Pieces of U.S. History Pilfered

It began when an astute federal worker was shopping on EBay and came across a treasure that should not have been for sale anywhere, much less an Internet auction house: a pardon signed by an American president.

It ended Monday when a veteran employee of the National Archives was charged with stealing priceless historical treasures and selling them on the open market, including a pardon signed by Abraham Lincoln and an autographed photograph of Neil Armstrong on the moon.

Shawn P. Aubitz, 45, had worked at the archives’ downtown Philadelphia branch for 14 years, and part of his job was to sift through some of its 120 million pieces of history for display in rotating exhibits, authorities said.

But prosecutors allege that he spent three years pilfering as many as 100 American artifacts and selling them for an estimated $100,000, in what is believed to be the first case of employee theft in the archives’ 68-year history.

The precise number of documents taken is not known and some of the items that were sold have not been recovered, said Patrick L. Meehan, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

“This is not just value measured in dollars--these were authentic documents, the actual records of events that ware part of our American history, and when they are removed from the collection the value is incalculable,” Meehan said. “This wasn’t just a crime against the National Archives. This was a crime against future generations and their access to American history.”

Aubitz was charged with one count of theft by a government employee and faces a maximum penalty of up to 10 years in prison and a maximum fine of $250,000.

Defense attorney Jody Hobbs said Aubitz “sincerely and fully regrets his actions and believes he made a mistake in judgment. He has made every attempt to assist in the recovery of the items.”

The stolen items included Civil War documents such as an 1863 warrant to the U.S. marshal to seize Arlington House, the estate of Robert E. Lee, which is now a national landmark atop a hill at Arlington Cemetery.

There were slave trade documents, autographed photographs of astronauts taken during Apollo and space shuttle missions and pardons signed by a dozen presidents, James Madison and Andrew Johnson among them.

But perhaps the most intriguing was a pardon signed by Lincoln, considered particularly valuable because it is a rare example of his full signature, as opposed to the abbreviated “A. Lincoln” he more commonly used. The pardon is valued at $2,000; Aubitz allegedly sold it on EBay for $12,000.

“In these days when signatures of aging baseball players can have great value, you can imagine the value of something signed by Abraham Lincoln,” Meehan said.

Prosecutors could not say which document was first spotted on the Internet, but the report sparked an investigation that led to Aubitz’s termination in 1999 from the Philadelphia branch, where he worked as an archivist. The National Archives is based in Washington and its satellite office in Philadelphia maintains artifacts from parts of the country rich with history, including Delaware, Maryland and Virginia.

“He was in a position of trust,” Meehan said. “He had a unique insight into what would be valuable. He would be tutored in what were historically interesting documents.”

Assistant U.S. Atty. Robert Zauzmer said Aubitz is cooperating with investigators but cannot remember exactly how many documents he took. Investigators said they are contacting people in the business of buying and selling American artifacts in hopes of tracking down the items.

Documents have been stolen from the National Archives before, but never by someone on staff, officials said.

In 1988, scholar Charles Merrill Mount was convicted of transporting stolen historic documents, including letters from Lincoln and Winston Churchill, that belonged to the National Archives and the Library of Congress. Mount--who sported the mannerisms of an English gentleman--was a biographer and former Guggenheim Foundation fellow who insisted that the documents he sold to a bookshop belonged to him.