The Hunt for History by Nathan Raab & Luke Barr

Author:Nathan Raab & Luke Barr
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Scribner
Published: 2020-03-09T16:00:00+00:00

* * *

Ascertaining the provenance of historical documents and artifacts starts with knowing whom to trust. In the case of Barry Landau, my instincts for spotting someone who is not whom he represents himself to be served me well. Some people wear their honesty, or lack thereof, on their sleeves. Or, as Winston Churchill brilliantly quipped, “Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing ever happened.”  This man looked as if it had never crossed his path.

We met at a rare-book fair in New York City. He shook my hand enthusiastically. “Barry Landau,” he said, handing me his business card. It identified him as “America’s Presidential Historian,” though I’d never heard his name before. No one else around me had. He was in his sixties and spoke self-importantly about his encounters with Presidents Ford and Nixon; about how he had a great collection of historical documents.

As he talked to me, his bragging put me off, and I attempted to escape the conversation. I noticed he was accompanied by a young associate who was studying the items for sale at our booth and writing down all the prices. Our pieces were locked in a case so he was looking at them through the glass. They were an odd couple: the young man prim and buttoned up, hair slicked back, pen in hand. He looked like a Broadway version of a sailor in white uniform. And the older man posturing, a bit disheveled. Their behavior and demeanor seemed odd, and it wasn’t just me. Midconversation with Landau, Karen stepped away and positioned herself, arms crossed, so that she could keep an eye on both men, acting as a guard. Since she stands just over five feet tall, it’s unclear what she had in mind, but something was just not right and we both felt it instinctively. Landau asked me for my business card, and I explained that I didn’t have one with me and that I never carry them. He chastised me, “What are you doing in this business without a business card?”

I couldn’t get out of that conversation fast enough. He asked for my contact information later and I wouldn’t give it to him.

Fast-forward about a year later: I read that a man had been arrested for stealing documents at the Maryland Historical Society in Baltimore. I looked at the picture and it was the same guy—I recognized the man!

The Wall Street Journal reported:

Mr. Landau and an associate, Jason Savedoff, are awaiting federal trial in Baltimore, accused of conspiring to steal irreplaceable historic documents and sell them for profit. Paul Brachfeld, inspector general of the National Archives and Records Administration, says that of the 10,000 pieces removed from Mr. Landau’s New York home, at least 2,500 of them—potentially worth millions of dollars—were stolen from historical societies, university libraries and other institutions along the East Coast.

Prosecutors said in court that they found in Mr. Landau’s apartment jackets with extra-deep pockets specifically tailored for stashing documents.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.