Three former officers of Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) have been sentenced to prison terms of between 14 months and 3 1/2 years for stealing one of the few remaining copies of the famed Gutenberg Bible.
On June 5, the Moscow Regional Military Court found Sergei Vedishchev, Mikhail Lepkov, and Viktor Puchka guilty of stealing a complete two-volume copy from Moscow State University in 2009 and trying to sell it for 40 million rubles ($1,140,000).
The book was later recovered.
The Gutenberg Bible dates to the 1450s and is the first major book printed in the West using movable type.
Of 180 original copies, only 21 complete copies survive in eight different countries.
Two copies of the Gutenberg Bible -- one of them incomplete -- were brought by Soviet troops from Leipzig, Germany, after World War II.
On June 5, the Moscow Regional Military Court found Sergei Vedishchev, Mikhail Lepkov, and Viktor Puchka guilty of stealing a complete two-volume copy from Moscow State University in 2009 and trying to sell it for 40 million rubles ($1,140,000).
The book was later recovered.
The Gutenberg Bible dates to the 1450s and is the first major book printed in the West using movable type.
Of 180 original copies, only 21 complete copies survive in eight different countries.
Two copies of the Gutenberg Bible -- one of them incomplete -- were brought by Soviet troops from Leipzig, Germany, after World War II.
