Overview
- Manhattan prosecutors seized a bound volume of eight John Keats letters and 16 other rare books from the Whitney collection and returned all 17 to a family descendant.
- A would-be consignor brought the Keats book to B&B Rare Books in 2025, which triggered checks of the Art Loss Register, a database used to flag stolen works.
- Shop owners Joshua Mann and Sunday Steinkirchner secured the volume and consulted Princeton scholar Susan J. Wolfson, who authenticated Keats’s handwriting in the love letters to Fanny Brawne.
- Authorities say the seller, who said he inherited the books, agreed to relinquish them, and investigators have not identified anyone responsible for the 1980s thefts.
- Officials value the Keats volume at about $2 million and the full recovery near $3 million, and the Whitneys plan to auction the books and donate the proceeds to their family foundation.