Jailed Again: Specialist Thief Who Cut 17th Century Map From Museum Atlas

Prolific Thief: West

A career criminal, who cut a unique seventeenth century world map from a valuable atlas at the National Maritime Museum for a secret buyer, was sentenced to three years imprisonment today.

Melvin West, 70, used a Stanley blade to slice out the page, depicting Dutch cartographer Frederick de Wit’s double hemisphere 100 Nova Orbis - one of only three in the world.

“It is not just the financial damage, this is an international loss of an item of great cultural significance,” Woolwich Crown Court Judge Charlotte Welsh told him.

“What is lost and damaged is lost and damaged for evermore,” she told West, who between 1969 and 2015 was sentenced for a total of 107 offences in the UK and continental Europe.

He visited The Caird Library at the Greenwich museum on December 19 and 20, 2024 and on February 25, last year, before eventually cutting out the map when left alone on February 26.

“It has a value on the black market and must have been stolen with a buyer in mind and it is with regret we don’t know who you sold it to,” added Judge Welsh. “You have been evasive to say the least.”

West, of Old Church Road, Chingford, east London pleaded guilty to causing criminal damage to the antique atlas; stealing the antique map, worth £6,000 and being in possession of a yellow and black retractable Stanley knife.

Frederick de Wit is regarded as a master within the world of the ‘Dutch Golden Age’ of cartography, producing the atlas in 1684 with only two other examples in Utrecht and Vienna.

The museum estimated the atlas’s value at £50,000 - reduced to £20,000 after West’s damage with the map page alone worth £6,000 on the black market.

The Metropolitan Police say father-of-two West has a history of specifically stealing high-value unique items in this country and abroad.

West dangled the prospect of retrieving the map page he cut out, obtaining at least two court adjournments and even asking for another chance today to retrieve it.

“The defendant has led the court, the police and the museum on a merry dance. I don’t believe a word of it,” said Judge Welsh, refusing to give West another week to retrieve the map.

Cutting The Atlas: West

The court heard staff found the discarded blade and DNA linked it to West, who was also identified on CCTV as the last person alone in the reading room, where the atlas was damaged.

When police raided his home on March 4, last year officers searched for the map page, which West claims is with a restorer, who will not release it until he is paid in full.

The museum describes it as a “symbolic work of art” and the “harm goes far beyond the monetary value,” revealing they have invested £6,000 in new CCTV cameras and are considering a £5,000 security barrier.

“Mr West is ashamed and embarrassed by the offences and recognises he was wrong,” said Jessica Flain, defending, urging the court to pass a suspended prison sentence, which would allow her client to return the map.

“At the time he was under serious financial pressure and his pension credit did not meet his basic living costs. His offending was financially motivated.

“It was a short-term pressured decision by an old man living in difficult circumstances,” she said of the father-of-two, who had double heart by-pass surgery in June.

West has served lengthy prison sentences for drug dealing in this country, been locked-up in Hungary for burglary and sentenced for theft in France.

“You removed it with a slash of a blade you brought with you for that purpose,” Judge Welsh told West. “You were identified as the thief via DNA on the knife and recorded on CCTV.

“This was a planned offence and today you are again asking for time to retrieve the map from a nameless person, but you have had eight months do that when you were not in hospital or recovery.

“This item is of international cultural significance. It is unique, it is bespoke and experts from all over the world travel to Greenwich to study that map.

“You have a very, very long history of offending in this country and other European countries. You are a career criminal,” added the judge.

“You were stealing a highly significant niche item of high value. Someone stealing an item like that knows what damage they are causing.

“There was a high degree of planning and pre-meditation. You have not changed your ways, it is a reflection of who you are, a person of dishonest character.”

West was also made subject to a ten-year Criminal Behaviour Order, which prohibits him entering any museum or library room unsupervised.