Forbes Smiley

Edward Forbes Smiley III (born April 13, 1956) is a convicted American art thief. He was born in Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, and graduated from The Derryfield School in Manchester, New Hampshire. He was found guilty in 2006 of stealing 97 rare maps originally valued at more than US$3 million and sentenced to 42 months in prison.

Early career

Formerly a dealer in early and rare maps of the world and North America, Smiley was instrumental in building up two major collections that were subsequently donated to research libraries: the Lawrence H. Slaughter collection now in the New York Public Library and the Norman B. Leventhal Collection at the Boston Public Library.

Thefts and arrest

On 8 June 2005, the discovery of an X-Acto blade on the floor of the reading room in the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University led to his arrest. Although three maps on his person matched those missing from books he had just examined in the Beinecke, he protested his innocence. It was not until his court appearance a year later (22 June 2006) that he confessed to having stolen a total of 97 maps from six institutions — Boston Public Library, Harvard University (Houghton Library), Newberry Library (in Chicago), New York Public Library (the Rare Book and Map Divisions) and Yale University (Beinecke Library and Sterling Memorial Library) in the United States, as well as the British Library in London. At the time of his arrest the British Library had already identified him as a suspect and was about to call in the police. Smiley originally said he had been stealing maps for approximately seven years but later reduced that figure to four years.