China News Service, November 25, reported that the Cambridge University Library in the United Kingdom stated on the 24th that two precious notebooks of Darwin, the British biologist and founder of the theory of evolution, were believed to have been stolen.
The notebook was listed as missing in 2001, but the museum believes that it was just placed somewhere in the museum.
According to reports, the notebook contains groundbreaking ideas about evolution, which is of great value.
Image source: Screenshot of the official account of the British "Guardian" social networking site.
In 1837, Darwin began to organize his notes after returning home from the British Royal Navy ship HMS Beagle.
The Cambridge University Library stated that these notes are worth millions of pounds.
In one of the notebooks, he drew several possible schematic diagrams of species evolution.
Later, in "On the Origin of Species" published in 1859, more elaborate illustrations on this basis were attached.
In 2000, these two notebooks were taken out of the Special Collections Strong Rooms and used for shooting in a separate temporary building under construction.
But then, when the Cambridge University Library carried out a routine inventory operation in 2001, the notebook was listed as "lost" for the first time.
For a long time, the library authorities believed that the notebook was just misplaced somewhere in the library.
The Cambridge University Library has approximately 10 million books, maps and manuscripts, as well as one of the world's most important Darwin archives.
However, after the Cambridge University Library launched the largest search in history in 2020, those two notebooks were still unable to be found.
The Cambridge University Library stated in a statement: "The curator has concluded that the notebook is likely to be stolen."
According to the report, the Cambridge University Library stated that it has notified the local police that Interpol has included the notebook in the stolen art database named "Psyche".