[PADG:1212] Antique Map Thief Gets 3 1/2-Year Jail Term

[kmm <kmm@xxxxxxxx>]

I am forwarding just the first few paragraphs, the rest of the  
article is at

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/ 
2006/09/27/national/a150621D32.DTL
 ---------------------------------------------------------------------
Wednesday, September 27, 2006 (AP)
Antique Map Thief Gets 3 1/2-Year Jail Term
By JOHN CHRISTOFFERSEN, Associated Press Writer


   (09-27) 15:06 PDT New Haven, Conn. (AP) --

   A renowned antique map dealer who admitted stealing nearly 100  
rare maps
was sentenced Wednesday to 3 1/2 years in prison, after one librarian
described him as a "thief who assaulted history."

   E. Forbes Smiley III, 50, also was tentatively ordered to pay  
restitution
of $1.9 million. He is scheduled to report to prison Jan. 4.

   Smiley, who faced up to six years in prison under federal sentencing
guidelines, stole the maps over eight years from the New York and Boston
public libraries, the Newberry Library in Chicago, the Harvard and Yale
university libraries and the British Library in London. The oldest maps
dated back to the 1500s and some are the first records of settlements,
territories and discoveries in America, experts said.