Forbes Smiley

Who is Forbes Smiley?

Edward Forbes Smiley III is a convicted art thief. Formerly a collector of early and rare maps of the world and North America, Smiley was instrumental in building up two major collections that were subsequently donated to research libraries: the Lawrence H. Slaughter collection now in the New York Public Library and the Norman B. Leventhal Collection at the Boston Public Library. His knowledge, charm and charitable activities gained him the trust of several librarians and, in some cases, unsupervised access to their collections. He was found guilty in 2006 of stealing 97 rare maps originally valued at more than US$3 million.