Two precious notebooks by Charles Darwin disappeared from the Cambridge library. They were probably stolen

There has been no news of 20 Charles Darwin notebooks for 2 years but now it's official: they have disappeared, probably stolen

Don't store avocado like this: it's dangerous

Two handwritten notebooks by the famous scientist Charles Darwin have disappeared from the Cambridge University library. In reality, the precious documents had already been lost for 20 years but only recently, after careful research, were they officially declared missing. The most plausible hypothesis is that they were stolen (and who knows when!).

The notebooks we are talking about were kept in the Cambridge University library and had an estimated value of millions of pounds. How come? They had been written by Charles Darwin during his explorations, they were real pillars of naturalistic history, within which he spoke of the theory of evolution and that among other things, they contained the famous sketch of the tree of life, made by the scientist in 1837.

Two precious notebooks by Charles Darwin disappeared from the Cambridge library. They were probably stolen

It had been years since these documents hadn't been pulled out of the archive and had been lost from sight, but they were thought to be somewhere safe in the library anyway. The last time someone had consulted them dates back to 2000, when due to an internal request they had been removed from a warehouse to be photographed.

Then the library had undergone a series of relocations and construction had been done. Just last month the bitter surprise: following a thorough research, the largest in the history of the library, the editors concluded that the notebooks were likely stolen.

This was announced by the same British university that reported the disappearance to the police and Interpol. Jessica Gardner, director of library services, also appealed to all people who may have information useful for retrieving notebooks:

“We would be extremely grateful to hear from any staff member, past or present, book traders, researchers or the general public who have information that could help in notebook recovery. Someone, somewhere, might have knowledge or insights that can help us bring these notebooks back to their place, at the heart of the UK's cultural and scientific heritage".

The appeal was made on a symbolic date, November 24, which coincides with what is commonly known as 'Evolution Day', the anniversary of Darwin's publication of "On the Origin of Species", November 24, 1859 .

Source: University of Cambridge / BBC