Rare books feared a target by theft ring

At least one local rare book expert believes religious texts, specifically first edition copies of the Book of Mormon, are being sought out by thieves to steal and that additional thefts are possible.

"My gut instinct is, someone or some gang of thieves is targeting books (being held in places) with light security," said Ken Sanders, a Salt Lake City rare book dealer and former security expert for the Antiquarian Booksellers' Association of America.

The latest incident was Wednesday when a dozen rare books, including first edition copies of the Book of Mormon, were stolen from the Daughter of the Utah Pioneers' museum.

This is the third incident of rare LDS books being stolen in the past six months.

• Two copies of the Book of Mormon, an 1840 Nauvoo edition and an 1841 Liverpool edition, were stolen from the University of Utah's LDS Institute of Religion in November.

• In February, another 1840 copy of the Book of Mormon was stolen from the Beehive House, a home of former church president Brigham Young.

Sanders said the price of rare books has jumped considerably in recent years. For LDS books, the price increase has been driven by "an increasing base of affluent Mormons who want an artifact of their religion."

But that also has sparked a rise in rare book thefts. And crooks looking for LDS texts will automatically seek a Book of Mormon, he said.

"Book of Mormons are high profile. Whether you're a collector or not, you've heard of the Book of Mormon. To any person of the LDS faith, if you're inclined to collect at all you're going to want the 1840 Book of Mormon. They have become the Holy Grail of Mormon book collecting. They go for increasingly astronomical values," he said. "There is a growing awareness by the public that these books are extremely valuable and easy to sell in this Internet age."

The thieves in Wednesday's burglary "seemed to know right where to go," Sanders said. While not wanting to point a finger at the museum, he noted that, "unfortunately I think the security is lacking."

To prevent any future thefts, Sanders said the museum should invest in an updated security system complete with alarms and cameras. The window the thieves used to break into the museum did not have an alarm wired to it, he said.

Furthermore, he said the most expensive books shouldn't even be in their display cases after dark.