‘Operation Pushkin’: Paris Trial Puts Spotlight on Rare-Book Heists NYT - Top Stories By: Ephrat Livni 12 June 2026 at 05:01 One by one, valuable works by Russian masters like Pushkin and Gogol were disappearing from libraries across Europe. Now six defendants are being prosecuted. © Dmitri Lovetsky/Associated PressA sculpture of Alexander Pushkin made of paper at a bookstore in St. Petersburg, Russia, this week.