Found a broader discussion of archive theft here for those interested: <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;blog.oup.com&#x2F;2012&#x2F;08&#x2F;difficulty-inside-book-archive-theft-girolamini-library&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;blog.oup.com&#x2F;2012&#x2F;08&#x2F;difficulty-inside-book-archive-t...</a><p>The basic challenge for the thief is finding something valuable enough to be worth selling, but not so valuable it&#x27;s obviously hot.  Then make sure there are no records it existed (in this case it appears the catalog didn&#x27;t include the letters) and find somebody trustworthy to sell it to.<p>I have to agree that the best approach would be to digitize as much as possible, but that might or might not be a tall order for the institutions in question.