‘Operation Pushkin’: Paris Trial Puts Spotlight on Rare-Book Heists

The latest chapter in the saga of an international book heist that stripped prominent libraries across Europe of more than 170 rare Russian literary works is being written in a Paris courtroom this week.

Alexander Pushkin, the 19th-century poet and novelist considered the father of modern Russian literature, is a main character. Most of the thefts targeted his works — worth nearly $3 million in total — from libraries in the Czech Republic, Estonia, France, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Poland and Switzerland.

The other characters have a less literary pedigree. They are six Georgian defendants standing trial, most unnamed by the French authorities, on accusations of conspiracy and theft.

European law enforcement authorities believe they are part of a wider network of family members and associates who traveled Europe by bus, with fake identities and falsified library cards, for about two years. They were seeking out rare editions of Russian manuscripts to study, photograph — and replace with fakes.

The French authorities accuse the defendants of stealing and conspiring to steal rare works of cultural and historical value, many by Pushkin, from several libraries, including the National Library of France. Their trial follows a European law enforcement sting in 2024 that swept up several Georgians believed to be connected to the thefts, and led to the arrest of about six others.

The crimes stunned librarians, bibliophiles and prosecutors alike because of their scale, the prominence of the libraries targeted and the near-singular focus of the suspects. The investigation became known as “Operation Pushkin.”

The thieves used different background stories, giving various reasons for their interest in rare Russian books, according to a law enforcement arm of the European Union, the Agency for Criminal Justice Cooperation. They often worked in pairs, with one distracting librarians while the other replaced the original work with a copy, usually after multiple visits.

The thefts began around the spring of 2022, shortly after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, when Russia’s leaders were using Pushkin to promote both their war and their culture.

At the time, Ukrainians were calling for the removal of Pushkin monuments in their country, where hundreds of streets had been named after the writer. (Pushkin spent a year in Odesa after the czar banished him from St. Petersburg.) In the aftermath of the 2022 invasion, many Ukrainians viewed him as a symbol of Russian aggression past and present.

The thefts continued for nearly two years, until librarians caught on to the strange coincidence of first- and early-edition Pushkin books going missing across Europe. They alerted the police to what appeared to be an organized effort to target Russian works, perhaps to repatriate them either as part of a shadow operation for a discerning Russian dealer, for the Kremlin, or both.

The crimes in France took place in 2023 at the Diderot Library of the École Normale Supérieure in Lyon, the University Library of Languages and Civilizations in Paris and at the national library. A special police unit dedicated to fighting cultural theft oversaw the French investigation, coordinating with other European agencies.

Investigators said that over about seven months in 2023, one of the defendants on trial in France, Mikheil Zamtaradze, went to the French national library about 40 times, mainly seeking works by Pushkin. He claimed to be researching democracy in 19th-century Russian literature.

Librarians later discovered that nine books, worth about $750,000, had been replaced with copies.

Last year, Mr. Zamtaradze was sentenced to more than three years in a Lithuanian prison for stealing books worth about $700,000.

A co-defendant in France, Beqa Tsirekidze, has also already been convicted elsewhere of similar offenses. He was sentenced to about three years in prison in Estonia, and also did time in Latvia in connection with the book thefts.

Mr. Tsirekidze has said that he was dealing in antique books since 2008, selling mostly to Russians. In 2016, he was convicted in Georgia for stealing first editions of early 20th-century Russian works from a museum. The conviction was later expunged.

The defendants deny being connected with one another, or working on behalf of someone else. But Russian literature experts and investigators say that the nature of the crimes strongly suggests both a link and direction from someone steeped in the subject matter.

Who that might be is one of the remaining mysteries. Another, namely, is where are the books?

Among wealthy Russian collectors, there is high demand for early editions of works not just by Pushkin bit also by Mikhail Lermontov and Nikolai Gogol (a writer whose Ukrainian origin has also kindled conflicting feelings).

“There’s currently a serious competition for good pieces,” Sergey Burmistrov, who leads the Russian auction house Litfond, wrote about the book thefts in Forbes in 2024. Pushkins, he said, are particularly valued.

But Mr. Burmistrov dismissed the notion of a “special operation to smuggle Russian books out of Europe.” He suggested that the thieves had been simply taking advantage of the “persistent demand for Russian classics” and the lack of security in European book collections dedicated to Russian literature.

If convicted, the defendants face up to 10 years in prison.