Americans 'Plunder' French Archives
The 74-year-old John William Rooney, a retired professor of history from Milwaukee's Marquette University, may have allowed his love of France to get the best of him. According to this article from France's Le Monde newspaper, Rooney and his accused accomplice are charged with stealing, among other items, a treaty whereby Napoleon renounced any claim to ruling the French empire in 1814.
By Nathaniel Herzberg
Translated By Pascaline Jay
November 26, 2005
Original Article (French) 
He seemed like the perfect professor. He was a famous American historian who specialized in French and Belgian Restorations at Marquette University in Milwaukee (Wisconsin) and often traveled to Europe. He went through every department of history in Paris declaring his love for France. But on Wednesday, November 23, the Paris Criminal Court agreed to hear the case against 74-year-old John William Rooney.
With his friend Marshall Lawrence Pierce, he has been accused of "receiving stolen goods." They are both suspected of stealing several documents from the French National Archives, among which is an original copy of The Treaty of Fontainebleau in which, in 1814, Napoleon abdicated and settled his departure for the Island of Elba. Since it happened between 1974 and 1988, there is a statute of limitations for the crime of theft, but not for possession of stolen goods.
[Editor's Note: In this Treaty of Fontainebleau (four others were signed there), Napoleon renounced any claim to ruling the French empire and agreed to exile as the Emperor of Elba, with an income of 2,000,000 francs a year from France].
It all started in 1996, when an employee of the National Archives, going through a catalogue of Sotheby's, the New York auction house, found that the Treaty of Fontainebleau had been put up for auction by Mr. Pierce. It is a very rare document.
The Island of Elbe, Where Napolean Spent His First Exile and Became 'Emperor of the Elbe'
France used to posess three copies (signed with Prussia, Austria and Russia), but two of them were destroyed. Legend has it that Napoleon tore one apart. The second burned to ashes in a fire. The third, which belonged to the National Archives, was last displayed in 1967. Archive employees quickly checked and confirmed that the document was missing from its case.
French authorities filed a complaint. The FBI was notified. The treaty was pulled from the auction along with the joint ratification letters, and a preliminary investigation was opened. It was led by the Central Office for the Control of Trafficking in Cultural Items [L'enquÍte est confiČe ý l'Office central de lutte contre le trafic de biens culturels]. Searches were conducted on the cartons that Rooney was given to use as a consultant at the National Archives, and also at the [French] Army's history department in Vincennes (Val de Marne). Dozens of other documents were missing. "Some of them were never recovered, and since Mr. Rooney wasn't the only one who used these cartons, we can't accuse him without proof," the National Archives deplored.
Still, during the search of Mr. Rooney's home in 2001, American law enforcement discovered about 30 letters from the Count of Provence, which are also very valuable. In one of them, the heir apparent, Louis XVIII, informs a relative that his cousin, the Duke of Enghien, who was a potential rival to Napoleon, has just been killed in the ditches of Vincennes. In another document, written by Talleyrand but signed by "Louis," he gives the details of the First Restoration government. On each manuscript, the "National Archives" stamp has been cut off.
[Editor's Note: The First Restoration (1814-1816) occurred when Napoleon fell from power and Louis XVIII became king. Louis's reign was interrupted by Napoleon's return to France, but Napoleon was forced to abdicate again, leading to the Second Restoration].
In April 2002, the treaty and its correspondences were officially returned by the American ambassador to France [Craig Roberts Stapleton] to Judge GČrard CaddČo. Other documents were returned at the end of 2002. Yet, Americans have offered very little cooperation in this investigation.
The international letters seeking further information issued by Judge CaddČo were not well executed. The French judge was never permitted to go to the United States and therefore couldn't interrogate the two main suspects or the directors at Sotheby's, and he was never provided with a list of documents seized during the search. As far as the international warrant for arrest is concerned, it was never even taken up.
The American legal system, which like most countries doesn't extradite its citizens, was indulgent to the defendants. In June 2002, Mr. Rooney and Mr. Pierce, who claimed they had purchased the documents in France legally, were sentenced to pay a $1000 and $10,000 fines, respectively, for "customs violations."
In France, the trial is set for 2006. The two men could face up to three years in prison. Everyone at the National Archives wishes to see the famous professor in court. An Archives' employee certifies, "He was a passionate man who obviously attached a sentimental value to the document." Indeed, he waited eight years to put it up for auction, didn't he?
Still, at the Court House, they highlighted the fact that he "never cooperated" with the investigation. It is therefore "unlikely" that the famous professor will turn out to be such a lover of France that he actually shows up in court.
