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Heisted Books By Galileo, Newton Worth Millions Returned To Owners

(BEN STANSALL/AFP via Getty Images)

Alex Corey Contributor
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A total of 240 rare books worth $3.3 million were returned to their owners in London, after they were stolen by a Romanian gang in 2017.

The men, nicknamed “The Mission Impossible” gang due to their acrobatic technique resembling the famous scene 1996 movie in which Tom Cruise is lowered into a vault on a rope, were jailed last month in Britain, Reuters reported.

The gang had stolen the books in January 2017 from a warehouse in Feltham, West London, as the items were awaiting export to the U.S. for a book fair, according to Reuters. The books were shipped to the UK from Italy and Germany. (RELATED: Archivist Steals Rare Books From Pittsburgh Carnegie Library)

Books stolen included works of English scientist Isaac Newton, the Spanish artist Francisco Goya, and works of the Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei, according to Metropolitan police.

Picture shows the historical book “Le operazioni del compasso geometrico” from Galileo Galilei from1606 during a press conference in Munich, southern Germany, on February 13, 2015. The German prosecutor will return more than 500 historic books, including original editions of works by Galileo Galilei and Nicolas Copernicus, that were seized in Munich to Italy after being stolen from Italian. The books, dating largely from the 16th and 17th centuries and estimated to be worth at least 2.5 million euros ($2.8 million), were handed over to Italian judicial authorities on February 13, 2015. AFP PHOTO/CHRISTOF STACHE

The burglary was one of 12 carried out by the gang around Britain over the course of the past two and a half years, according to Reuters. The gang allegedly has ties to the Clamparu organized crime group based in the Isai region of eastern Romania.

The stolen books were discovered hidden underneath a house in Romania. The works were then transported to the country’s National Library, in Bucharest. Four out of the five owners were able to retrieve their stolen books, Reuters reported.

Twelve members of the “Mission Impossible” gang have been jailed with sentences ranging from 8 months to over 5 years in prison.