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John Keats love letters stolen in 1980s recovered and returned to owner

Monday, 20 April 2026, 18:11 · 1 min read

Eight handwritten love letters from the English Romantic poet John Keats to his fiancée Fanny Brawne, stolen from a Long Island estate in the 1980s, have been returned to the heirs of former US Ambassador to the UK John Hay Whitney. The letters, dated 1819–1820 and valued at around $2 million, resurfaced in January 2025 when an individual attempted to sell them — along with 16 other rare books — to dealers in Manhattan, who reported the sale to authorities after finding the items listed on the Art Loss Register. The recovery was carried out by Manhattan's antiquities trafficking unit, and a New York court authorised the return of the collection, valued collectively at nearly $3 million, to Whitney's family, who plan to sell the items and donate the proceeds.

Sources
The GuardianJohn Keats’s love letters returned to owner after being stolen in the 1980s ↗︎
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