Monday, December 08, 2008

Five Years for Brazilian Book Thief

A Brazilian court has sentenced Laessio Rodrigues de Oliveira to a five-year prison sentence for the theft of several rare books from the Institute for Research Botanical Garden in Rio de Janeiro. A report on the sentencing (in Portuguese) was translated by Rizio Bruno Sant'Ana (Curator of Rare Books at the Mario de Andrade Library in Sao Paolo) and posted to Ex-Libris.

Oliveira was arrested in 2004, and stolen books from several other Brazilian institutions, including the National Museum of Rio de Janeiro, the Historic Archive of Blumenau (Santa Catarina),
and the Mario de Andrade Library (Sao Paulo), were found in his home at that time.