[MSN] AFTER a journey around the world, a stolen 1482 map based on the work of the ancient astronomer and geographer Ptolemy has been recovered in a Sydney art gallery.

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Precious stolen map turns up in Sydney
Philip Cornford 
October 20, 2007 

AFTER a journey around the world, a stolen 1482 map based on the work of the
ancient astronomer and geographer Ptolemy has been recovered in a Sydney art
gallery.

The map, known as the Ulm Ptolemy World Map, illustrates what was then known
about the world and is described as "perhaps the most famous and highly
sought after of 15th-century world maps, and certainly the most decorative".

Valued at $160,000, the Ptolemy map was stolen from Spain's National Library
and made its way to the US, where it was bought on the internet by Simon
Dewez, owner of the Gowrie Galleries in Bondi Junction.

"I had absolutely no idea it was stolen," Mr Dewez said yesterday. "I
thought it was a fantastic buy, a rare opportunity."

The map has been recovered and is with the Australian Federal Police, who
sent photographs to the National Library in Madrid. "They've confirmed it's
their missing map," a spokesman said. "The gallery surrendered it
willingly."

Spain will apply to Australia to have the map returned. A legal dispute over
ownership is not expected.

Mr Dewez declined to name the dealer from whom he bought the map but
described him as a reputable dealer who had refunded him.

Mr Dewez, whose gallery has a 120-page catalogue offering rare maps for
sale, bought the map on behalf of a client as a superannuation investment.

He bought a second-edition Ulm Ptolemy World Map, printed in different
colours in 1486, five years ago from a private European collector. "It's
equivalent to buying a rare edition," Mr Dewez said. "The Ptolemy map is not
only important, but it's beautiful as well."

The stolen map was one of 12 maps and other documents cut from a
16th-century edition of Ptolemy's Geographia, based on the original work by
Claudius Ptolemy in the second century.

Best known as an astronomer, Ptolemy (AD 85-165) compiled Geographia from
existing records and by detailing the geographic co-ordinates of 8000
locations. He was the first to visualise a great southern land mass uniting
Africa with Asia and enclosing the modern Indian Ocean.

The maps he drew were hard to copy and were lost over time, but Geographia
was the most influential record of the known world for the next 16
centuries.

World maps based it were produced in 1295, 1397, 1401 and 1427, but because
Ptolemy believed the world to be smaller than it actually was, they all
contained distortions, a problem not solved until the end of the 18th
century.

In 1482 in the German city of Ulm, Leinhart Holle produced the Ptolemy World
Map, including Scandinavia and more recent information. It was a woodcut by
the engraver Johanne Schnitzer.

A second map stolen from the Spanish National Library was recovered by the
FBI from a New York collector about the same time police became aware the
Ptolemy World Map had found its way to Australia.

The loss of national treasures caused outrage and led to the resignation of
the library's director.

The thief is believed to be a researcher who had access to the closed
section of the library that contained the documents. He left Spain before
the thefts were discovered in August.


This story was found at:
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/10/19/1192301045420.html