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Rare Books Stolen From Ex-MoMA President’s Home Recovered After Nearly 40 Years

Artnet News·Vittoria Benzine·about 1 month ago
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Today, the Antiquities Trafficking Unit from the office of Manhattan District Attorney Alfred Bragg Jr. will formally return 17 rare, stolen books valued at over $2 million to their rightful owners—the descendants of the former president of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) John Hay Whitney and his second wife, philanthropist Betsey Cushing Whitney . According to press materials from the D.A., the relics within this long-lost trove include a first edition copy of Aleister Crowley ’s erotic poetry compilation, which is estimated to be worth approximately $6,000, as well as a signed, first-edition copy of James Joyce ’s 1905 experimental novel Finnegan’s Wake (est. $6,000), and four letters from Oscar Wilde excluded from the author’s masterful book-length piece of correspondence, De Profundis (1905) (est. $2,000).…

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