Why rare Russian books are vanishing from European libraries

First editions of works by Russian author Alexander Pushkin can fetch well above CHF10,000 ($11,050) – one factor which recently made them the targets of a criminal gang operating throughout Europe, including in Switzerland.

Last year, the university library in Geneva was the victim of a rare theft: two men managed to get hold of four valuable Pushkin first editions, insured to the value of CHF173,000.

A first edition of Pushkin’s poem The Prisoner of the Caucasus at the University of Warsaw. AFP or licensors

The theft on October 31, 2023, was not an isolated case: first-edition works have been disappearing from numerous European libraries over the past two years. What’s striking is how the thefts have targeted Russian classics – especially by Pushkin (1799-1837).

Georgian suspects arrested

In April this year, European police authority Europol arrested a further four Georgians in connection with the thefts; following previous arrests, nine people have in total been stopped – in France, Georgia, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.

Seized: a picture of part of Europol’s bounty. Europol

The individuals are suspected of having stolen a total of 170 books with a value of €2.5 million (CHF2.43 million). Some of the books were recovered by police.

Geneva case ongoing

Prosecutors in Geneva refused to comment on investigations. Contacted by Swiss public television, SRF, they did however reveal some details of the heist.

Over several days, two men repeatedly requested access to view the same selection of books in the Geneva library. Then, as staff were closing up the library in the evening, they realised that while the men’s bags were still there, four Pushkin books had vanished. A Russian-language translation of a Johann Hübner book as well as a translation of Samuel von Pufendorf had also vanished.

Geneva University library, where four valuable Pushkin works were stolen in October 2023. Keystone / Martial Trezzini

Zurich man Cyril Koller, the head of the Koller auction house, says that “such stolen goods cannot be sold in serious European auction houses, which painstakingly check the origin of books”.

The war in Ukraine has also fundamentally changed the European auction market: Russian buyers became rarer after the annexation of the Crimea peninsula in 2014; since the war in Ukraine they have disappeared completely.

Figure of Russian imperialism

Such works can however fetch huge sums on the black market. Ulrich Schmid, a professor of Eastern European Studies at the University of St Gallen, suspects that the books were not only stolen to turn a profit. They might even have been stolen on commission, he says.

“In Putin’s Russia, Pushkin is seen as a symbol of Russian imperialism. It cannot be ruled out that oligarchs are trying to use such books to position themselves as cultural figures in a new patriotic climate,” Schmid says.

The Geneva university library does not want to comment on the theft. Nor does it want to say whether security measures have since been tightened. According to European judicial authority Eurojust, charges are expected to be brought in the coming weeks. Perhaps part of the mystery surrounding the Pushkin pilfering will be solved in court.

Adapted from German by Domhnall O’Sullivan