US man fingered over thumb theft
Beijing angered by defilement of statue
HONG KONG: The warrior was a symbol of martial strength, molded from terra cotta and buried more than 2,000 years ago with China’s first emperor to defend him in the afterlife.
The statue was helpless, however, against a man in a green sweater and a Phillies hat who, authorities say, sneaked into a closed-off area during a party at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia and stole its thumb.
The man, who was attending the museum’s after-hours ugly-sweater party on Dec 21, entered the terracotta warrior exhibition room and used his mobile phone’s flashlight to view the displays.
Then, according to an affidavit by Jacob Archer, a special agent assigned to the FBI’s art crime team, the man put his arm around the statue and took a selfie.
Authorities said the man, later identified as Michael Rohana, then went for a more permanent memento.
He grabbed the left hand of the statue, which is valued at US$4.5 million, and broke off its thumb. Taking the piece with him, he left with friends for his home in Bear, Delaware.
Mr Rohana, 24, was charged last week in Philadelphia with theft of an artwork from a museum, concealment of the artwork and interstate transportation of stolen property. He was released on bail.
An attorney for Mr Rohana could not immediately be reached for comment.
Mr Archer said he had visited Mr Rohana at his home in Bear, Delaware. When asked if he had anything he wanted to hand over, Mr Rohana said he had a finger, which the FBI agent retrieved from a desk in the man’s bedroom.
News of the theft provoked anger in China, where the terracotta warriors are national treasures and a major tourist attraction. An official from the Shaanxi Cultural Heritage Promotion Center, which organises the display of the statues abroad, asked that the thief be given a tough penalty.
“We call on the American side to severely punish the person who committed this destruction and theft of mankind’s cultural heritage,” the unidentified official told the Beijing Youth Daily, a Communist Party affiliated newspaper, on Sunday.
The official said the centre had offered to send two experts to the United States to repair the statue.
The statue of a cavalryman was one of 10 on display from Sept. 30 to March 4 at the Franklin Institute, along with other ancient artifacts including coins, gold pieces, jade and weapons.
The Franklin Institute said in a statement that a security contractor had not followed “standard closing procedures” the night of the party.
“As a result of this incident, we have thoroughly reviewed our security protocol and procedures, and have taken appropriate action where needed,” it said, adding that it had cooperated with the FBI.
Calling the theft “a deplorable act”, the institute said it would push “to ensure that justice for the individual responsible is served”.
Another group of terracotta warriors is now on display at the World Museum in Liverpool, England. The museum has reviewed procedures and told security guards that “any lapses are intolerable”, the Shaanxi Cultural Heritage Promotion Center official told the Beijing Youth Daily.
The terracotta warriors were built for the tomb of Qin Shi Huang, China’s first emperor. He united much of the country under the short-lived Qin dynasty, which is generally considered the origin of the name “China”.
Thousands of the life-size statues, each unique, were buried with models of horses, chariots and weapons after the emperor’s death in 210BC. The tomb and its contents were not discovered until farmers unearthed some of them in 1974.
Many of the statues are on display at the Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor in Xi’an, China, where they are lined up in vast pits. Many others remain buried. Others still have been removed from the pits and are sent for temporary exhibitions in museums around the world.