The identity of the "Piano Man" was shrouded in mystery once again today after a Polish mime artist's claim that the mute musician was in fact an itinerant French busker was rejected by the Frenchman's family.

Almost 500 people have called a helpline to offer their ideas as to the identity of the man, who was found wandering along the beachfront at Sheerness on the Isle of Sheppey in Kent last month.

But the first clear lead appeared to come yesterday when Darius Dydymski, a 33-year-old Pole living in Rome, went to police to say that he recognised the man as his friend Steven Villa Massone, a street musician from the southern French city of Nice.

Charles Bremner, Paris Correspondent of The Times, said that he spoke to relatives of M Massone this morning and the musician was still in Nice and was out performing with his keyboard as normal.

"The amnesiac is not Steve," said the musician's sister, Julie Villa Massone. "I saw my brother yesterday in Nice."

The news put paid to hopes that the pianist's identity had been discovered, forcing Kent hospital officials to trawl through their list of leads once again. A suggestion that he is a pianist from Sussex has already been ruled out.

Michael Camp, a social worker who has been looking after the Piano Man since he was found, said today that 300 other names had been given to the helpline, which had also received calls and e-mails from Australia, Canada, Sweden and Holland.

The man, also known as "Mr X", was discovered wandering aimlessly along a beachfront road on April 7. He was smartly dressed in a dark suit and tie, but was soaked to the skin. The police officers who found him and took him to the Medway Maritime Hospital decided that he might even have been in the sea.

He has not spoken a word since. When he was given a piece of paper to communicate with, he drew an intricate picture of a grand piano and a Swedish flag. No Swedish connection has been found, but he was immediately taken to the hospital piano, where he played for four hours non-stop.

Initial reports that Mr X was a professional or virtuoso pianist have now been discounted - hospital officials and social workers say that he appears to be a gifted amateur with a limited repertoire.

There have been suggestions - including several from Times Online readers - that he is an autistic savant or suffers from Asperger's Syndrome and has become mute after suffering a bereavement.

One reader, David Jordan, who has mild Asperger's Syndrome himself and runs a self-help group in Ireland, said that autism would explain his desire to escape into music - and also the fact that the labels in his clothes had been cut out since autistic people were highly sensitive and often found labels itchy.

Mr Jordan said: "Most autistic savants are musical and most of the time the play the piano. Playing the piano is a way of controlling sound and making the environment safe. Music is a means of relaxation."

In the meantime, Hollywood producers are already circling hoping to pick up the film rights to the man's story - once its ending becomes clear.

Bard Dorros, of the management and production company Smart Entertainment, told The Guardian: "The Piano Man's situation makes us ask so many questions about issues such as the fragility of the human mind, the nature of communication, and the importance, or unimportance, of identity."

In fact, the Piano Man story bears an uncanny resemblance to a British film released last year starring Dame Maggie Smith and Dame Judi Dench.

The film, Ladies in Lavender, tells the story of two spinster sisters living on the Cornish coast in the 1930s whose lives are transformed when a young man - who cannot speak any English but is a virtuoso violinist - is washed up on their beach.

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