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Police Find Stolen First Edition of Gabriel García Márquez One Hundred Years of Solitude
Photo via: captainahabsrarebooks.com
Photo via: captainahabsrarebooks.com
Lorena Muñoz-Alonso
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A signed first edition of Gabriel García Márquez’s landmark novel One Hundred Years of Solitude, stolen during the International Book Fair of Bogotá on May 2, has been recovered by Colombian police, BBC reports.
The rare edition of the novel, penned by the Nobel-Prize winner for literature in 1967, was stolen from a locked glass case in a stall at the book fair (see Rare Signed First Edition of Gabriel García Marquéz Novel Stolen from Book Fair).
According to the BBC, the book—whose value is estimated at $60,000—was found a week later in a second-hand book stall in Bogotá. Police suspect antique dealers were behind the robbery.
The book’s rightful owner, the rare books dealer Alvaro Castillo, purchased the 1967 first edition of One Hundred Years of Solitude in a bookshop in Montevideo, Uruguay, in 2006.
García Márquez, who died last year, signed the copy later on and dedicated it to Castillo, with the words: “To Alvaro Castillo, the old book seller, as yesterday and forever, your friend, Gabo.”
Seeing the widespread anger and outrage caused by theft, Castillo has decided to donate the book to the National Library of Colombia, AFP reports.
“This book no longer belongs to me, this book belongs to my country… From the moment that so many Colombians condemned this action, the book belonged to us all,” Castillo declared.
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