Completed in 1963, the Beinecke was designed by Gordon Bunshaft of SOM. Sitting at the western end of Yale campus, the square pavers and the grid of the building merge to form a 3D grid in space. As an emerging architect, I spent a couple weeks breaking down the frame geometry, modeling the library, and making an animation to show what it would feel like to ascend the protected inner box (an experience limited to a few staff librarians but now available to my readers).
As a rare map dealer, E Forbes Smiley spent a day in June 2005 poring over the Beinecke’s contents which included a world atlas, compiled by Gerard de Jode and published in Antwerp in 1578, called “Speculum Orbis Terrarum” (“Mirror of the World”); Richard Hakluyt’s “Principall Navigations, Voiages, and Discoveries of the English Nation,” published in London in 1589; Captain John Smith’s “Advertisements for the Unexperienced Planters of New-England, or Anywhere,” published in London in 1631; and Captain Luke Foxe’s “North-West Fox,” published in London in 1635.
The reading room of the Beinecke has a view of a sunken court, which is embellished with large geometric sculptures by Noguchi including a cube standing on one point which according to Noguchi signifies chance. At 11 AM, a staff member found an X-Acto knife lying on the floor of the reading room. She brought the knife to her supervisor, who made a note of the man looking at old maps. Googling, his name which he signed in with at the registrar led her to his map selling website: “Over the past twenty five years, I have operated offices at 16 East 79th Street, New York, galleries at 175 East 57th Street, New York, and a private business on Martha’s Vineyard…. O have built several of the largest collections of American cartographic materials in this country, including the Norman Leventhal Collection of New England maps, and the Lawrence H. Slaughter Collection of English maps and atlases—now at the New York Public Library.”
The supervisor called a colleague at Sterling Library who recognized Smiley as a frequent visiting scholar… and noted some items Smiley had looked at over there had gone recently missing. At this point, Beinecke security was called in. Smiley was now being video recorded. A police detective arrived at 2 PM, and followed Smiley as he left the building at 3 PM. Smiley went to the shop at the Yale Center for British Art before heading back into the museum. At this point, the detective introduced himself and asked Smiley had he just visited the Beinecke, to which Smiley responded yes.
Buonfiglio tracked Smiley as he made his way through New Haven. Smiley went into the shop of the Yale Center for British Art, quickly exited, then doubled back and entered the museum. Buonfiglio followed him in. According to his affidavit, “I then spoke to Smiley and introduced myself. I identified myself as a Police Detective working for Yale University and asked him if he was just at Beinecke Library, when he replied yes. According to the deposition, the detective said, “I then showed Smiley the exacto knife blade that was wrapped in the white tissue and asked if the blade was his. Smiley became very nervous and replied “yes it is I must of dropped it I have a cold.” . . . I then asked Smiley if I might look in his briefcase. Smiley said “of course. At which point, I found what appeared to be rare maps and documents.”
Smiley had seven maps in his possession. The detective asked Smiley to return to the Beinecke with him. There he was confronted by library staff who had found the books Smiley had been looking at were all missing valuable maps. During questioning, Smiley said he had brought his maps to the library to compare the quality of his maps to the library, and that he had bought the maps in London… When he couldn’t provide proof of map purchase, Smiley was arrested and hauled away in handcuffs and charged with attempted theft of hundreds of thousands of dollars with of antique maps.
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| bunshaft in front of his creation |
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| reading room |
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| isamu noguchi sunken court with cube 'chance' sculpture |
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