A Moscow tenant faced a surprising loss when a large personal library, accumulated over decades, seemingly vanished from a rental apartment. An elderly resident, who had spent a lifetime building a home library, arranged for storage of his collection when he decided to rent out the apartment. The 64-year-old retiree noticed the disappearance of a substantial portion of his books shortly after a tenant who had occupied the space for nearly a year moved out.
When the pensioner reached out to the former tenant to recover the stolen property, the man pointed to a friend who had reportedly lived with him for a period as the possible thief. He refused to share the friend’s contact details, and soon after, he stopped answering calls altogether. The missing volumes are believed to still be in the hands of the person who took them, though the investigation has not yet confirmed the exact culprits.
Witnesses say the original library was extensive, and the victim, alongside the landlord, began to rebuild the collection through purchases of second-hand volumes. The total value of the library allegedly reached about 2 million rubles, growing to around four thousand volumes as the owners and their acquaintances sought to reconstitute the once-prized assortment.
In a separate case reported in January from Salekhard, a resident presented an enormous home library for sale, reportedly comprising as many as 64,000 books. The seller asked for 2.5 million rubles for the substantial collection, highlighting how households across different regions and price ranges value extensive bibliographic holdings and the challenges that can follow in distinguishing legitimate acquisitions from potentially stolen items.