The Age, May 18 2005

(excerpt - )

A Polish man living in Italy claims the so-called Piano Man is a French street musician he once worked with in Nice.

Italian police said the 33-year-old illegal immigrant had approached officers at the Trevi Fountain in Rome after seeing the pianist's photograph in a newspaper.

He said the man, who has not spoken since he was found wandering aimlessly near a beach in Minster on the Isle of Sheppey, Kent, was a French street musician named Steven Villa Masson.

The Pole said he had worked with Mr Masson in the French Riviera resort of Nice.

Social worker Michael Camp, who has been looking after the man since he was found on April 7 wearing a dripping wet suit and tie, said last night: "It is a possibility and we will follow it up tomorrow.

"Until we get some really firm evidence where somebody can show us a picture of him or anything concrete, then it is a possibility and nothing more."