Thefts of rare Pushkin editions in France: thieves face up to seven years in jail

For French magistrates, these thefts may reflect a drive to repatriate Russian cultural heritage amid mounting tensions between Moscow and the West since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. What does the Louvre jewel heist have in common with the theft of heritage copies of 19th-century Russian authors from several prestigious libraries in Paris and Lyon? In both cases, the haul is still nowhere to be found. But in the case of the books, the courts have only just delivered their verdict. Six Georgian nationals have been sentenced in Paris to terms ranging from 18 months’ suspended jail to seven years in prison for the theft of classics of Russian literature. Among the items stolen were works by Alexander Pushkin, including a first edition of "Boris Godunov" (1825), as well as texts by Mikhail Lermontov and Nikolai Gogol – a "genuine treasure theft", according to the prosecutor, who in his submissions spoke of a "massive, organised operation, planned and carried out with meticulous care and cynicism". The case is part of a wave of thefts targeting libraries across Europe since the launch of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, a wave which has been attributed to an organised network potentially linked to Moscow. The six defendants – five men and one woman – were all found guilty overnight from Friday to Saturday of criminal conspiracy to commit an offence, with some also convicted of stealing cultural property on display. According to the investigation, the thieves visited libraries to consult rare works, which they photographed and measured before returning to replace them with almost undetectable facsimiles. At the Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF) alone, the loss is put at 770,000 euros. Two of them were tried in absentia, having already been arrested in Georgia, their home country, which does not extradite its nationals. A duo identified as Mikheil Z. and Beqa T. had already been convicted and jailed in the Baltic states for similar offences and was temporarily handed over to France to stand trial. Mikheil Z., 50, received the heaviest sentence: seven years in prison, together with a permanent ban from French territory once he has served his term and been deported. He had already been sentenced last year in Lithuania to three years and four months in prison for the organised theft of 19th-century publications valued at more than 600,000 euros. Beqa T., 49, was sentenced to four years in prison, in addition to a previous three-and-a-half-year sentence handed down in Estonia. A push to repatriate Russian heritage? These thefts, which have also affected Germany, Switzerland and the Czech Republic, led to the creation of a joint investigative team under the aegis of Europol and Eurojust, resulting in several arrests in 2024. In June 2024, the Russian auction house Litfond, which specialises in rare antiquarian books, included in its catalogue a second edition of Alexander Pushkin’s poem "The Prisoner of the Caucasus", matching a copy stolen from the Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF). The auction house told the French authorities it had documents proving the book was acquired from its owner in Russia between 2014 and 2015. For French magistrates, these thefts may form part of a strategy to repatriate Russian cultural heritage, against a backdrop of heightened tensions between Moscow and Europe since the invasion of Ukraine. None of the stolen works has been recovered, but the BnF’s lawyer, Alexandre de Konn, quoted by AFP, said the institution "has not lost hope" of getting them back. Euronews has contacted the Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF) to obtain details of the security measures introduced or reinforced in its various spaces since these events, but had received no reply at the time of publication.