A judge has sentenced a wealthy US businessman to two years in jail for stealing pages from rare books at venerable British libraries to enhance his own collection. Staff at the British Library in London and Oxford's Bodleian Library believe Farhad Hakimzadeh sneaked a scalpel into the building to surgically remove leaves from books. He used the pilfered pages to replace lower-quality parts of his own copies of the works.
Hakimzadeh, director of an Iranian cultural organisation, targeted books which dealt with European interaction with the Middle East. Some 150 books dating as far back as the 16th century were found damaged. Hakimzadeh admitted 14 counts of theft in May. Judge Peter Ader at London's Wood Green Court sentenced him Friday.