Book investigation enters new chapter

Nov 7 2008 by Jon Tunney, The Journal

A MAN accused of stealing a £15m Shakespeare work has been re-arrested amid fresh evidence. Police yesterday revealed they were questioning Raymond Scott over the alleged theft of the Durham first folio of the Bard’s plays.

The 51-year-old antiques dealer has publicly denied stealing the work, which police believe was taken in 1998 from a library at the city’s famous university.

But detectives re-arrested Mr Scott yesterday – just five days before he was due to answer bail.

The development is the latest in a four-month battle over the ownership of the valuable work, which was sparked when it was taken into a library in Washington DC.

And it followed the transportation of the folio to Durham from the United States a fortnight ago for police to carry out further investigations.

Mr Scott, of Widgeon Close, Washington, maintains his claim that he bought the book legitimately from a contact in Cuba.

And following the transfer of the work to Durham he launched a legal challenge in the city’s county court to have it returned to him within 14 days.

Instead, he was back in a police interviewing room yesterday for a day of questioning by police investigating the origins of the folio.

A Durham Police spokesman said: “A 51-year-old man at the centre of the inquiry into the stolen Shakespeare folio was re-arrested.

“The move follows the discovery of new evidence by detectives involved in the case.”

Mr Scott entered the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington DC in July and asked experts to verify the folio as genuine.

But academics at the centre said they thought the book was that taken from Durham University in 1998.

The antiques dealer was then arrested in a raid at the house he shares with his 80-year-old mother, following a tip-off by the British Embassy in the USA.

Mr Scott says if the folio, which he refers to as the Cuban copy, is returned to him he will auction it and give some of the proceeds to charity.

Despite arriving in Durham last month, the 400-year-old folio has not yet been transferred into the ownership of Durham University.

It is alleged to be one of a number of valuable works stolen from the library in a raid nearly 10 years ago.

Two hand-written manuscripts from the late 14th or early 15th Century were also taken, one bearing an English translation of the New Testament and the other containing a fragment of a poem by Chaucer.

Books stolen included a first edition of Beowulf and two works by the 10th Century scholar Aelfric, one printed in 1566 and the other in 1709.

They were among more than 50 works on public display in two rooms of the library charting the progress of English literature from the Middle Ages to the 20th Century.

Speaking after the Shakespeare folio arrived from America, a Durham Police spokesman said: “As far as we are concerned, the folio believed to have been stolen from Durham University 10 years ago was brought from America to the North East.

“It remains under lock and key and continues to be the subject of a criminal investigation.”