Whitney heirs reclaim stolen rare books, plan charity auction
TL;DR
A cache of stolen rare books—including 37 John Keats love letters, a signed James Joyce Finnegans Wake, and Oscar Wilde’s De Profundis—worth about $3 million, was returned to John Hay Whitney and Betsey Whitney's heirs decades after the 1980s theft from a Long Island home; the items were recovered after a would-be seller contacted New York rare-book dealers and alerted authorities, and the heirs plan to auction the collection and donate the proceeds.
- Stolen rare books returned to Whitney heirs decades after theft Financial Times
- Plot twist: Rare books worth $3 million stolen decades ago resurface in Manhattan Gothamist
- Stolen Letters That John Keats Sent to His Beloved Are Found The New York Times
- Rare books worth millions swiped from NYC royalty miraculously found after 40 years New York Post
- John Keats’s love letters returned to owner after being stolen in the 1980s The Guardian
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