At the request of the ILAB Committee, Munich-based auction house Zisska & Lacher (formerly Zisska & Schauer) has provided a list of the books confiscated or withdrawn from their auction No. 59 (May 2012) as material suspected of having been taken illegally from the Girolamini library.
Because the computer belonging to the firm’s former manager Herbert Schauer has been confiscated by the Bavarian police, no electronic copy of this list was available and Zisska & Lacher could only provide a hard-paper copy. ILAB has scanned and created a SEARCHABLE PDF document from the approx. 80-page list received from the auction house.
A copy of the list may be found here (the file is 6MB – be patient in downloading):
This list is divided into three parts:
1. A short list of books confiscated by the authorities prior to the auction.
2. Approx. 50 to 60 items not included in auction 59 for unknown reasons.
3. Some 430+ lots with detailed descriptions of the books withdrawn from auction 59.
ILLUSTRATIONS OF LOTS
Zisska & Lacher has also provided ILAB with a file of illustrations of the catalogued lots of auction 59. The effort and cost to match these illustrations to this list would be prohibitive; however, the ILAB Committee will gladly forward the file to those who need to see it. Contact secretariat@ilab.org if you need a copy of the illustration file.
ACTION TO TAKE
The ILAB Committee believes it important that booksellers examine this PDF document in hopes of avoiding the difficulties faced by a colleague who was arrested (and released the same day) for dealing in books with simply the same titles as items missing from Girolamini. ILAB strongly urges colleagues who possess comparable copies of any of the titles withdrawn by Zisska & Schauer from auction No. 59 in 2012 to have all relevant documentation of ownership (purchase date, seller information, etc.) in their files on the item.