A portable writing desk (sort of the 19th century’s laptop) used by the novelist George Eliot was stolen from a glass display cabinet at Nuneaton Museum and Art Gallery in Warwickshire, England, on Sunday.
Here’s more from the BBC:
Councillor Ian Lloyd, who is responsible for arts and leisure, said the theft was “a low blow” for the area.
“George Eliot is such a huge part of our local history and we have people visit from all over the world to learn about her life,” he added.
“It is shocking that someone would come into the museum and steal such a priceless piece of history and one which was put on display to educate and inspire generations of people.”
George Eliot’s real name was Mary Ann Evans. She wrote Middlemarch, one of the great novels of the Victorian era, which Virginia Woolf called–in probably the most famous book blurb ever–“one of the few English novels written for grown-up people.”
