On Sunday the literary world was rocked by the theft of a rare book by the late great Colombian novelist Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

The first edition of his masterpiece “One Hundred Years of Solitude” was nabbed at the International Book Fair of Bogota. According to the Independent, Alvaro Castillo Granada, the owner of the book said it had been locked away in a cabinet during the festival for safekeeping.

Claimed by both Mexico and Colombia, Garcia Marquez is perhaps the most notable Latin American writer of the second half of the 20th century. Garcia Marquez received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1982 for “for his novels and short stories, in which the fantastic and the realistic are combined in a richly composed world of imagination, reflecting a continent's life and conflicts.”

Since his death last year in April, first editions of his works have increased in value. The book that is currently missing had an estimated value of $60,000.

To the victim of the book theft, it was the inscription on the text that was the true value. 

“To Alvaro Castillo,” wrote Garcia Marquez, “the old-book seller, as yesterday and forever, your friend, Gabo.”

Garcia Marquez often went by the moniker “Gabo” in Latin America.

And for the literary master, it really was small details like book signatures or nicknames that made his stories work.

As he talked about his craft in a 1981 interview in the Paris Review, the author said, “In journalism just one fact that is false prejudices the entire work. In contrast, in fiction one single fact that is true gives legitimacy to the entire work. That’s the only difference, and it lies in the commitment of the writer.

“A novelist can do anything he wants so long as he makes people believe in it.”

Police are currently looking at video footage of the book fair to help track down the thief.