Career criminal jailed for stealing 350-year-old map from National Maritime Museum

Career criminal jailed for stealing 350-year-old map from National Maritime Museum Melvin West, 70, still refuses to reveal the map’s whereabouts - Bookmark Become an Independent member to bookmark this article Already a member? Log in A career criminal who stole a “historically unique” 350-year-old map from a museum and refused to reveal its location has been jailed for three years. Melvin West, 70, was told by a judge he had led police, the courts and the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich a “merry dance” about the whereabouts of the map he stole from the Caird Library in February last year. Woolwich Crown Court heard on Thursday that West, from Chingford in East London, had done a recce of the museum library before he used a Stanley knife to slice one of 12 maps out of an atlas, printed in 1684, by Dutch cartographer Frederick de Wit. The map, which has still not been found despite an earlier court hearing being adjourned so West could recover from heart surgery and return the item, was a celebrated example of a double hemisphere world map called Nova Orbis Tabula, the Metropolitan Police said. Prosecution counsel Damian Warburton told the court the completed atlas was valued at around £50,000, with the stolen map worth £6,000 alone on the black market. The court heard the value of the atlas has been reduced to £20,000 due to the missing page, but Mr Warburton said the “cultural loss far outweighs the financial loss”. Police were called to the Caird Library at around 3pm on 26 February 2025 after staff found a knife on the floor of the viewing room where West had earlier been looking at the atlas. It was then discovered that one of the maps was missing and had been “removed with the slash of a blade”, Mr Warburton told the court. West had viewed the atlas on 19 and 20 December in 2024 and also on the day before he stole the page. He was arrested at his address on 4 March 2025, but the map was not there. West pleaded guilty at Bromley Magistrates’ Court in May to theft, criminal damage and possession of a bladed article. Defence barrister Jessica Flain told the court on Thursday the defendant had partially paid someone to restore the map but that man would not return it until the full restoration fees were paid. She said a friend of West would pay the remaining fees and the defendant would then be able to take the map to Charing Cross Police Station if sentencing could be adjourned for seven days. Judge Charlotte Welsh refused the application, saying she did “not believe a word of it”. Sentencing West, who the court heard had 27 convictions for 107 offences in the UK and abroad, mostly for dishonesty offences including 41 for theft, Judge Welsh said he had caused “untold damage to a historical artefact and did so because of your venal nature”. She said the item was “highly specialised” and valuable on the black market, and said she believed West must have had a buyer in mind when he stole it “to order”. She said: “You have, to say the very least, been evasive about the whereabouts of the map. “In June, you told the court that you had access to it and could return it within seven days – you didn’t do that. “You told me, through counsel, in August that the map was with a friend and once you had recovered (from heart surgery) you would retrieve and return it. “Again, that appears to have been a lie. “You have led this court, the police and the museum a merry dance about the whereabouts of this item. “You were charged in February – you have had eight months to return the map. Not even close to all of that time were you in hospital or recovering from your operation.” The judge said West was a career criminal, having been sentenced by a Hungarian court in 2011 for burglary and by a French court in 2013 for theft, and also had convictions under various identities. She said the map was of “international cultural significance” and that the damage caused to the atlas had “permanently diminished what can be learned from it”. The judge court was told de Wit’s atlases are unique, the two digital copies of the work are incomplete and now the original is “damaged forever”. She added: “Even if you had returned the map, it cannot simply be put back and made good as new.” Judge Welsh said the damage was an “international loss”, adding: “What you did and the damage you have done cannot be understated. “What is lost and damaged is lost and damaged forever more, for everybody.” Ms Flain told the court that West, a father-of-two, was “ashamed and embarrassed”, adding: “There is nothing I can say or do to take away from the cultural impact this has caused. “He was under serious financial pressure, he was in debt and told me he couldn’t meet basic living costs. “The offending was financially motivated and driven by what he perceived to be necessity. “It was a short-term, pressured decision by an elderly man living in difficult circumstances. He made a serious but isolated lapse of judgement.” The judge said she accepted that West had stolen the map for financial gain, adding: “You weren’t stealing pennies, or food, you were stealing a niche item worth an incredible amount of money. “Anyone who steals an item like that knows full well the damage they are causing.” Sentencing West to three years in prison for criminal damage, with concurrent sentences of 16 months for theft and six months for possession of a blade, the judge said she would not suspend the sentence. She said: “Offences of this nature call for an immediate sentence of imprisonment to deter other people from doing precisely what you have.” In a victim impact statement, the museum said the loss of the centrepiece map of the atlas, which scholars from around the world travel to study, “undermines its bibliographical integrity”. The museum has had to spend thousands of pounds reviewing its security arrangements and has been left with the “very real concern this could inspire copycat crimes targeting other items in the collection”. Detective Constable Sophie Hayes, of the Met Police’s art and antiques unit, said after the sentencing: “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 Caird Library is an internationally important resource, used by scholars the world over. “Thefts like this mean the only people who profit from these beautiful artefacts are the thieves themselves.”