Collection Theft and Security Monitoring

About

The aim of the SPNHC Collection Theft and Security Monitoring Toolkit is to provide information about measures that would prevent or deter collection theft, communications channels that could be used to alert the collections community of thefts, and methods to monitor for the recovery of lost specimens.

Contributors

SPNHC Collection Theft and Security Monitoring of Collections Sessional Committee Co-chairs, Paul Mayer and Rob Zschernitz, and Member-at-Large (Breda Zimkus).

Introduction

This group was formed after the plenary talk at the 2019 Annual Meeting at the Field Museum by Kirk Wallace Johnson, author of The Feather Thief: Beauty, Obsession, and the Natural History Heist of the Century, a theft Natural History Museum at Tring. This theft was notable because items were taken from a closed collection, rather than a public museum or exhibit. The theft occurred on 24 June 2009 and involved the removal of 299 bird specimens. The police announced on 12 November 2010 that a 22-year-old US citizen, Edwin Rist, had been arrested in connection with the theft. Rist sold many of the feathers in Victorian salmon flies to raise money to buy a gold flute. He was sentenced to 12 months in jail, suspended for two years, and a supervision order in April 2011. He was also required to repay £125,150, the estimated proceeds from selling the skins through such outlets as eBay. The police also advised that 191 intact bird skins had so far been recovered, of which only 101 had labels recording the birds' key scientific data.