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Chinese authorities have demanded a severe punishment for an American man who allegedly stole the thumb of a terracotta warrior statue on display in the US.
The BBC reports 24-year-old Michael Rohana was attending an Ugly Sweater Party at Philadelphia's Franklin Institute in December when he made his way into the museum's terracotta warriors exhibit and took a selfie with one of the statues.
Mr Rohana is then alleged to have snapped off the 2,000-year-old statue's thumb and slipped it in his pocket.
The museum did not notice the thumb was missing for more than two weeks.
Photo:
An image taken of the terracotta warrior before its thumb was stolen. (TripAdvisor: Mandy007)
When the FBI arrived at Mr Rohana's home, he admitted to keeping the artefact in a drawer in his bedroom.
The director of China's Shaanxi Cultural Heritage Promotion Centre Wu Haiyun "strongly condemned" the Franklin Institute for being "careless" with the statues.
"We have nearly 40 years' experience in sending artefacts overseas for exhibition … This sort of nasty incident has never happened," Mr Wu told state media.
"We ask that the US severely punish the perpetrator. We have lodged a serious protest with them."
Mr Wu said there would be a claim for compensation.
A spokeswoman for the Franklin Institute told the Philadelphia Inquirer it was working with the FBI to "ensure that justice for the individual responsible is served."
The terracotta army, discovered in China's Xi'an city in 1974, has been described as the greatest archaeological find of the 20th Century.
The statues were built by the Chinese emperor Qin Shi Huang, who died in 210BCE, in the belief they would protect him in the afterlife.
Ten of the 8,000 life-size clay warriors are currently on display at the Franklin Institute.
Chinese social media users were surprised the statues loaned out to the institute were kept less securely than those at museums back home.
"There is no protection? Those shown in Xi'an are all protected by glass," one Weibo user wrote.
"Can we put a bullet-proof glass over these national treasures when they are on an overseas exhibition," another asked.
Mr Wu told state media his organisation would revise its standards when it comes to loaning out statues for "bare exhibitions" overseas.
He said it would also send experts who specialise in repairing terracotta warrior statues to the US to inspect the exhibition.
"Now we only have video and image materials. We have to be at the scene to assess the extent of the damage and then repair the artefact," he said.
Translations by Xiaoning Mo, Asia Pacific Newsroom.
Topics: library-museum-and-gallery, archaeology, art-history, sculpture, visual-art, united-states
First posted