In a museum heist that damaged an irreplaceable 1684 atlas, a UK man has been jailed for using a knife to slice out and steal a 350-year-old map, only to stubbornly refuse to reveal its whereabouts. CCTV captured Melvin West cutting the Dutch cartographic masterpiece from the Caird Library’s collection at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich before slipping it under his clothing.
the thief answered “no comment” to interrogations, keeping the artefact unaccounted for While the Met’s Art and Antiques Unit tracked down and arrested West.
Police appeal to the public for information:
Met Police stated, “The missing page was a celebrated example of a double hemisphere world map, called Nova Orbis Tabula, by seventeenth-century Dutch cartographer Frederick de Wit. The police then arrested West from his home in East London’s Chingford.
“Melvin West, 72 (21.05.1954), was sentenced to three years’ imprisonment at Woolwich Crown Court on Thursday, 22 October after pleading guilty at Bromley Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday, 19 May to theft, criminal damage and possession of a bladed article,” Metropolitan Police said in a statement . In the interview with the cops, he answered “no comment” to most of the questions. “We are appealing to anyone who has knowledge of the map’s whereabouts to do the right thing and contact the Metropolitan Police so that it can be returned to the library,” the police said in a statement. Reacting to the incident, a spokesperson said, “We are pleased the criminal case, on which we co-operated closely with the Metropolitan Police’s Art and Antiques Unit, has been brought to a close.”
