THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 
              Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Saturday, December 16, 1995            TAG: 9512160306
SECTION: LOCAL                    PAGE: B7   EDITION: FINAL 
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS 
DATELINE: CHARLOTTESVILLE                    LENGTH: Short :   34 lines

PRINTS FROM 17TH-CENTURY BOOKS ARE STOLEN FROM U.VA. LIBRARY

Maps and prints from three 17th-century books in the University of Virginia's rare book collection were stolen, officials said.

The stolen goods, which are in demand on the black market, were sliced out of books with pages that measure about 9 by 12 inches, said Michael Plunkett, director of special collections at U.Va.

U.Va. police said one page was taken from each of the three books, and the pages have a reported value of about $5,000.

The theft occurred at the Alderman Library last week about the time the FBI announced it is searching for a man suspected of vandalizing rare books in college libraries across the country for the past 18 months.

A list left at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore tipped the FBI to search for Gilbert Joseph Bland Jr.

Bland, 45, who describes himself as a graduate student, was caught last week at a Johns Hopkins library slicing a map from a book dating to the 1700s. Police let him go after he paid to repair the book.

In a bag Bland left behind, university officials found 12 other maps that had been removed from 18th-century books, along with a list of libraries including those at U.Va., Duke University in Durham, N.C., and Brown University in Providence, R.I. by CNB