Seventeen rare and extremely valuable books have been restored to the John Hay Whitney estate in Long Island after they vanished in the 1980s.
The books that were stolen from the home belonging to philanthropists John Hay Whitney and Betsey Whitney included titles by John Keats, Oscar Wilde, and James Joyce, Fox 5 reported Monday.
When someone tried to sell them in early 2025 to Manhattan rare book dealers, the items were flagged on the Art Loss Register and police were alerted to the finds.
An image showed some of the recovered titles displayed on a table:
Officials seized the books pursuant to search warrants and a judge authorized they be handed over to the family, whose heirs will auction them and donate the proceeds, per the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, which also said the collection was valued at $3 million:
John Whitney was a highly decorated veteran from World War II, rising to the rank of colonel. He was the publisher of the New York Herald Tribune, the president of the Museum of Modern Art, and Ambassador to the United Kingdom. His wife, Betsey Whitney, was a philanthropist who established the Greentree Foundation in 1983, which is housed on donated land from the family.
John Whitney was also an avid art collector and inherited hundreds of rare books from his mother, the poet Helen Hay. Between 1982 and 1989, at least 28 of the books were stolen from the Whitney estate. The family first noticed them missing in 1989 and contacted the Nassau County Police Department. In 2025, an individual attempted to sell 17 of these books to B&B Rare Books and Adam Weinberger Rare Books in Manhattan. The individual stated he inherited the books from his grandfather.
Investigators are still working on the case and also searching for 11 other missing books.
When Whitney died in 1982, his obituary in the New York Times said he was “master of one of the great American fortunes and a pace-setting leader in a kaleidoscope of fields.”
“An active Republican in the 1950’s, Mr. Whitney served as finance chairman of Citizens for Eisenhower-Nixon in 1952. In 1954, he was chairman of the United Republican Finance Committee for the State of New York,” the newspaper stated.
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