Yeah if I were in a similar position in a future scenario and I found this story and it ended with public shaming and prison etc, then I'd just burn the thing instead of trying to return it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St%C3%A9phane_Breitwieser
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2013/jul/17/dutch-a...
As in if you stole an invaluable cultural artefact? How often does that happen with you? How would it even happen once?
> and I found this story and it ended with public shaming and prison
You don't have to look at the end of this story. Thieves when caught end up punished. If there is some innocent explanation, then people don't end up in prison. But it is better be a very good one.
> then I'd just burn the thing instead of trying to return it.
And that makes you a terrible human being. Thank you for letting me know.
This is why for example when the British police run public cold case campaigns they often stress that people might seek to come forward because "allegiances change" -- careful code that hints at leniency while seeking help from former co-inmates who have fallen out with the offender, spouses or abused partners leaving husbands, children escaping the control of malignant parents, etc., or people who have simply survived the now dead offender and are no longer terrified to speak.
I would wager that many stolen objects are quietly destroyed by those who inherit them, rather than confront the difficulties returning them would involve.
Academic institutions are full of people who want to live a quiet life or build a reputation for the right reasons. They are full of people who come and go, most of which wouldn't know what they are looking at or whether it belonged there or not. Libraries and archives are among the few places that will properly inventory and catalogue what they have, and even the Cambridge University Libraries performed several searches to verify an error was not made on their end since it does happen.
It may be unlikely, but I think that it is possible that the process for handling these materials failed somewhere and it took twenty years for someone to come across them. Their desire to drop them anonymously may have been for any number of reasons. Regardless of their reasons, I don't think that doing the right thing should be punished. I could also understand why someone would rather burn something than deal with a slow and possibly misdirected justice system.
I don't say that doing the right thing should be punished. I think the circumstances should be investigated and if it looks like someone did stole it that person or persons should be punished.
> It may be unlikely, but I think that it is possible that the process for handling these materials failed somewhere and it took twenty years for someone to come across them.
Sure and that is the innocent explanation. Are you saying that we shouldn't even investigate because there is a chance that it might be something innocent? Because that is what the original comment is asking about.
> I could also understand why someone would rather burn something than deal with a slow and possibly misdirected justice system.
I also can understand it. It still a terrible thing to do, and anyone who would do it I would consider a bad person.