More than two dozen rare books \u2014 including a bound collection of love letters by poet John Keats \u2014 were stolen at some point between 1982 and 1989 from the Long Island estate of John Hay Whitney, a wealthy New York publisher who once served as president of the Museum of Modern Art.<\/p>\n
The location of the books mostly remained a mystery for decades. But in 2025, the Manhattan District Attorney\u2019s Office said 17 of the books resurfaced when a young man tried to sell them to rare book dealers in Manhattan. The man, who was not identified, said he had inherited them from him from his grandfather, according to the DA’s office. The dealers contacted the office, which secured a search warrant to seize them.<\/p>\n
On Monday, District Attorney Alvin Bragg, prosecutors in his Antiquities Trafficking Unit and a grandson of John Whitney announced the 17 books would be returned to the family, which intends to auction them off and donate the proceeds. They\u2019re worth about $3 million, the DA\u2019s office said in a statement.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s incredibly meaningful for the family,\u201d Peter di Bonaventura, a grandson of John Whitney, said at a press conference Monday. \u201cMy grandparents were extraordinary collectors \u2026 and this is one example of their taste and their skill.\u201d<\/p>\n
The most valuable piece in the collection is the collection of letters Keats wrote to his fiancee, Fanny Brawne, according to the DA\u2019s office. It includes eight handwritten letters, including the first-ever letter he wrote to her. The collection was later sold at auction by Brawne\u2019s children, which inspired Oscar Wilde to pen the sonnet “On the Sale By Auction of Keats\u2019 Love Letters.” The collection of letters is worth about $2 million, according to the DA\u2019s office.<\/p>\n
Other items returned Monday include letters written by Oscar Wilde, a signed edition of “Finnegan\u2019s Wake” by James Joyce and “Household Stories of Grimm” that features 12 original drawings by Walter Crane.<\/p>\n
In brief remarks, Bragg thanked the rare book dealers for contacting law enforcement and said his office is committed to making sure antiquities on display and for sale in Manhattan are legally acquired.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are the capital in so many ways. We have to also be the capital \u2026 in authenticity,\u201d he said. \u201cThis type of illegal activity shouldn\u2019t happen anywhere. We\u2019re not going to let it happen in Manhattan.<\/p>\n
The investigation into how the books were stolen and the remaining 11 missing books is ongoing, the DA\u2019s office said.<\/p>\n
Assistant District Attorney Matthew Bogdanos said the man who tried to sell the books has not been accused of wrongdoing.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe individual who we seized the books from wasn\u2019t even born at the time of the thefts, so he didn\u2019t do it,\u201d Bogdanos said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"More than two dozen rare books \u2014 including a bound collection of love letters by poet John Keats…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":203621,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[75,84,83,9,24,63],"class_list":{"0":"post-203620","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-manhattan","8":"tag-manhattan","9":"tag-manhattan-headlines","10":"tag-manhattan-news","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-city","13":"tag-nyc"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203620","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=203620"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203620\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/203621"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=203620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=203620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=203620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}