Notesale: Turn your study into money

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Fabiana Alvarez
SS- Map theft
7/22/13

Essay #2

The stolen treasures of history



Maps were and will forever be treasures to one’s nation because of their deep
meaning that goes beyond just a piece of paper
...
Like Gilbert Bland, there
were people that were willing to do what it took in order to have one of these on
their own hands
...
They can go from
either the need of an economic resource to just a casual theft
...
In this paper the motivations
will be explained as well as the reasons why maps are so important to both the
collectors and thieves
...
The first reason is in view of the fact that we know he
cared more than usual for these antiquities and then; the second one, is because he
was a great dealer of those maps he stole
...



1 Miles Harvey, The island of lost maps, (New York: Random house, 2001), chap
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2 Miles Harvey, The island of lost maps, (New York: Random house, 2001), chap
...


 As previously stated, maps were, are and will forever be a really valuable piece of
art
...
Also, having a map in
one’s hand meant having the world in them
...
For example when the Portuguese
were able to control the Indies just because they controlled the maps5
...

For years, the stealing of these valuable artworks was considered a threat to every
museum or library
...
Additionally, in the case of
the modern-day map thieves there are other, more obvious reasons
...
These two reasons are consequences of the lack of knowledge in the
society about stolen maps
...
Also, to most societies or governments,
the stealing of maps can be unimportant, irrelevant or insignificant
...
7
...
7
...

6 Miles Harvey, The island of lost maps, (New York: Random house, 2001), chap
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7 Miles Harvey, The island of lost maps, (New York: Random house, 2001), chap
...


criminals8
...

On the other hand, there are the motivations that drove Gilbert Bland, to commit
such a crime, such as stealing nearly 250 maps in his lifetime
...
He said he was going to take better
care of them than a librarian ever would9
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Gilbert felt the need to
posses these treasures and to have them under his exclusive care
...
Then, another important reason why Bland was
motivated to commit these crimes is the stealing for profit
...
In consequence, the
selling of these stolen objects in the market will provide high incomes to their seller
...
When it comes to the tracking of a stolen map, it is less likely to be done because
they are often sold as other kinds of strange materials and by this, they fall outside
the system of security10
...
11


8 Miles Harvey, The island of lost maps, (New York: Random house, 2001), chap
...

9 Miles Harvey , The island of lost maps, (New York: Random house, 2001), xviii
...

11 Miles Harvey, The island of lost maps, (New York: Random house, 2001), chap
...


 In conclusion, maps are truly a valuable piece of a nation’s history
...
Thieves as Gilbert Bland
driven by their obsession or need to own them have stolen these valuable
antiquities from libraries or museums
...
They go from stealing for
profit to having any deep and sentimental connection to the artifacts12
...
They
contain beautiful and deep meanings as well as explanations about mysteries of the
world
...
The stealing of these, means more
than just the loss of a big amount of money, it means the loss of history of a country
or sometimes of humanity
...




Bibliography

•

Harvey , Miles
...
New York: Random house, 2001

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