Ferrari-loving book dealer arrested after 10-year hunt for £15m Shakespeare manuscript



An eccentric book dealer was being questioned last night in connection with a stolen Shakespeare manuscript worth up to £15million.

Raymond Scott, 51, was arrested at the semi-detached home he shares with his elderly mother in connection with the disappearance of the 17th-century treasure.

Regarded as the most important printed work in English, Shakespeare's First Folio was among several items of astonishing rarity snatched ten years ago from Durham University library in an audacious daytime raid.



The cover and frontispiece of the stolen William Shakespeare's Comedies, Histories & Tragedies first folio, published in 1623

At the time, police suspected an international gang of art thieves and launched a global investigation involving the FBI and specialist art detectives.



But yesterday they dramatically announced the hunt for the 'irreplaceable' book was over - as details emerged about Mr Scott's extraordinary life on a run-down housing estate in Washington, Tyne and Wear.





As he was taken away for questioning, neighbours painted a bizarre picture of him emerging from his home in a silk dressing gown and wrap-around sunglasses to iron the seats of his yellow Ferrari - before taking a bus into town to do his shopping.

When not at home with his 80-year-old mother Hannah, Mr Scott travelled the world and wore Armani suits. He was described as 'wacky' and ' harmless' and neighbours said they could not believe he had anything to do with the Shakespeare theft.

But police are investigating whether the snatched treasure, rather than being touted around underworld art markets in far-flung corners of the world, had been hidden in Britain all along.

Shakespeare's First Folio - printed in 1623, seven years after his death - is the definitive anthology on which all subsequent collections are based.



Yellow Ferrari: Raymond Scott would polish his car and then take the bus instead

The goatskin-bound edition, in near-perfect condition, was stolen in December 1998 from an exhibition at Durham University library.

Also taken were an ancient handwritten New Testament and other treasures of early English literature including an edition of Beowulf, a 14th-century manucript containing a fragment of a poem by Canterbury Tales author Geoffrey Chaucer, and two works by the 10th century scholar Aelfric, printed in 1566.

The thief or thieves had breezed into the library reading room during opening hours and waited for a quiet moment to jemmy open two glass cabinets.

Staff did not even notice the books were missing at first because the cabinets were covered with cloths to protect them from light. Police feared the ancient books had been snatched to order and spirited out of the country.

Two weeks ago, police in Durham were alerted by the British Embassy in Washington after a man walked into the Folger Shakespeare Library with the folio and asked them to verify it was genuine.

According to police sources, the man returned a day later bearing gifts of cigars and cakes for the staff and asked whether they had had been successful. They are said to have replied that it would take another fortnight - then contacted the FBI.

A police spokesman said: 'It is understood he told staff he was an international businessman who had bought the folio in Cuba and agreed to leave it with the library for research to be carried out. Their checks revealed it as the one stolen from Durham.'

Bill Bryson, the university's chancellor and author of an acclaimed book on Shakespeare, said: 'This is not only wonderful news for Durham University, but for all Shakespeare's scholars and fans around the world.'

The vice-chancellor, Professor Chris Higgins, said: 'Staff and the community felt a huge sense of loss when the books were stolen, so you can imagine my delight when I received the call to say the First Folio had been found.

'Our security has been enhanced to the highest standards since the theft and we are confident the First Folio will be safe when it arrives back in Durham. We also very much hope that the other books stolen at the same time will be found soon.'

Detective Superintendent Andy Reddick, who is coordinating the inquiry, said the Shakespeare edition remained in the safe care of the Folger Library. Officers in the inquiry were said to have discovered a large number of old books.

A neighbour of Mr Scott, Tara Etemadi, a 26-year-old cashier, said he was 6ft, dark-haired and well-groomed. He drove a new car every year - Lamborghinis, a Rolls-Royce, an Aston Martin and now the Ferrari.

Mr Scott was born in South Shields in 1957 and is believed never to have married. He ran a bookshop in Newcastle with his father, also called Raymond, until Mr Scott senior died in January

Another neighbour, Tony Armitage, 45, said: 'When his father died after a long battle with Alzheimer's, he asked us across for a drink. I remember that there were books all over the place.

'The spare room was full from the floor to the ceiling with them, and so was the storage cupboard beneath the staircase.'







385-year history of 'Actor's Bible'

The First Folio, entitled 'Mr William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies' is the first published collection of the playwright's complete works.

The 36 plays in the folio were prepared by Shakespeare's colleagues John Heminges and Henry Condell in 1623, about seven years after his death.

It is believed that around 1,000 copies of the First Folio were printed. There are 228 still in existence of which only 40 are complete. The British Library has five copies while the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington D.C. holds the world's largest collection with 79. A complete copy of the First Folio was auctioned at Sotheby's auction house in July 2006. The book, which was in its original 17th-century binding, sold for £2.5million.

Today, the First Folio - despite its variant forms and occasional inconsistencies - is widely known as the 'Actor's Bible'.

Some Shakespeare directors choose to use the folio because they believe that modern editions of his plays are heavily edited and have been changed from the original to make them more readable.

No comments are permitted on this story as legal proceedings are underway.