You can sit at intricately inlaid Damascene tables or recline on divans in front of engraved copper trays, in a room filled with antique books and Ottoman lamps.

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Take the case of Yektan Turkyilmaz, an internationally acclaimed Turkish scholar who was arrested in Armenia on June 17th on charges of seeking to smuggle antique books out of the country.

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Whilst on the look out for antique photographic books he came across a French stereoscopic camera called a Jumelle Bellieni, and nestled within he discovered a number of glass plates.

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Prizes like the mermaid went to a small group of buyers assembled by Ben Rapaport, a Reston, Va. authority on tobacciana collecting and the author of five books on antique pipes and related topics.

FORBES: Magazine Article