About 30,000 books (including about 2000 classified as rare) are missing from France’s Biblioteque national, and the library’s chief curator is being questioned. “The curator, who has denied the allegations, is the subject of one of half a dozen police inquiries into suspected thefts at the institution, which was founded in the 16th century and, as France’s principal copyright and legal deposit library, holds some 35m books, documents, manuscripts, maps, plans and photos.”