Stolen Shakespeare folio is to go on show

Dec 15 2010 by Neil McKay, The Journal

A RARE Shakespeare First Folio stolen from Durham University 12 years ago will go on public display next month for the first time since its theft.

The 17th-Century Folio will form the centrepiece of a new exhibition – The Treasures of Durham University – which will open to the public at the university’s Palace Green Library on January 15.

The exhibition, which will also include a number of other university treasures and manuscripts, is the inaugural exhibition in the new Wolfson Gallery, which has undergone a £2.3m refurbishment, funded in part by a £500,000 donation from the Wolfson Foundation.

The star exhibit will be the First Folio, which was stolen while on display in Palace Green Library in December 1998.

It was returned to the university in the summer of 2010 following the conviction of Raymond Scott, of Wingate, County Durham, for handling stolen goods and removing stolen property from the UK.

The book, which has an estimated value of £1.5m, is the first collected edition of Shakespeare’s plays and is thought to be one of around 230 in existence.

Published in 1623, it was acquired by John Cosin, former Bishop of Durham, and was part of the library he established in Durham in 1669.

The Folio will be on display until March 2011 when it will be conserved by Durham University, which employs some of the UK’s expert conservators of rare books.

Alongside the Folio will be displays outlining its standing in English literature and the story of its theft and subsequent return to the university. Bill Bryson, chancellor of Durham University and author of an acclaimed book on Shakespeare, has agreed to be the exhibition’s guest curator.

He said: “It is a tremendous thrill to have the Shakespeare First Folio back in Durham.

“This book is clearly one of the most important in the English language and I look forward to seeing this national treasure on public display once again, alongside the many other fabulous treasures of Durham University.”

Other university treasures on display will include first editions of classic novels Oliver Twist and Pride and Prejudice, a first edition dictionary of the English Language by Samuel Johnson and a leaf of a Bede manuscript written in the ninth century.

Sheila Hingley, head of Heritage Collections at Durham University, said: “The university began around Palace Green but the public have only had access to the cathedral and the castle.

“Now they have another first class attraction were we can showcase some of the university’s many treasures. Until now there has been nowhere with the necessary facilities to stage such an exhibition, to bring these treasures under one roof.”

The Treasures of Durham University exhibition is being held in the Wolfson Gallery, Palace Green Library, Durham, from January 15 until March 6.