The Feather Thief: Beauty, Obsession, and the Natural History Heist of the Century
Kirk Wallace Johnson
Book Museum Science, Natural History
A fly-tying flutist’s bizarre theft highlights the importance of natural history collections
On 23 June 2009, after closing time, Edwin Rist broke a pane of glass at the back of the Natural History Museum at Tring, in Hertfordshire, U.K., and lowered himself into the quiet, darkened building. Within a few hours, he had hauled armfuls of bird skins—some of which had been collected more than a century…