NEW HAVEN - A dealer in antique treasures who admitted stealing more than $3
million in rare maps was sentenced on Wednesday to 3-1/2 years in prison after a
judge ruled that he deserved leniency for cooperating.
Edward Forbes Smiley III, once one of the country's most respected dealers in
rare maps, also must pay $1.9 million in restitution for stealing 98 of the
world's most precious maps, U.S. District Judge Janet Bond Arterton said.
Smiley had faced up to six years in prison under federal guidelines but was
handed a lighter sentence after helping authorities recover most of the stolen
maps, Arterton said.
"I'm deeply ashamed," Smiley told the court.
Several libraries said he got off too lightly.
"We're really disappointed at the leniency of this sentence in terms of the
imprisonment of 3-1/2 years -- that equates to around 12 days imprisonment for
every map which was stolen," Clive Field, director of the British Library in
London, told reporters.
In June, Smiley admitted to the thefts from the British Library, the New York
and Boston public libraries, the Harvard and Yale university libraries and a
Chicago library. They took place over 7-1/2 years.
He was caught with seven rare maps in his briefcase and tweed blazer after
leaving Yale University's rare-book library. A sharp-eyed library staffer had
noticed a dropped X-Acto knife blade on the floor and alerted authorities.
Prosecutors had said the 50-year-old antiquarian from Martha's Vineyard
island in Massachusetts had stolen the maps to finance his rich tastes and
rising debt but deserved credit for cooperating with federal investigators.
"Forbes Smiley is a thief, and a good one at that," said Connecticut District
U.S. Attorney Kevin O'Connor.
"He's also now a convicted felon, and he's also someone who is looking at
what we think is a fair sentence of three-and-a-half years in prison," he added.
Prosecutors said six of the maps likely never will be recovered, while two
are in the hands of identified collectors and 90 have been or most likely will
be recovered.
"If you steal human-kind's treasures you will go to jail, but if you help
recover them it will be weighed in the balance," Arterton said in handing down
the sentence.
One of the oldest maps was a Tudor world map dating from 1520 lifted from the
British Library's reading room. Another was a 1524 drawing of the New World by
Spanish explorer Hernan Cortes belonging to Houghton Library at Harvard
University. Like many of the others, it had been cut out of a bound book.
Under a plea agreement, Smiley has agreed to sell some of his property to
help make restitution, including a home worth around $600,000 on 4.3 acres in
Martha's Vineyard and another in Maine.
