Two of the six maps that have been missing from the Library of the University of Helsinki since late February have been recovered. Officials believe that the maps were stolen by the "gentleman thief" Melvin Perry who was arrested in England earlier this week. The maps that were recovered arrived by mail at the Finnish embassy in London about a week ago. The maps that went missing were from a valuable collection of Finnish explorer Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld. The oldest of the missing maps dates back to the 15th century, and the most recent is from the 17th century.

   

Slightly over a week ago an anonymous caller phoned the switchboard of the Finnish Embassy in London, asking for the name of the embassy's cultural attaché and asked if she opens her own mail.

   

Anna-Maria Liukko, the embassy's Attaché for Cultural and Press Affairs received a poster tube in the mail about a week ago. Liukko had been on sick leave, and when she returned to work she found two old maps inside the package.

   

"A paper with no signature fell from between the maps. The sender sticker was for a company called Cartophile in Cardiff, whose phone number was unknown to directory assistance", Liukko said.

In the letter

the sender wrote: "When I bought maps from a man whose name I now know to be Melvin Perry, I did not know that the maps had been stolen from the Library of the University of Helsinki. Now that I know who he is, I am sure that these maps are part of that collection, and I am returning them."

   

The sender wrote that the he or she cannot condone damaging a map collection 400 years old, and promised to return a third map in a couple of weeks.

   

The embassy will send the maps to the Helsinki University Library at the end of the week.

   

Ambassador Pertti Salolainen said that the embassy is making its own inquiries into who might have returned the maps.

In Helsinki police inspector

Pekka Korhonen says that Finland has issued a request to British authorities for Perry's extradition, and that the issue will come before a court in London on Friday.

   

Korhonen says that he is confident that Perry will be extradited.

   

"However, it remains to be seen how quickly. Estimates vary between a month and two years. Nevertheless I believe that we are moving forward quickly. Everything is in the hands of the court", Korhonen says.

Perry was arrested

by British police on March 16, suspected of stealing maps in The Hague, Stockholm, Copenhagen, and Helsinki, but he was released soon after the arrest. He is now free on GBP 10,000 bail and his passport has been confiscated.

   

Perry and his girlfriend are familiar to local police, and the police say that there is no danger that he would disappear. Still, Korhonen, who visited London last week, is surprised that Perry is not being kept in custody.

   

Police searched Perry's home, but no maps were found.