Rare 'irreplaceable' books worth millions found hidden underground in a house in Romania

On September 19, Met’s Specialist Crime South in partnership with the Romanian National Police recovered rare books underneath the floor of a house in rural Romania which was stolen from the warehouse and is worth more than £2.5 million ($3.5 million) and has arrested 13 people in relation to the crime. As many as an estimated 200 valuable books were robbed from the UK in the year 2017 and have been excavated by the London Met Police in an apartment located in the Neamt county. Detective Inspector Andy Durham of the Met said that the books were irreplaceable and held international cultural heritage significance. Therefore, the stack discovered was “extremely valuable”.

"These books are extremely valuable, but more importantly they are irreplaceable and are of great importance to international cultural heritage.

"If it wasn’t for the hard work of Detective Constable David Ward and others in this Joint Investigation Team these books would have been sadly lost to the world forever," Met Police said in a press release.

Among the books found were the first edition works by Galileo Galilei, Isaac Newton, and Dante Alighieri, and sketches by Francisco de Goya. Most of these masterpieces were originally composed years ago and were ready to be auctioned in the United States when they were stolen by the burglars. In a joint investigation conducted by the  UK, Romania, and Italy police, the investigations revealed that at least 11 such burglaries had occurred in these countries. The authorities were now inspecting the case in detail. 

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[Packages of rare books worth £2.5m found in a cement pit in Neamț, Romania; 13 people have been charged. Credit: Met Police/AP]

[The books were found in a hidden underground compartment. Credit: Met Police]

Burglars avoided the sensors

A police personnel revealed that the books were actually stolen from a postal transit warehouse in Feltham in January 2017. A police official revealed that they may have been transported illegally after a specialist book auction was set to sell them in Las Vegas, US. Met police identified the culprit's Daniel David and Victor Opariuc, who, they said, cut holes into the warehouse roof and avoided the sensors that could have set off alarms by safely landing on the shelves. Police could trace the accused after a  DNA sample was taken and post a five-hour operation of recreating the scene. A third man, Narcis Popescu, who drove the culprits to the site was also nabbed. The vehicle used to carry out the burglary was cleaned with bleach by the three men, according to the police. Met police reportedly said that the men were members of a Romanian organized crime group and have been involved in the high-value warehouse burglaries for many years. 

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