The Vilnius Regional Court on Friday largely rejected the appeal of Mikheil Zamtaradze, a Georgian national convicted of stealing exceptionally rare and valuable books from the Vilnius University (VU) Library, modifying only the calculation of his prison sentence to include time spent in custody abroad.
A lower court had credited Zamtaradze’s detention in Lithuania beginning December 28, 2023. The regional court ruled that his imprisonment in Belgium – where he was arrested on November 7, 2023, under a European arrest warrant – must also be counted toward the sentence. He was extradited to Lithuania at the end of December.
In the appeal, Zamtaradze’s attorney asked the court to impose an average four-year sentence and reduce it by one third, arguing that Zamtaradze fully admitted to the thefts. The defence also disputed the valuation of the stolen books, which court documents place at more than €606,000. Zamtaradze and his lawyer argued the true value was several times lower.
“There is no reason to doubt the value of the stolen property,” Judge Nijolė Zimkienė said Friday, noting that expert assessments confirmed the amount.
Zamtaradze was sentenced in June to five years in prison, but the term was reduced to three years and four months because he confessed.
A separate investigation into similar thefts is underway in France. After the Vilnius City District Court delivered its verdict, Zamtaradze was extradited to France for a month-long inquiry before being returned to Lithuania. His lawyer, Remigijus Rinkevičius, said a trial in France is not expected soon.
The regional court upheld VU’s civil claim and ordered Zamtaradze to pay €606,000 in damages. The defendant protested the valuation during the hearing.
“This is a completely unrealistic price. Even in a hundred years, these books will not be worth €600,000,” he told the court.
Zamtaradze stole only works by 19th-century Russian writers. According to case records, he took 17 books, including works by Ivan Krylov, Alexander Pushkin, Mikhail Lermontov and Nikolai Gogol. Twelve of them were replaced with forgeries that had been sent to him by a buyer in Moscow. The court ordered the forged copies destroyed.
Investigators say Zamtaradze acted as part of an organised group operating in Lithuania, Poland, France, Switzerland, and Georgia. He entered Lithuania in 2023 and posed as a researcher named “Mikhail Zavadsky”, presenting falsified credentials to library staff. The forged documents allowed him to access rare and culturally significant books in the VU Library’s specialised reading rooms.
The case file states that two accomplices visited the library beforehand, apparently to scout the location. One of them is currently serving time in Latvia for book theft.
Zamtaradze told investigators he sold the stolen books to a buyer in Moscow for $30,000.
Prosecutors had asked the court to dismiss the appeal in full.
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