National Archives' treasures targeted by thieves

Bob Simon: You're talking sting operations?

Paul Brachfeld: Yes.

Bob Simon: Have you been successful with sting operations?

Paul Brachfeld: Yes. We ask our sentinels, historians and collectors and dealers, to help us. We go where a lot of federal employees usually aren't welcome. We'll go to gun shows, we'll go to dealer shows.

Like the Civil War collector's fair in Gettysburg, Penn. Here hundreds of dealers and thousands of visitors show up every year to meander. And to buy. Many documents -- including a few signed by Ulysses Grant and Robert E. Lee are for sale. Have any of them been stolen from archives or museums? That's what Archival Recovery Team agents Kelly Maltagliati and Mitch Yockelson are looking for.

Bob Simon: What would you be happiest to find?

Mitch Yockelson: We're missing the Wright Brothers patent. That would thrill me to no end to recover the patent for the Flying Machine of 1903.

Bob Simon: When did it disappear?

Mitch Yockelson: We don't even know. We discovered it was missing around 2003 when a staff member had wanted to pull it for an exhibit commemorating the centennial.

Also missing, the bombing maps of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. So where do these things end up?

Rod Rosenstein: In foreign countries, for example in Eastern Europe, there is a market - a black market - for American historical documents

Bob Simon: How do these black markets function and where are they?

Rod Rosenstein: I think it's like any illegal market anywhere in the world. If you know of somebody who has a lot of money and wants to collect significant, unique items and you make that connection, then you may well be able to make the sale.

But Barry Landau has been put out of business. This summer, he was sentenced to seven years in prison. And that's not all.

Rod Rosenstein: Even after Mr. Landau is released from prison , he will be prohibited from visiting museums, libraries, or any other places where documents are deposited.

One after effect of the Landau case is that security is being tightened in many of these places. Pat Anderson is imposing new rules in the Maryland Historical Society.

Pat Anderson: Our patrons are no longer allowed to wear jackets in the reading room. And it's unfortunate, some of our older patrons, they get chilly and we have to say "I'm sorry" and so they can wear a shawl but they can't wear jackets, so...(laughs)

Bob Simon: You're going to have to hand out blankets.

Pat Anderson: Well exactly and hope they don't have pockets in them.

Bob Simon: Yeah (laugh)

And Ms. Anderson will not just be hoping. She'll be there on the front lines guarding our past.

Bob Simon: You are the custodians of more than these documents - you're sort of the custodians of American history.

Pat Anderson: Yes we are. We're the stewards. We make sure it gets from one generation to the next. You know, this is what survives of the American past. We never have all of it which is what makes what survives so much more important. These things don't belong to us. They belong to the American people.

• « Previous Page
• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4

[elizabetpeel]

First show I have seen in some time where 60 Minutes sounded like 60 Minutes!! Great show!

[ssporleder]

Why aren't these schmucks behind bars for essentially stealing our history?...............How did Currie get to remove items and take them home without any problem?

[reporter8601]

Kudos to 60 minutes for correcting an error in this story. In the trailer posted on Friday, The Archives Inspector General is introduced as "Former Secret Service Agent Paul Brachfeld." Paul Brachfeld was never a Secret Service Agent. In the version that aired, this error was corrected and he was introduced as "Former Secret Service employee Paul Brachfeld." Is this important? It is to the Special Agents and Uniformed Officers of the Secret Service who put their lives on the line every day.

[reporter8601]

Archives Inspector General Brachfeld's lust for personal glory destroyed the team that conducted the investigation described in this episode. His efforts to enable this 60 minutes episode damaged the investigation and did irreparable damage to his offices ability to conduct future investigations. 60 minutes has nothing to be proud of here.

[basement-hoard]

To me it is both humorous and somewhat shocking that the Inspector General for the recovery of missing National Archives items found Landau's "deep pocket" wardrobe "fascinating". The esteemed IG apparently never heard of a common shop-lifter's basic tool-the booster coat!

[realcocoa]

These factory owners should invest more in Americans and less in their own pocket. Who do you think buys your products???? Maybe the fact you keep laying us off is the reason you are not selling that many products and oh yes, "note to self" NEVER BUY SMANKS". nOT IMPROTANT THAT I KNOW HOW TO SPELL SINCE I WILL NEVER BUY IT!!!

[ttipbc]

What the h&ll are you talking about? Your rant has NOTHING to do with this story.

[dave4468]

I found the story reporting lacking. I would have expected a few basic questions answered such as:
1. How did landau get caught? Your report said by an alert archivest - but how?
2. Why didn't Betty Currie report the missing items? Had she it would not have gone on so long?
3. How about all the other documents - didn't they ever get reported as missing?

[senatorjeffreygold]

Although this story is relevant, there are larger thefts going on that are of equal American proportions. What about reporting on the amazonian theft by Wall Street and confronting the players on the street in New York? What about exposing the fact that the entire Wall Street mechanism is a fraudulent extraction mechanism that has zero value but negative impact on the entire economy? What about reporting that globalism doesn't serve any nation, but only companies?

[jrh5605]

How did this guy only get a 7 year sentence for a crime of this magnitude against this country, that is as insane as the crimes them self's, WOW!
This guy should have gotten 25 to life. What the Hell happened? That is noyt even a slap on the wrist. I think 60 minutes needs to investigate the people that prosecuted him.This is a punch in the face to the American people that he stole from.

[IPonUall2]

I wholeheartedly agree with you, he should be shot in public and his head piked on the front stairway to the library of congress.

[Hattie21]

As I watched your program on Sunday October 28 on Barry Landau stealing documents from museums around the United States, I found it odd that you did not concider Betty Currie's collection stolen. She did not pay for it. Those documents belong to the Americans that have paid their taxes. She had no right to take Federal documents from the White House. We the taxpayers paid for those notes and the paper they were written on. I find it strange that you would do an article on treasured archives and do not think these will someday be treaures.