Barry Landau

Barry H. Landau (born c. 1948) is a noted thief of presidential artifacts, collector of presidential artifacts, author, and "self-styled 'America's Presidential Historian'". In July 2011, Landau's associate, 24-year-old Jason Savedoff, was seen taking a document out of a library. After investigation and searches, he and Savedoff were "charged with stealing valuable historical documents from the Maryland Historical Society and conspiring to steal documents from other archives." After pleading guilty, Landau was sentenced to seven years imprisonment in June 2012.

Landau stated his interest in the presidency began at the age of 10, when his mother took him to see then President Dwight D. Eisenhower; he claimed to have spoken with both the president and First Lady Mamie Eisenhower at that time. The Wall Street Journal, however, reported that he wrote a letter to the president and received a card in reply.

He worked as a press agent in New York in the 1970s and 1980s. He also claimed "he was a protocol officer under President Gerald R. Ford and that he once traveled to Moscow with President Richard M. Nixon", though the presidential libraries can find no supporting evidence.

He amassed such a large collection of presidential memorabilia that, in 2005, Larry Bird, a curator of the National Museum of American History, stated that he possessed "the most extensive collection of inaugural memorabilia outside the Smithsonian, the National Archives or the presidential libraries." Landau's collection was reported to consist of over one million presidential artifacts.

For the 2001 inauguration of George W. Bush, the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies turned to him for china plates for the inaugural luncheon.

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