Historian Pleads Guilty To Document Theft Scheme

BALTIMORE — A presidential historian, collector and author has pleaded guilty to conspiring to steal documents signed by leaders throughout U.S. history.

Barry Landau of New York City pleaded guilty Tuesday to taking documents from the Maryland Historical Society and conspiring with his assistant to steal documents from that institution and others in the Northeast with the intention of selling them.

The assistant pleaded guilty in October to the same charges: theft of major artwork and conspiracy to commit theft of major artwork.

Prosecutors say Landau schemed for years, if not decades, to steal valuable documents.

Comments

[Harry Hurt]

10:03 AM on 02/08/2012

I wonder if there are a few undiscovered Nixon/Watergate tapes hidden somewhere.

[richman64]

09:32 AM on 02/08/2012

I knew Sandy Berger was up to his old tricks again!

[Rocketmanonline]

09:24 AM on 02/08/2012

Sadly he won't do anytime and if so to some soft summer camp - Stick em in Leavinworth for Ten he won't steal again. Rocketman St.Louie, Mo.

[psandysdad]

09:05 AM on 02/08/2012

Some super-rich person in Asia or the Middle East-----with more money than scruples-----might pay a lot for a famous painting or document that is obviously stolen.

The item then remains in a private vault and vanishes out of all public knowledge. This is one reason art theft occurs in the first place.

[starshot49]

08:55 AM on 02/08/2012

someone watched too much national treasure

[joannevlavender]

09:15 AM on 02/08/2012

That's what I was thinking--except, in National Treasure, they were looking for treasure, not planning to sell the documents.

[acarioti]

08:01 AM on 02/08/2012

Wouldn't the documents have no value once they are considered stolen?

[BigLon]

07:53 AM on 02/08/2012

This story is almost as old as the documents.

[lpcrsotp]

07:17 AM on 02/08/2012

Nicolas Cage could have gotten them out of the place. :)

[ae12wrangell]

09:40 AM on 02/08/2012

Maybe Cage would have. But, as soon as National Archives was aware of the theft, then it's open season, and FBI, US Marshals Service, Secret Service, ATF, and other Federal Agencies would be hunting the person down.

[GaelMc]

06:52 AM on 02/08/2012

How does a buyer explain how he has possession of the one and only document that has been photographed and recorded and listed as MIA? It'd be a bit like having the Hope Diamond. Everyone would know it was stolen, you 'd have to hide it, you could not resell it, where would the joy be in that?

[Ralph Preta]

07:18 AM on 02/08/2012

items of that sort get " deep sixed" (hidden) for sometimes 100's of years. only to resurface long after everyone involved in the thievery is dead and gone. crime that transcends time. imagine that.?? quite the little creatures we have going on this planet. arent they ollie....????

[GaelMc]

07:37 AM on 02/08/2012

Even so most legit dealers of antiquities will not handle items with "stories" like this, stolen or otherwise procured by ill gotten gain items are worthless.

[js0860]

08:10 AM on 02/08/2012

If that were the case, no one would ever steal art, either. There would be no market. The fact is, there is a robust market (albeit black market) for stolen art and historical artifacts. Stolen goods may not be able to be traded openly, but the collectors are global in nature; the sale of stolen US documents are not limited to the United States. People who have way too much money do get some perverse joy from having rare and significant stolen art and artifacts that, indeed, can not be displayed.

Further, many of these theives are very good at going undetected. Any trusted person who has access to checking out valuable documents also checks them back in (using forgeries). In this way, the theft can go undetected indefineitely and therefore no investigation follows.

[Sissybarebutt]

06:41 AM on 02/08/2012

He should have stolen from the White House where it's not a crime. Is it Sandy Burgler?

[hyperstan]

06:22 AM on 02/08/2012

Maybe he was looking for all of Obama's papers.

[rkeeeballs]

09:19 AM on 02/08/2012

Commissioned by Trump ?..still looking for a birth certificate ?.....4-$ale......yup !

[hyperstan]

06:40 AM on 02/09/2012

No. The fake one. Nobody would buy that one anyway.

[Mary Kreutz]

11:57 PM on 02/07/2012

What did he try to steal or what did he steal? Did they recover what was stolen. This article is incomplete. Who found out and how did they do that? Was anyone interviewed to confirm the information? Please complete this information. This is news, but where's the journalism?

[tx383]

01:03 AM on 02/08/2012

Actually, it's not journalism. I think it's an outline for Nicolas Cage's next installment, "National Treasure - Librarians Go Wild!"

[Mary Kreutz]

01:56 AM on 02/08/2012

Thank you for giving me a big smile. I love your humor. Thank you again.

[irishprince317]

03:58 AM on 02/08/2012

lol thats funny

[ddermon]

02:47 AM on 02/08/2012

The guy was indicted last year for stealing over 4000 documents from libraries and museums around the country. Included were documents signed by George Washington, Napolean, FDR, Marie Antoinette, Ben Franklin, Karl Marx and Isaac Newton. His assistant- accomplice pled guilty last October. They posed as researchers and stole documents with the intention of selling them to private collectors. There you go. Brought to you by someone who reads things other than the HuffPost. You're welcome.

[FCF]

04:18 AM on 02/08/2012

I remember this story being on the HuffPost last year.

[Mary Kreutz]

08:36 AM on 02/08/2012

I appreciate your note. Thank you. I subscribe to two newspapers and we get a third a couple times a week, and I'm reading as much as possible on the internet, but missed it. Thanks again.

[stevebakerguitar]

11:43 PM on 02/07/2012

See if he still has the clinton years hard drives too.....

[Sharp tongue]

08:43 AM on 02/08/2012

I think Monica has Clintons hard drives.

[memberspierced]

11:24 PM on 02/07/2012

May as well take and sell the Constitution cause we don't use it anyway, maybe we can get 15 trillion for it ... NOT !

[GOODDOC1]

03:43 AM on 02/08/2012

Clever ... NOT!

[cwpamp]

09:48 PM on 02/07/2012

Some movies come to mind. Another impressionable person overwhelmed and confused with the bombardment of Media fantasy products that put a spin on 'Reality'. Many customers internalize, mistakingly accept the fantasy (greed here). Once on that path, often visual examples are pieced and schemed together. Our mind depends on healthy material as much as the rest of our body. REQUIRE visual Media Products to SHOW the REALITY of PRODUCTION TECHNIQUES and MACHINERY at the End to Illustrate that it is a Business production??? Also, VISUAL PRODUCTS should be LABELED as FICTON, with WARNINGS that negative/dangerous behavior should not to be copied(advertisements do that).

[Leon Stark]

11:57 PM on 02/07/2012

Part of the problem is that most of the United States media (radio, television, movies) are corporate owned, and themselves have no connections to reality. There are two University Studies, Fairleigh Dickinson and University of Maryland, that have determined that people getting their news from Fox News (FAUX NOISE?) are LESS informed than watching no news at all. And there are a lot of them. Even "The Daily Show" watchers were better informed than Fox News watchers. The Sunday News and entertainment show viewers were the best informed, followed closely by NPR/PBS viewers.

We are being made more insane by cutting education and pouring ALL OUR MONEY into fraudulent "banksters" and the Military. And they claim to be "Pro-Life? A note from George Carlin ...

http://front.moveon.org/what-george-carlin-knew-about-the-pro-life-movement/

And another opinion on the "banksters" ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXpSqce2OdM

[msm0207]

12:46 AM on 02/08/2012

Let me guess, George Soros funded the research? You guys are silly. Anyone can pay for any study. Since the liberals are so enamored with the liberal college professors, of course they push a lot of this. Presidential historian. Hmmm.

Then to justify your information, you bring up old nasty George Carlin. Where's Lenny Bruce. Shouldn't be surprised when the failed comedians of today are "pundits" on politics.

[Wake Up Call]

04:40 AM on 02/08/2012

Leon - the only solution is one of a personal nature. Get your things together and leave the USA. There are growing communities of us expat Americans throughout Europe and Asia. None of us are ever going back.