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Sounds almost like a plot from National Treasure (2004). Except it's Columbus letters instead of the Constitution. How rich was Columbus?
Declaration of Independence was what Nic Cage had to steal. He just had to..
You are correct. National Treasure (2004) was about The Declaration of Independence, not The Constitution.
If it is someone descended from the indigenous peoples of North or South America, I will help with their legal bills
Do digital copies exist?
This seems like a good English translation: http://www.ems.kcl.ac.uk/content/etext/e022.html
Wikipedia links to more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbus%27s_letter_on_the_fir...
If it is someone descended from the indigenous peoples of North or South America, I will help with their legal bills
One of the most unexpected things I ever came across in Europe was a group of Seminoles selling artwork at a weekend flea market in Milan.
Sounds almost like a plot from National Treasure (2004). Except it's Columbus letters instead of the Constitution. How rich was Columbus?
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/christopher-colu... "Although Columbus enjoyed a substantial revenue from Hispaniola gold during the last years of his life, he repeatedly attempted (unsuccessfully) to gain an audience with King Ferdinand, whom he felt owed him further redress." So I'm thinking - well off, but not wealthy.
Gotta admit, not really.
> Jay suspected the library's letter had been stolen and put up for sale, which meant whatever was currently in their collection was a fake.
> Jay Dillon: To my utter astonishment, a Columbus letter in the Vatican library was a forgery. And then I went to the Biblioteca Riccardiana in Florence and damned if the same thing doesn't happen again. Their Columbus letter is a fake too.
I think this is an interesting story. But, imagine if all these "valuable" private libraries just scanned all there stuff. Does the original really matter? The data in the book should be enough. Of course it does to many people, the original DOES matter. Because the book is no longer valued for it's contents, but as an art piece.
The most shocking thing to me about this article isn't about the theft stories, but how there is a Cultural Heritage Squad police division. And that they have in possession of the worlds rarest art pieces. One example is in the millions stolen from a private home. Did the owner not even bother to call the "lost and found" or are they the ones holding it? Why aren't the paintings taken care of better in a climate controlled environment by professionals? And WHY is EVIDENCE hung and frame on the wall in the police stations. Something smells here to be frank.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Perhaps these artworks in their store have unknown owners For unknown owners, fine. But they know where the Caravaggio came from. The article says, "Giovanni Prisco: Yes, and it is a paint stolen at the end of 1990 and was from a private house. It was discovered in the north of Italy." I'm reading that as saying that it was stolen from someone's private house and that it was recovered somewhere else in the north of…
Perhaps the person from whom it was stolen can't prove they owned it legitimately? I expect stealing stolen goods has higher odds of not being reported so lower risk for the thieves. That said, stealing from people who might own stolen expensive art might not be the smartest thing to do... :)
Should be "Someone was ... ". Probably moved on to Gutenberg Bibles or something. Which are harder to fake, but people are correspondingly less likely to check.