China seeks payback on terracotta army vandal
CHINA/US: China has demanded that an American man be ‘‘severely punished’’ after he was alleged to have stolen a thumb from a terracotta warrior while it was on display at a museum in the United States.
Chinese authorities have also demanded compensation for the exhibit, which was on display at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia.
Reports said that Michael Rohana, 24, from Delaware, attended an ‘‘ugly Christmas jumper party’’ at the institute on December 21 last year on his way into the special exhibit, Terracotta Warriors of the First Emperor.
China’s Xinhua news agency, citing the FBI, said Rohana ‘‘used a cellular telephone as a flashlight, looked at various exhibits displayed in the then-closed showroom, stepped up on to a platform supporting one of the statues, and took a selfie with it’’.
‘‘Rohana, according to the affidavit, put his hand on the left hand of the statue, appeared to break something off from the Calvaryman’s left hand and put it in his pocket, and then left.’’
The Shaanxi Cultural Heritage Promotion Centre, which arranged the loan of 10 of the statues, ‘‘strongly condemned’’ the theft, according to the Beijing
An official urged US authorities to ‘‘seriously investigate’’ the incident, and to ‘‘punish severely the culprit’’ and launch ‘‘compensation procedures’’.
The centre said it had lent statues over the last 40 years without incident. Another group of 10 terracotta warriors is currently on display at the World Museum in Liverpool.
The statues are among 8000 effigies of soldiers, chariots and horses unearthed in 1974 in Xian, China. The terracotta army guards the burial site of Qin Shi Huang, China’s first emperor.