Thousands of books were stolen from the Bookstore of Homeless in downtown Athens, with the owners to estimate that over 8,000 books were taken.
The books come mainly from donations by citizens and publishing houses and the revenues go to support the homeless people in the Greek capital.
The theft was discovered by one of the three founders when he opened the bookstore on Friday morning, January 12.
“They took them – if you ask me, honestly, I would give them to them with all my heart, but they came in and take them. We don’t have money or anything, we live 4 people with great difficulty (…) I’m not sad that they took the books because books will come to us again – the world loves us, has embraced us…” on of the founder, Leonidas Koursoumis, told state broadcaster ERT.
He noted that there have been efforts for the last five years to relocate the bookstore from Pireos Avenue to a permanent place in Gyzi suburb of Athens, in order to be able make all these books accessible to the broader public.
However, the relocation has not taken place due to financial difficulties, Koursoumis noted.
The theft has raised suspicion as to who could have organized it with Greeks on social media to tip on a search for “rare editions and other rare books in general.”
KTG understands that the bookstore owners do not categorized or even keep records of the donated books but they just put them on shelves for display and sale.
The theft has mobilized citizens who started to collect books to donate them to the bookstore.
Mobilized was also the new mayor of Athens, Haris Doukas, who visited the bookstore on Saturday.
Έπρεπε να κλαπούν χιλιάδες βιβλία για να γίνει ευρύτερα γνωστό το Παλαιοβιβλιοπωλείο των Αστέγων.
Ο κ. Λεωνίδας και λίγοι ακόμα συνάνθρωποί μας, χωρίς πόρους, με μόνη στήριξη δωρεές και το μεράκι τους, συγκέντρωσαν έναν πνευματικό θησαυρό χιλιάδων βιβλίων, που πρέπει να… pic.twitter.com/7XXACSoKLP
— Haris Doukas (@h_doukas) January 13, 2024
Doukas promised that the Municipality of Athens will cooperate with the Bookstore of Homeless and explore all possibilities for a permanent relocation but as well as the option for online sale of the available books.
