Italian prosecutors are investigating the director of a historic library on suspicion of stealing and selling more than 4,000 rare antiquarian books worth millions of dollars from the collection that he was in charge of, the Telegraph (British) website reports today (October 9, 2012).
In what is believed to be the biggest such theft in several decades, Marino Massimo De Caro is accused of stealing a vast haul of rare books from the 17th century Girolamini Library in Naples, including works by Galileo Galilei, the astronomer.
De Caro -- who was director of the library for less than a year -- allegedly tried to cover his tracks by replacing the stolen Galileo volumes with remarkably authentic-looking facsimiles, produced to such a high quality that experts are baffled as to how he made them.
De Caro is in jail while investigators dig deeper into the situation. He is expected to be charged with theft, embezzlement, and criminal association.
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