ABSTRACT
Plus ça change, plus c’est la meme chose might be one theme for this year’s review of federal enforcement actions. Every volume of the Yearbook has reported on new federal prosecutions involving the theft of rare books, manuscripts, letters, maps, illustrations, illuminations, autographs, and other documents and ephemera from libraries and archives. This year is no different (Renehan; Brubaker; Weber). The new cases also remind us that a significant number of offenses involving the theft of library, archival, and museum items are committed by employees and others entrusted with particularized access to and knowledge about the fruits of their crimes (Malatare; Renehan; Weber), and, in addition, that crimes involving cultural heritage resources from these institutions often are not detected until the items are offered for sale through the internet, an auction house, or a gallery, and someone-most often a member of the public-recognizes the items’ provenance (Ary; Malatare; Johnson; Weber; Renehan).
