Smiley eventually admitted stealing, and others discovered that many other maps in their inventory were missing.Īside from the ease with which he pilfered so many treasures from so many sites, how was Mr. Some were unaware that they had ever had maps that Mr. Smiley was a familiar and respected user of their facilities, and then embarrassed by their antiquated record-keeping and security systems. The curators and librarians were first stunned, because Mr. Hundreds of maps were missing from places dedicated to caring for them - the New York Public Library, the Boston Public Library, the British Library in London, Harvard University, Brown University, and of course Yale, among others. Smiley had frequented began to check their collections, and the news was not good. Tracking a series of thefts as brazen as the art heists in Provenance and a subculture as obsessive as the oenophiles in The Billionaire’s Vinegar, Blanding has pieced together an unforgettable story of high-stakes crime.As news of the theft spread, librarians and curators at other institutions that Mr. The Map Thief interweaves Smiley’s escapades with the stories of the explorers and mapmakers he knew better than anyone.

Now, through a series of exclusive interviews with Smiley and other key individuals, Blanding teases out an astonishing tale of destruction and redemption. Moreover, although Smiley swears he has admitted to all of the maps he stole, libraries claim he stole hundreds more-and offer intriguing clues to prove it. Though pieces of the map theft story have been written before, Blanding is the first reporter to explore the story in full-and had the rare privilege of having access to Smiley himself after he’d gone silent in the wake of his crimes. The Map Thief delves into the untold history of this fascinating high-stakes criminal and the inside story of the industry that consumed him.Īcclaimed reporter Michael Blanding has interviewed all the key players in this stranger-than-fiction story, and shares the fascinating histories of maps that charted the New World, and how they went from being practical instruments to quirky heirlooms to highly coveted objects. Forbes Smiley spent years doubling as a map thief -until he was finally arrested slipping maps out of books in the Yale University library. Once considered a respectable antiquarian map dealer, E. But to those who collect them, the map trade can be a cutthroat business, inhabited by quirky and sometimes disreputable characters in search of a finite number of extremely rare objects. Maps have long exerted a special fascination on viewers-both as beautiful works of art and as practical tools to navigate the world.

The story of an infamous crime, a revered map dealer with an unsavory secret, and the ruthless subculture that consumed him

The Map Thief by Michael Blanding