News & Updates
ILAB Booksellers Help Recover Stolen Keats Letters valued at $2 million
Image above by Sunday Steinkirchner, taken at the official press conference by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Antiquities Trafficking Unit in NYC on 20 April 2026
Covered widely in the New York Times, The Guardian, the BBC, and other media outlets, the story is a striking reminder of the important role antiquarian booksellers play in protecting cultural heritage.
At the centre of this recovery are two ILAB-affiliated booksellers: Sunday Steinkirchner and Joshua Mann of B&B Rare Books in New York.
The case began when a man entered their Madison Avenue shop in January 2025, carrying a number of books, among them a leather-bound volume containing what appeared to be original letters from Keats to Fanny Brawne.
As Joshua Mann later noted, something about the seller raised concern. Rather than declining the offer outright, risking the disappearance of the material, Mann and Steinkirchner made a deliberate decision: they retained the book for further investigation, carefully navigating the situation while avoiding alerting the seller.
What followed was a process of research, consultation with experts and ultimately cooperation with law enforcement.
Recognising the potential significance of the volume, Mann and Steinkirchner placed it securely and began verifying its authenticity and provenance. They consulted leading scholars, including a specialist in Keats’s manuscripts, who was able to confirm the handwriting.
At the same time, they pursued provenance and stolen book research through available databases, eventually identifying the volume as part of a group of books reported missing in the Art Loss Register in 1989 from the Whitney family’s Greentree estate on Long Island.
With this information in hand, they worked closely with the Manhattan District Attorney’s Antiquities Trafficking Unit, enabling the recovery not only of the Keats volume but of a total of 17 stolen books.
The letters in questions are eight original handwritten letters from the Romantic poet John Keats to his muse, Fanny Brawne, including the first letter he ever wrote to Brawne, dated between 1819 and 1820. Valued at approximately $2m, the 37 letters in total are held in a gilt morocco-bound portfolio. Brawne was Keats’s neighbour in Hampstead, London, with whom he fell deeply in love, elevating her in his imagination to muse and goddess.
Sunday Steinkirchner reflects: “We are delighted to have been part of this recovery and to contribute to the protection of such important cultural heritage. It has been a privilege to help return these objects to their rightful owners and to play a role in safeguarding the historical record for future generations.”
The successful outcome was publicly acknowledged by the Manhattan District Attorney, who noted that the recovery would not have been possible without the actions of the booksellers.
For ILAB and its members, this case underscores a broader principle. The antiquarian book trade is not only about the circulation of rare material, it is also about its stewardship.
The recovery of the Keats letters demonstrates how dealers, scholars, and law enforcement can work together effectively when expertise and integrity guide the process. It is a powerful example of the role the trade continues to play in safeguarding the documentary heritage that passes through its hands.
The material has now been returned to its rightful owners.
In the News:
Further information
To research missing and stolen objects, please consult the “ILAB Missing Books Register” here: https://missingbooksregister.org/
Or access the recently published “ILAB Provenance Research Guide for Antiquarian Booksellers” for further available databases here: https://ilab.org/assets/documents/ILAB-Provenance-Research-Checklist-for-Antiquarian-Booksellers.pdf
In case of detecting any suspicious behaviour or material, consult a national antiquarian booksellers association https://ilab.org/page/associations or the ILAB Secretariat: secretariat@ilab.org