Less than four months after a Maryland Historical Society employee uncovered a cultural property heist called "truly breathtaking" by national archivists, one of the men charged in the scheme has pleaded guilty.
Jason James Savedoff, 24, admitted Thursday in U.S. District Court in Baltimore that he and co-defendant Barry H. Landau, 63, conspired to steal and sell valuable historic documents from museums in several states, including Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania and Connecticut.
He could receive a maximum of 15 years in prison and fines of up to $500,000 at his sentencing, scheduled for Feb. 10. Landau, a well-known
Steven D. Silverman, an attorney for the older man, declined to describe the nature of the relationship between Landau and Savedoff, calling it "a personal matter" that he's "not at liberty to disclose."
They were indicted in July on conspiracy and "theft of major art" charges after Savedoff, who holds dual American and
Investigators have said that the scheme was far broader, however, describing it as the biggest theft ever of national memorabilia. More than 10,000 items have been seized from Landau's Manhattan apartment. National Archives and Records Administration investigators are cataloging the documents and trying to track down their owners.
Among their finds so far are texts attributed to Napoleon, Beethoven, George Washington and John Hancock.
Savedoff, who spoke quietly and politely during the proceeding, declined to comment after the hearing through his attorney, Larry Nathans.
He has been cooperating with investigators since at least August, prosecutors said in a court hearing that month. And he has been free on $250,000 bond since late July, when he was released to his mother's custody.
His plea agreement says he participated in the theft "solely at the direction" of Landau. But Silverman pointed out after the hearing that the duo shared the apartment where the items were found and said that there has been no evidence to connect Landau to "a misappropriation of documents before Mr. Savedoff came into his life a year and a half ago." He characterized Savedoff's plea deal as an attempt to "save his own hide."
Assistant U.S. Attorney James Warwick said the investigation is continuing, along with the document recovery.
"That's the primary goal of this," Warwick said, "to punish the guilty and to retrieve as many historic" treasures as possible.
Savedoff signed his plea agreement a month ago, acknowledging in a lengthy statement of facts that he and Landau conspired "to steal and obtain by fraud objects of cultural heritage from numerous museums" between December 2010 and July 2011, when they were arrested in Maryland.
Savedoff identified high-value historic collections and posed as a researcher alongside Landau when they visited the various libraries that housed them, sometimes bearing cookies or cupcakes for employees. They slipped stolen documents inside coats that had been modified with extra-deep pockets, according to Savedoff's plea agreement, and they "collected the card catalog entries" and other museum identifiers to hide the thefts.
Unlike his co-defendant, a self-promoter who calls himself "America's Presidential Historian" on his website, little is publicly known about Savedoff. His
The available information suggests he is well-educated, bilingual (he's reportedly fluent in French) and that he grew up in privileged circumstances.
His parents, divorced since the 1990s, own separate million-dollar homes in the upscale Kitsilano neighborhood of Vancouver, according to a Canadian news service, which also reports that Savedoff graduated fromSt. George's, a private boys prep school in Vancouver, in 2004.
He went on to study arts at McGill University in Montreal. In 2006, after four semesters, he ran for student government on a tongue-in-cheek platform, according to the college newspaper.
He described himself "as one of the most opinionated people I know," skipped the debates and never showed up for the election results, though he won 15 percent of the vote. By then, an editorial in The McGill Tribune student newspaper had already concluded that "it's pretty clear that Jason Savedoff (or J-Swing, as he appears on the ballot) isn't really running for anything. Our only wish is that he had been at the debates on Wednesday to spice up an otherwise boring evening."
He and his younger brother, Luke, collaborated on a
A year later, Savedoff posted a "Birthday Violin" video, produced in what appears to be a dorm room. He's standing in front of an American flag hung on the wall, wearing a black tank top and a cross around his neck, playing Happy Birthday on a violin.
It's unclear when he came to New York and how he met Landau.
Stolen items
Among the stolen items recovered from the Manhattan apartment Barry Landau shared with Jason Savedoff are:
•A 1794 document signed by George Washington, from the New York Historical Society.
•A 1784 letter written by Marie Antoinette, from the
•An 1874 letter from
•An annotated copy ofFranklin D.
SOURCE: Maryland U.S. Attorney's Office