Book Board Chat

The Case of the Disappearing Documents

At age 10, Barry Landau wrote a letter to Dwight D. Eisenhower, admiring his "very beautiful" wife and offering his assessment of where the general stood in the country's pantheon of great leaders. The boy got a card back from the White House, triggering a lifelong love of historical documents and a passion for accumulating them. He has since built what his lawyer calls the world's largest private collection of American presidential memorabilia. Now he's under house arrest, and items from his prized collection have been seized by federal agents. He is awaiting federal trial, accused of conspiring to steal historic documents and sell them for profit. Of the 10,000 pieces removed from Mr. Landau's New York home, at least 2,500 of them—potentially worth millions of dollars—were stolen from historical societies, university libraries and other institutions along the East Coast. The collection recovered appears to be far in excess of anything previously seized.

The alleged crime spree comes amid robust demand for rare American documents. Last year, Sotheby's sold a copy of the Emancipation Proclamation signed by President Lincoln and once owned by Robert F. Kennedy for nearly $3.8 million. Lincoln's 1864 victory speech written in his hand—a document known as an autograph manuscript—sold for more than $3.4 million at Christie's in 2009. The overall auction market for rare American historical documents totals $30 million to $50 million annually.. Criminals are lured not just by big-ticket items but by artifacts whose origins may be tough to trace, like White House dinner invitations issued en masse.

The Landau case has cast an unflattering light on the lax security at many archives that preserve documents. Some of the archives allegedly targeted are cash-strapped, struggling to fully staff their reading rooms. Many smaller institutions allow relatively easy access: Until this summer, visitors to the University of Vermont's library didn't have to show identification.

Maryland U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein, sees far-reaching repercussions for archives. "They're no longer going to be so trusting," he says. Archive staffers are buying new cameras, locking bathrooms and improving sight lines in reading rooms. Locking original documents in vaults and handing out copies isn't a popular solution, either. Archives operate largely outside the digital realm, lacking the funds to make their entire collections available electronically. Besides, that idea runs counter to the mission of sharing the artifacts in all their yellowing, crumbly glory. "If the material is not available for people to use, then what's the point?" asks Richard Malley, head of research and collections at the Connecticut Historical Society.

Yadayadayada … quite a long but interesting article
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204422404576596873383476078.html?