Forbes Smiley and the maps stolen from libraries
United States and United Kingdom, 2005
This case is a work of fiction. The characters, names, places and events in the game do not portray real people. The account below is a factual summary, based on public sources, of the case that served as inspiration.
Forbes Smiley was a respected dealer in antique maps, consulted by libraries and collectors. In June 2005, a staff member at Yale's Beinecke Library found a utility knife blade on the floor and, on checking the atlases Smiley had consulted, saw that pages were missing.
He admitted to cutting 97 maps from libraries at Yale, Harvard, New York, Boston and London, using his access as a researcher, and selling them to collectors to cover debts. He was sentenced in 2006 to three and a half years in prison; some of the maps were never recovered.
Sources
In the game
The Prague Map
Baroque Library of Saint Norbert, Prague Old Town, 5:40 pm. The Map of Master Jakub, a parchment from 1417 and the oldest plan of the city, has vanished from the reading room display case.
The game borrows the historian of cartography who steals maps from the library that hosts him as a researcher. Characters, crime and outcome are fiction.
