A man who admitted stealing and damaging a rare 17th-century map from the National Maritime Museum has been jailed for three years, bringing the criminal case to a close while the missing item remains unaccounted for.
Melvin West was sentenced at Woolwich Crown Court on Thursday, 22 October, after pleading guilty to theft, criminal damage and possession of a bladed article. The court also imposed a 10-year Criminal Behaviour Order barring him from being alone in any reading room of a museum or library in England and Wales.
Map remains missing
The map was taken from the Caird Library at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich. The item, titled Nova Orbis Tabula, is a double-hemisphere world map produced by Dutch cartographer Frederick de Wit. It formed one of 12 maps in an atlas printed in 1684.
The Metropolitan Police says the map has not been recovered and enquiries to find it are continuing. Its appeal is for anyone with information about where it may be to contact police so it can be returned to the library. The sentence does not resolve the separate question of the map’s whereabouts.
How the theft was discovered
Police were called at about 3pm on 26 February 2025 after library staff found a small knife beneath a desk in the reading area. West had used the desk earlier that day. Staff then established that the atlas he had been viewing had been cut and one of its maps was missing.
Investigators reviewed the circumstances and identified West as the library visitor who had handled the atlas. Police say CCTV showed him removing the map with a small knife and concealing it in his clothing. Officers found he had visited the library on three earlier occasions and had registered for a reader’s card using the name Melville West.
West was arrested at an address in Chingford on 4 March 2025. The guilty pleas later established his responsibility for the theft, the damage to the atlas and possession of the bladed article. The guilty pleas and sentence conclude the criminal proceedings for those offences; the recovery enquiry remains open.
Sentence and continuing recovery appeal
The three-year term was imposed at Woolwich Crown Court. The additional order means West must not be alone in a museum or library reading room anywhere in England and Wales for 10 years. The restriction is distinct from the prison sentence and applies to the specified settings covered by the order.
The police investigation brought together officers from the force’s specialist art and antiques unit and museum staff. The force has said that locating nationally important artefacts remains part of the work after an offender has been brought before the court. In this case, the official account states plainly that the map is still missing.
Royal Museums Greenwich said the criminal case, on which it worked closely with police, had been brought to a close. That statement concerns the prosecution, not the return of the map. The institution’s collection includes material used by researchers, and the absent map cannot currently be consulted as part of the atlas in the Caird Library.
The map is therefore the subject of a continuing recovery appeal even though the sentencing has concluded the criminal case. Anyone who knows its whereabouts is being asked to pass that information to the Metropolitan Police. No recovery has been announced, and the item should not be treated as found.
The case centres on both the criminal outcome and the unresolved loss of an individual historical object. West has been sentenced for the offences to which he pleaded guilty, and the court has imposed a restriction on his access to reading rooms. Police enquiries now continue with the aim of tracing the 1684 map and returning it to the Greenwich library where it was held.
