BOGOTA, May 5 — A signed first edition of Nobel Prize-winning Colombian author Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s masterpiece “One Hundred Years of Solitude” has been stolen at the Bogota International Book Fair, police said yesterday.

The book, one of just 8,000 copies printed in 1967 by an Argentine publishing house, was on display in a locked case as part of a pavilion dedicated to Macondo, the mythical town that features in the novel and other works by the author, who died last year.

It disappeared on Saturday, said Bogota police chief Humberto Guatibonza.

“We’re looking at the cameras. Unfortunately there were none at the stand, but there were at the entrance to the pavilion,” he said.

About 8,000 people passed through the exhibit that day, he said.

The text belonged to book dealer Alvaro Castillo, who collects first editions by Garcia Marquez, a founding father of magical realism.

The author had signed it: “To Alvaro Castillo, the old book-seller, as yesterday and always. Your friend, Gabriel.” — AFP