The US returns to Spain a sixteenth century e book that was present in a “suspicious box” | EUROtoday

This Wednesday, the United States repatriated to Spain a sixteenth century mathematical treatise that was intercepted virtually three years in the past in a “suspicious box” together with different specimens in a customs facility in New York, the authorities of the 2 nations reported.

The copy, titled A Brief Summary of the Practice of Arithmetic y printed in 1515 in Valencia by the cleric Juan Andrés, is a part of the Spanish Bibliographic Heritage and was being exported to the United States with out the license that permits it to depart Spain.

The return ceremony passed off on the residence of the Spanish ambassador in Washington, ngeles Moreno Bau, who highlighted that the repatriation “exemplifies the excellent cooperation” between each nations to safeguard cultural heritage and fight its unlawful trafficking.

“Today the symbolism matters more than the real value of the book. We are happy to welcome this great moment of cooperation,” stated Moreno Bau, the primary lady to go the Spanish embassy in Washington.

In the identical ceremony, Katrina W. Berger, govt director of the investigation unit of the Department of Homeland Security (HSI), detailed that the work to recuperate the e book started in November 2021 when US brokers detected a suspicious cargo of historic books to the United States.

Upon bodily inspecting the bundle of books in New York, US brokers realized that two volumes, together with the one repatriated immediately, “looked suspicious” and didn’t have an export license, Berger stated.

One of the components that generated suspicion was that the field of books, coming from South America, had as vacation spot a non-public house in New York, one thing very uncommon for specimens of such historic significance, Ricardo Mayoral, from the worldwide division of HSI, advised EFE.

“The way he left Spain was suspicious, how he arrived in South America, how he arrived in the United States, everything was suspicious. “Nothing was carried out by correct channels,” Mayoral stressed.

Once the volume was detected, the necessary checks were initiated to verify that it was part of the Spanish Bibliographic Heritage and contacts were established between the police forces of both countries to proceed with its repatriation.

The return culminated in today's ceremony, the third since 2013. The United States also repatriated in 2018 a letter written by Christopher Coln that had been stolen from the National Library of Catalonia in Barcelona, ​​and in 2022 two books of Sister Juana Ins de la Cruz.