We study the minimal crossing number c(K 1 #K 2 ) of composite knots K 1 #K 2 , where K 1 and K 2 are prime, by relating it to the minimal crossing number of spatial graphs, in particular the 2ntheta-curve θ n K 1 ,K 2 that results from tying n of the edges of the planar embedding of the 2n-theta-graph into K 1 and the remaining n edges into K 2 . We prove that for large enough n we have c(θ n K 1 ,K 2 ) = n(c(K 1 )+c(K 2 )). We also formulate additional relations between the crossing numbers of certain spatial graphs that, if satisfied, imply the additivity of the crossing number or at least give a lower bound for c(K 1 #K 2 ). arXiv:1709.05118v2 [math.GT]