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Greg Priore

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Greg Priore (1956-present)
Many biblioklepts steal for pleasure, others out of greed; yet others, such as Greg Priore, steal out of necessity. Though Priore did not live an opulent lifestyle, he was deep in debt and juggling private school tuition for four children. A desperate man, he quickly realized his position as rare-book librarian at the Carnegie Library in Pittsburgh provided him the perfect opportunity to make some extra cash. Beginning in 1992, Priore used his position to steal almost everything of significant value in the library. After slipping books out of the library, Priore would hand them off to a local rare books dealer, John Schulman, who would make the books ready for sale and turn the theft into profit. Eventually, in 2016, an audit of the rare book collection exposed Priore’s crimes, and he pled guilty to theft. However, the audit came too late. Over the course of 25 years, Priore had stolen over eight million dollars’ worth of rare books and antiquities, making his theft the largest from an American library in decades.

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Many biblioklepts steal for pleasure, others out of greed; yet others, such as Greg Priore, steal out of necessity. Though Priore did not live an opulent lifestyle, he was deep in debt and juggling private school tuition for four children. A desperate man, he quickly realized his position as rare-book librarian at the Carnegie Library in Pittsburgh provided him the perfect opportunity to make some extra cash. Beginning in 1992, Priore used his position to steal almost everything of significant value in the library. After slipping books out of the library, Priore would hand them off to a local rare books dealer, John Schulman, who would make the books ready for sale and turn the theft into profit. Eventually, in 2016, an audit of the rare book collection exposed Priore’s crimes, and he pled guilty to theft. However, the audit came too late. Over the course of 25 years, Priore had stolen over eight million dollars’ worth of rare books and antiquities, making his theft the largest from an American library in decades.

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“Greg Priore,” Creighton University Libraries: Archives & Special Collections, accessed January 15, 2025, https://creightonarchives.omeka.net/items/show/204.

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