Colombia stunned by theft of Garcia Marquez’s first edition

BOGOTA, Colombia — Colombian police are investigating the theft of a valuable first edition copy of Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s masterpiece “One Hundred Years of Solitude.”

The book disappeared over the weekend from a display case at Bogota’s book fair which this year is honoring the Nobel Prize-winning author.

The first edition is just one of 8,000 copies published in 1967 by an Argentine editorial house and a signed copy like the one stolen can command as much as $23,000 online.

But the book’s owner says the true value is sentimental after he spent years hunting for the copy and getting the author to sign a dedicatory note.

“It’s a very panful loss,” Alvaro Castillo told The Associated Press on Monday after pulling the rest of his rare book collection from the fair.