Notorious art thief, 70, who used Stanley knife to rip £6K map from 350-year-old atlas in museum library is jailed for three years

Melvin West, 70, has been jailed for three years after cutting a rare seventeenth-century map from an atlas at the National Maritime Museum’s Caird Library. The map, one of only three known examples, is still missing, and the judge said West had repeatedly misled the court about its whereabouts.

West visited the Greenwich library several times before cutting one of the atlas’s 12 maps on 26 February 2025. Staff found a discarded blade, DNA linked it to him, and CCTV showed he was the last person alone in the reading room. The atlas was valued at £50,000 before the damage and £20,000 afterwards; the map is estimated to be worth £6,000 on the black market. West pleaded guilty to theft, criminal damage and possessing a bladed article; the court also heard he has 27 convictions for 107 offences in the UK.