Disappearing Documents

A letter from Benjamin Franklin dated April 1, 1780. An admission ticket to the gallery for Andrew Johnson’s impeachment trial. A reading copy of Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s 1937 inaugural addresses, with the president’s notations and signature.

These were among the 10,000 stolen documents and objects of cultural heritage discovered in 2011 in the New York City apartment of self-styled presidential historian Barry Landau.

The case publicized the exceptionally hard-to-trace crime of document theft. “We don’t really know what has been stolen because there’s no good way to track that information,” says Mitchell Yockelson, investigative archivist for the Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General (OIG). The mass of material in libraries and archives means there’s no line-item inventory to pick up a problem. An item can be missing for years before the loss is discovered, often only by luck.

In 2006, the OIG formed the Archival Recovery Team, a network of investigators, forensic analysts and labs, to investigate document thefts. Yockelson credits this seven-year-old team with a higher conviction rate.

At the same time, the OIG decided to publicize these crimes. Making the general public aware that documents are being taken, Yockelson says—maybe even by the “researcher” in the next carrel—increases the chances of catching or preventing a theft.

Document thieves look just like any other researcher. But their intentions set them apart: Some thieves are collectors, looking for the rare and unique to add to their personal museums. These individuals often feel protective of the items, says Yockelson. When they see something that would fit into their collection, they take it, “because they think they can take better care of it.”

Other thieves, like Landau, do it for the money. “Some will steal the item, then sell it online at an auction site,” Yockelson says. Thieves also offer stolen documents to museums, libraries and collectors.

Many of the regulations you comply with while researching at repositories are designed to discourage this type of theft. Jackets, briefcases, folders and other possessions that could be used to hide a document may be forbidden in research rooms.

But staff, who have easy access to valuable historic documents, also can be the culprits. The Philadelphia branch of the National Archives and Records Administration has seen two of its staff arrested for pilfering documents. In 2011, retired archivist Leslie C. Waffen admitted to stealing nearly 1,000 rare audio recordings. One of Babe Ruth went for $34.74 on the auction website eBay.

Investigators alert a network of book dealers, museums and collectors when a theft has been discovered, but the general public may be the best first line of defense. “If you see suspicious activity, report it to the librarian,” Yockelson says. That might include excessive shuffling of papers or walking around the room.

You also should tell staff when you come across pages removed from a book or documents absent from a file. “[Staff will] know if something is missing or if it’s just been misfiled,” Yockelson says.

And if you’re in the market for historical documents, ask for written proof of provenance before making a purchase. Be suspicious of erasure marks or areas that appear to have been trimmed away, which may indicate the seller removed a repository’s file number or ownership marks. If you think you’ve come across an original that belongs to the US government, report it to the National Archives. Here, you also can see a list of known documents the archives is missing.
There’s no surveillance system like thousands of pairs of eyes on alert. No matter how long it takes to find a stolen archival document, Yockelson says, “We’re always looking.”