A wealthy Iranian businessman was sentenced to two years in jail in a London court Friday for stealing pages from priceless and rare books at two of Britain's most famous libraries.

Farhad Hakimzadeh, 60, a Harvard-educated historian, pleaded guilty to 14 charges involving the theft of illustrations from rare books.

He admitted using a blade to cut out 150 pages, including plates and maps, from books in the British Library in London and from the Bodleian Library in Oxford.

Hakimzadeh was a respected author on Europeans travelling in the Middle East in the 16th and 17th century. A millionaire, he also had a collection of rare books and had the stolen pages professionally bound into his own works.

"As an author, you cannot have been unaware of the damage you were causing," said Judge Peter Ader as he passed sentence on Hakimsadeh. "You have a deep love of books, perhaps so deep that it goes to excess.

"I have no doubt that you were stealing in order to enhance your library and your collection. Whether it was for money or for a rather vain wish to improve your collection is perhaps no consolation to the losers," the judge said.

No one questioned Hakimzadeh's presence in the libraries, where he was known as a researcher. Nor did guards and closed-circuit cameras detect him cutting the pages.

Witnesses said it was difficult for anyone but an expert to tell what was missing from the books.

A British Library spokesman estimated Hakimzadeh had done damage totalling more than $750,000. One map he removed was worth $60,000.

"I'm angry because this is somebody extremely rich who has damaged something which belongs to everybody, completely selfishly destroyed something for his own personal benefit which this nation has invested in over generations," said Kristian Jensen, head of collections at the British Library.