Secret passage opened library to book thief

A FRENCH university professor who used a secret passage to steal more than 1,000 ancient books from a medieval monastery appeared in court yesterday charged with "theft involving cunning".

For two years, Stanislas Gosse, 32, from Illkirch in eastern France, used the passage to let himself into the library of the Mont Sainte-Odile monastery in Alsace. He smuggled out 1,100 historical and religious books, including "priceless" works from the 15th and 16th centuries.

The first thefts came in August 2000, after Gosse obtained a set of stolen keys to the library. They continued until 2001, when the head of the monastery changed the locks, the court heard. Several months later, however, Gosse discovered an article on Romanesque architecture in the monastery’s archives. It revealed the existence of a long-forgotten secret passage.

Gosse used a rope ladder to get into a windowless and doorless room via a trap door in the monastery’s attic. He gently pushed through planks behind a wardrobe, which concealed the secret entrance to the library.

The erudite cat burglar spent nights inside the library without fear of being disturbed.

The monastery was gripped by the mysterious disappearance of the books from the library. But the "gentleman thief", as he was nicknamed was finally arrested last May, after being caught on a video camera installed by exasperated gendarmes.