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MOSCOW -- Copies of one of the world's rarest and most valuable books have been disappearing a rash of mysterious thefts that have perplexed police from the former Soviet Union to the United States.
The first-edition copies of 16th century astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus' renowned treatise in Latin, "De revolutionibus orbium coelestium" (On the Revolutions of Heavenly Spheres) have vanished from collections across the globe.
In Poland, a reader said he had to use the bathroom and made off with the treasured volume. A thief in Kiev, Ukraine, pilfered the book using a fake police ID. The latest theft of the book, published in 1543 and valued at up to $400,000, was discovered earlier this month in Russia.
Russian police say they have appealed to Interpol for help in locating that book, which disappeared from the Academy of Sciences Library in St. Petersburg. Police would give no further details.
At least seven of the 260 known copies of the...