Seventeen rare books, valued at over $2 million and stolen nearly 40 years ago from the Long Island estate of former Museum of Modern Art president John Hay Whitney, have been recovered and will be returned to his descendants. The trove includes a $2 million portfolio of handwritten letters from poet John Keats and first editions of works by James Joyce and Aleister Crowley.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin L. Bragg, Jr., has returned 17 rare books, collectively valued at nearly $3 million, to the heirs of John Hay and Betsey Cushing Whitney. The books were stolen from the couple's Long Island estate in the 1980s and include a bound collection of John Keats's love letters, a signed James Joyce volume, and an illustrated Brothers Grimm book. The recovery followed a tip from Manhattan book dealers in 2015, leading to search warrants executed in 2025 and 2026.
A collection of 27 original woodblocks hand-carved by British artists Eric Ravilious and Tirzah Garwood, dating from 1930 to 1950, was rescued from an eBay sale through collaboration between the artists' heirs and the Art Loss Register (ALR). The blocks, believed missing or stolen since the 1950s, were listed on eBay last summer, prompting the family—including daughter Anne Ullman and granddaughter Ella Ravilious—to contact the ALR to halt the sale. The blocks have now been catalogued and split between The Fry Art Gallery in Suffolk and Towner Eastbourne, where they are on public display.