When Shakespeare's First Folio went missing from Durham University

The historic works dating back to 1623 went missing from the uni’s Palace Green Library while on exhibition.

Interpol was put on alert watching for the folio – Shakespeare’s complete plays published soon after his death and now believed to be one of around 250 copies worldwide – to reappear.

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Almost ten years later it turned up thousands of miles away in the hands of a certain Raymond Scott.

Eccentric Scott wanted to live a life of luxury and drank vintage champagne, smoked Cuban cigars, drove a Ferrari, shopped at exclusive stores and claimed to live in Monaco and Lichtenstein.

Scott pictured at his home in 2008, after being released on bail after being questioned by police over the Folio's disappearance. (Image: NNP)

But he actually lived in a two-up two-down in Washington, Wearside and was an opportunistic shoplifter with 24 convictions dating back to 1977 including theft, deception, threats to kill and possession of an imitation firearm.

Police believed Scott lived on benefits and bankrolled his lifestyle of champagne and fast cars by piling up credit cards, accumulating tens of thousands of pounds of debts.

And when the banks came knocking, he needed money.

Raymond Scott's Ferrari (Image: CPS)

Flamboyant Scott decided to sell the copy of Shakespeare’s First Folio which had gone missing from Durham Uni ten years earlier and ended up in his hands to clear his debts and live his millionaire life for real.

In June 2008 he travelled from Washington on Wearside to Washington state-side and travelled to the Folger Shakespeare Library where he produced it from a carrier bag in his briefcase and planned to auction it off.

He agreed to leave the book with them for a few days but experts at the library soon recognised it as the stolen folio despite it being “damaged, brutalised and mutilated”, and called in the British Embassy, Durham Police and FBI.

Durham University's copy of Shakespeare's First Folio (Image: PR)

The book had pages missing and its bindings and cover removed which hinted to experts of its origins.

At the time it was valued as being worth about £1.5m, even in its damaged state.

In 2020, a rare copy for the first folio sold at auction for $9.9m USD (£7.6m) in New York.

He was arrested a few days later and denied it was the missing Durham copy, claiming to have discovered the book holidaying in Cuba, his young nightclub-dancer fiancée’s home country.

During a 2010 trial he continued his eccentric persona, appearing at court in costume including Che Guevara, James Bond, and Macbeth, and once arriving on a horse-drawn cart.

Scott arrives in court dressed as Che Guevara (Image: NNP)

But despite his showmanship, Scott, formerly of Wingate, scaled back his flamboyance during his trial and he declined to give evidence.

He was put behind bars for six years after being found guilty of handling the stolen book, and two years for taking it out of the UK. He was cleared of stealing it.

The book was returned to the uni in the summer of 2010 with security being bolstered to prevent a repeat.

In March 2012, in a Shakespearean tragic ending to Scott’s story, he was found aged 55 in his prison cell at HMP Northumberland just days before he was due to take his case to the Court of Appeal. An inquest concluded he took his own life.

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The first folio was a collection of 36 plays including 18 which would otherwise not have been recorded, including Macbeth.

It is now kept under lock and key at the university.

To coincide with the four-hundredth anniversary of its publication a series of events branded the ‘Summer of Shakespeare’ are being held in Durham.

See our video report from 2009 as Scott arrived at Durham Crown Court in a horse-drawn cart