// BBC UK NEWS — CRONACA
Map thief leads 'merry dance' with return promises
Melvin West has been sentenced to three years in jail
A man who used a Stanley knife to cut a rare 17th Century world map out of an atlas at a museum library has been jailed for three years.
Melvin West, 70, sliced the map from a 1684 atlas by Dutch cartographer Frederik de Wit while viewing it at the Caird Library, part of the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, in February 2025.
The map has never been found, and a judge at Woolwich Crown Court said West had led the court, police and museum a "merry dance" over where it was.
The Metropolitan Police has appealed for anyone who knows where it is to come forward.
Man sentenced for stealing antique map from museum in Greenwich
The double hemisphere world map, known as Nova Orbis Tabula, was one of 12 in the atlas, and is studied by scholars around the world.
The court heard West, from Chingford in east London, had viewed the atlas on 19 and 20 December 2024 and again on the day before the theft.
Staff called police after finding a knife on the floor of the viewing room where he had been looking at the atlas. They then discovered the map had been cut out.
West was arrested at his home in March 2025, but the map was not there. He pleaded guilty at Bromley Magistrates' Court in May to theft, criminal damage and possession of a bladed article.