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The butterfly thief : adventure, empire, and Australia's greatest museum heist

Marsh, Walter (Journalist)2025
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The story of the most audacious serial heist in the history of Australia's museums - and the British gentleman adventurer who pulled it off and got away with it - in a scientific true crime caper stretching around the globe. In January 1947, a chance discovery rocked the world of natural science- over 3,000 rare and precious specimens of butterflies had vanished from Australia's most prestigious museums in Sydney, Melbourne, and Adelaide. Alarmingly, the missing insects included many priceless 'holotypes' - the first specimen of a given species to be identified, against which all others are compared. On the other side of the world, New Scotland Yard descended on a country house in Surrey, where they found a trove of over 40,000 butterfly specimens. The culprit was Colin Wyatt, a Cambridge-educated ski champion, mountaineer, wartime camouflager, artist, and amateur naturalist whose high-flying exploits cut a path from the Alps of Europe to a London court room to a final expedition to the jungles of Guatemala. Drawing on unpublished case files, dossiers, and private archives, The Butterfly Thief pieces together Wyatt's enigmatic life story and his decades-long impact on the world of natural history. Along the way, award-winning journalist Walter Marsh reveals a deeper history of gentleman explorers, scoundrels, and grave-robbers that begs an uncomfortable but vital question- What if Western museums were crime scenes all along?
Main title:
The butterfly thief : adventure, empire, and Australia's greatest museum heist / Walter Marsh.
Author:
Marsh, Walter (Journalist), author
Work:
The butterfly thief : adventure, empire, and Australia's greatest museum heist
Edition:
Australian edition.
Imprint:
Brunswick, Victoria : Scribe Publications, 2025.©2025
Collation:
359 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations, facsimiles, portraits ; 24 cm
Notes:
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN:
97817613814789781761381478 (paperback)
Dewey class:
364.1620092364.162
Language:
English
Subject:
Wyatt, Colin, 1909-1975Butterflies -- Collection and preservationWildlife crimes -- Case studiesTheft -- Case studiesNaturalists -- Great Britain -- BiographyTrue crime stories
BRN:
865581
Bookmark link:
https://librarysearch.melbourne.vic.gov.au/cgi-bin/spydus.exe/ENQ/OPAC/BIBENQ?SETLVL=&BRN=865581
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