[MSN] Fortuitous Circumstances Result in Recovery of $60,000 Atlas. (It's really sad. Every time you hear about the very people who should be protecting the rarities being involved in their theft, it's so discouraging.)

[Museum Security Network Mailing list]

Fortuitous Circumstances Result in Recovery of $60,000 Atlas
by David Hewett

Sometimes fate is on the side of the good guys, and when it happens it
should not go unrecognized.

Consider this. On Saturday, May 5 Julia Hickey of the Historical Society of
Rockland County, New City, New York, sent out e-mails alerting readers to
the fact that someone had stolen an 1823 copy of Tanner’s New American Atlas
from its facility. The e-mail bulletin described the atlas as containing “22
fine hand-coloured double-page engraved maps” in large folio size (22 5/8" x
15¾") and bound in “contemporary half-red morocco,” that had been in a
“modern cloth box with morocco lettering-piece on the spine” when it went
missing. The historical society had yet to decide whether to keep the atlas,
which is valued in the $60,000 range, or to sell it at auction. So it
unfortunately did not carry any identifying markings beyond a catalog
sticker, and the number on the sticker had not been recorded.

What were the chances that, once the modern box was discarded and the
sticker removed, it would be recognized as the property of the historical
society? And what were the chances that the notice would reach the attention
of someone to whom it had been offered already? One of the parties receiving
the e-mail notice about the theft was the International Map Trade
Association (IMTA). Its Web name is maptrade. IMTA is an affinity group of
map collectors, dealers, and map lovers. The association forwarded it on to
its membership, which included Christopher Lane of Philadelphia, a co-owner
of The Philadelphia Print Shop.

I read the e-mail and was amazed,” said Lane, “because just three hours
earlier I had a phone call from a woman offering that very atlas for sale. I
contacted Julia Hickey of the historical society, asking for a further
description of their missing copy, then got back in touch with the would-be
seller and asked her for photos, but I was pretty certain at that point whom
I was talking to. It’s a pretty rare atlas and is not about to surface that
often.” Lane said he figured that someone involved in the theft would be
knowledgeable of its value, so “I played it absolutely straight and told her
the truth––that we’d offer it in the sixty-thousand-dollar range, if we
owned it,” he said.

The woman Lane was speaking with was Rebecca Streeter-Chen, who had worked
as a full-time curator at the historical society in New City, New York, from
the fall of 2004 until late 2006. On May 24 Streeter-Chen walked into the
Philadelphia Print Shop, carrying the atlas. Police from Clarkstown,
Pennsylvania, and Philadelphia were waiting for her. On May 31 she was
arraigned in Clarkstown Justice Court and entered a not guilty plea. On July
19 a grand jury in Clarkstown indicted Rebecca Streeter-Chen on charges of
second-degree larceny. She was freed on $5000 bail.

The publicity about the charges against her have had a ripple effect in
museum circles. In March of this year, Rebecca Streeter-Chen was hired as a
registrar at the New Jersey State Museum in Trenton, New Jersey. She
resigned that position four days after her arraignment. The museum has been
closed during a $14 million renovation project that has been plagued by
several delays. The day after Streeter-Chen appeared in court, museum
officials announced they had begun conducting a top-to-bottom inventory of
the estimated 12,000 artifacts in its custody. “It’s really sad,”
Christopher Lane said. “Every time you hear about the very people who should
be protecting the rarities being involved in their theft, it’s so
discouraging.”

http://www.maineantiquedigest.com/