiley and were used to his presence. They trusted him in part because of his name, appearance and provenance. I guess it goes to show you, you can't judge a book by it's cover.