In France, Six Georgians Sentenced for Their Love of Russian Classics
In France, a court has sentenced six Georgian citizens, finding them guilty of organizing the theft of rare editions of Russian classical literature from European libraries. The group's members received sentences of up to seven years in prison, writes Deutsche Welle .
Forgeries of original editions, displayed in the Warsaw University Library. Photo: Wojtek Radwanski/AFP/Getty Images
The perpetrators operated according to a pre-developed scheme: they stole valuable antique books, leaving high-quality forgeries in their place. Among the stolen editions were works by Alexander Pushkin, Mikhail Lermontov, and Nikolai Gogol. According to investigators' estimates, the total value of the stolen books amounted to several million euros.
Two of the accused were sentenced in absentia, as they were detained in Georgia, which does not extradite its citizens to other countries. Two others — Mikheil Zamtardze and Beka Tsirekidze — had previously received sentences in Lithuania and Estonia for similar crimes. The French court added new terms to their sentences.
The most severe sentence was given to 50-year-old Mikheil Zamtardze — seven years in prison and a lifelong ban from entering France. He had previously been convicted in Lithuania for stealing 19th-century books valued at over 600,000 euros.
Prosecutors noted that the thefts were well-organized and carried out with extensive preparation and cynicism. This trial was one of the latest in a series of investigations related to large-scale thefts of rare books from libraries in various European countries. According to the investigation, an international organized network, likely with ties to Russia, could have been behind these crimes.