Today, the Antiquities Trafficking Unit from the office of Manhattan District Attorney Alfred Bragg Jr. will formally return 17 rare, stolen books valued at over $2 million to their rightful owners—the descendants of the former president of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) John Hay Whitney and his second wife, philanthropist Betsey Cushing Whitney.

According to press materials from the D.A., the relics within this long-lost trove include a first edition copy of Aleister Crowley’s erotic poetry compilation, which is estimated to be worth approximately $6,000, as well as a signed, first-edition copy of James Joyce’s 1905 experimental novel Finnegan’s Wake (est. $6,000), and four letters from Oscar Wilde excluded from the author’s masterful book-length piece of correspondence, De Profundis (1905) (est. $2,000).

The most historically significant component, though, is worth $2 million—a gilt morocco-bound illustrated portfolio containing eight handwritten letters from the English Romantic poet John Keats to his fiancee and muse, Frances “Fanny” Brawne.

But, these books are just 17 of the 28 believed to be stolen from Greentree, the Whitney’s Long Island home nearly 40 years ago.

John Hay Whitney and Betsey Cushing Whitney at the London Airport, 1957. Photo: Daily Express / Hulton Archive / Getty Images.

Born in 1905, John Hay Whitney succeeded Nelson Rockefeller as president of MoMA in 1941. He fought in in World War II the following year—and became chairman of the museum’s board of trustees not long after returning, in 1946. He also founded America’s oldest venture capital firm, served as U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom, and led the New York Tribune.

He and Betsey shared a penchant for 19th- and 20th-century European painting, acquiring key examples by Vincent Van Gogh, Henri Matisse, and Gustav Klimt. Much of their collection has lived in museums since John died in 1982, according to the Frick Collection.

John’s mother, the poet and socialite Helen Hay Whitney, preferred collecting books. He inherited hundreds of her rare tomes after her death in 1927.

John and Betsey lived together at Greentree—the 400-acre Manhasset estate John’s father Payne Whitney had built for John’s mother. Betsey continued living there part time afterwards. Helen Hay Whitney’s books stayed all the while. Clearly someone else noticed them, because in 1989, the family realized 28 had gone missing since John’s death, according to the D.A.’s office, and contacted the Nassau County Police Department.

A portfolio of letters from John Keats formerly owned by John Hay Whitney. Photo courtesy of the office of the Manhattan D.A.

Then, last January, an unnamed individual tried selling the 17 stolen Whitney books that are being returned today to two different Manhattan-based rare book dealers—B&B Rare Books and Adam Weinberger Rare Books. “The individual stated he inherited the books from his grandfather,” the D.A.’s office said.

Both dealers reportedly contacted authorities upon noticing that the books in question appear on the Art Loss Register, established in London during the early 1990s. Bragg’s office has executed six search warrants since. While investigations into who stole the books and the whereabouts of the remaining volumes is ongoing, a press representative for the D.A. told me that the individual who tried to sell these works is not being treated as a suspect in the decades-old crime.

Meanwhile, the Whitney heirs plan to auction the books and donate the proceeds.