A 25-year-old builder has been collared for stealing a 300 year-old book of historic records from a Cathedral and trying to sell it online for 10,000 GBP.
These pictures show the massive book, which weighs four kilogrammes (8.8 lbs) and is said to be worth 11,000 EUR (9,500 GBP).
Video Credit: CEN
The online listing gave a detailed and accurate description of the book and said it was for sale at a price of 50,000 PLN (10,000 GBP).
Cops in the city of Szczecin, in north-western Poland’s West Pomeranian Voivodeship region, arrested the man and seized the archive following a tip-off that somebody was trying to sell the book on an internet portal.
The suspect, who has not been named, had been living in the German town of Frankfurt (Oder), in the north-eastern German state of Brandenburg, from where he had been carrying out casual work in Berlin.
He allegedly stole the book, which contains records for the Brandenburg parish of Schwedt between the years of 1700 and 1909, during a visit to Berlin Cathedral, which stands on Museum Island in the city’s Mitte district, in January.
Police tracked the would-be seller to an undisclosed address in Szczecin, Poland where he was arrested. Prosecutors from the Department for Cybercrime and Modern Detection Technologies later charged him with the theft of a historic monument.
The man, who has been detained in police custody for an initial period of three months ahead of his trial, also faces charges of crimes against property.
The book, which contains several hundred historical documents, is expected to be returned to Berlin Cathedral in due course.
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Story By: Bartosz Staszewski, Sub-Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Central European News
