Oh yes -- 75,000 dollars' worth of books, manuscripts and documents all gone on the black market or through auction houses on the continent. Some of the books probably taken apart and the leaves sold separately, and if so, just as impossible to recover as if they had burned to cinders. And it all went on for YEARS.
I seem to recall a footnote in "Whose body?" or some other DLS novel not in my possession, where Lord Peter carelessly refers to "coming across" some priceless work or other in a village among the Italian hills. That did sound just a bit on the shady side IMO. (In this case, I actually didn't mean for Peter himself to have nicked it.)
Then again, I can understand liberating a book from a shelf in order to love and cherish it, not to have it butchered to pay for sports cars, made-to-measure suits and handmade shoes. The former merits a stern "Ook" and a wagging finger, the latter should be cause enough for people to have their arms ripped off by irate orang-utans.
no subject
I seem to recall a footnote in "Whose body?" or some other DLS novel not in my possession, where Lord Peter carelessly refers to "coming across" some priceless work or other in a village among the Italian hills. That did sound just a bit on the shady side IMO. (In this case, I actually didn't mean for Peter himself to have nicked it.)
Then again, I can understand liberating a book from a shelf in order to love and cherish it, not to have it butchered to pay for sports cars, made-to-measure suits and handmade shoes. The former merits a stern "Ook" and a wagging finger, the latter should be cause enough for people to have their arms ripped off by irate orang-utans.