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The
Martha's Vineyard Times is a weekly publication.
July 14 - July 20, 2005 Edition
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man charged in Yale library map thefts July 14, 2005 By Nelson Sigelman A Chilmark man and dealer in antique maps appeared in a New Haven, Connecticut courtroom last week in connection with the theft of several rare, antique maps belonging to Yale University’s Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library last June. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is also investigating the case and any links to the thefts of other antique documents from various private collections. E. Forbes Smiley 3rd, 49, of 340 North Road was arraigned on July 7 on three charges of larceny in the first degree in New Haven Superior Court. Bail was set at a total of $175,000 and he was ordered not to leave the country. Mr. Smiley, a former New York resident, is scheduled to appear in court on Aug. 9 to enter a plea to the charges. According to a story published in the Hartford Courant on July 9, suspicions were raised when a Yale University librarian discovered an X-Acto knife on a reading room floor. The librarian alerted her supervisor, who identified a man examining a book as Mr. Smiley, who was a suspect in another alleged theft of rare documents from Yale that was never reported to police. Library security staff watched Mr. Smiley on a camera as he fidgeted with his coat. When a police detective confronted Mr. Smiley in another university building, a search revealed seven rare maps with an estimated value of more than $700,000, according to the police warrant. He was accompanied back to the library. An inspection of one of the books that Mr. Smiley had checked out to the reading room, “Advertisements for the Unexperienced Planters of New England,” was missing its map. The map was drawn by Capt. John Smith, the founder of Jamestown, and published in 1614. According to the report, Mr. Smiley took the map, worth $50,000, out of the inside pocket of his blazer. Two other Yale maps identified as “Typvs Orbis Terrarvm” and “Part of American Part of China,” together worth nearly $130,000, were also recovered, according to the Hartford Courant. The FBI has sent an e-mail to members of the International League of Antiquarian Booksellers in an effort to locate the owners of the other maps found in Mr. Smiley’s briefcase, Lt. Mike Patten of the Yale police said this week. Mr. Smiley did not return telephone messages from The Times left on his Chilmark home answering machine. His lawyer, David Dworski of Fairfield, Connecticut said that once all of the facts come out he is confident his client would be vindicated. According to the Hartford Courant, Mr. Smiley is well known in the rarified world of antique map dealers and helped the New York Public Library build its Lawrence Slaughter collection of English maps, charts, atlases, globes and books tied to Colonial North America. He also played a role in helping the Boston Public Library add to its collection. According to Mr. Smiley’s web site, efsmaps.com, the maps he sells “are very fresh to the market and have not been offered to other collectors, institutions or dealers.” “Our business,” the text continues, “is to build the finest collections of early American maps, atlases and globes possible at this time. Service to our clients has always been of the utmost importance in our strategy to handle the very best of rare and important material.” Mr. Smiley may be best known in Chilmark as the owner of a modular home hauled in nine parts by barge from Port Elizabeth, New Jersey and erected on a building site on North Road. In a letter to the editor published in The Times on Feb. 17, Mr. Smiley apologized “to the kind people of Chilmark,” for the visual disturbance caused by the construction. He said he planned to face the building in old stone and screen it from the road. Tim Rich, Chilmark police chief, said he is not familiar with Mr. Smiley and has not been contacted by mainland police in connection with the investigation. |
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