””””SHIJIAZHUANG, June 19 (Xinhuanet) -- A security chief responsible for guarding
cultural relics has been arrested after a police investigation into the largest
artifacts theft case since the founding of the People's Republic of China in
1949.
””””Police in Chengde city, north China's Hebei Province, claim Li Haitao,
chief of the relics safekeeping section of Chengde city's Waibamiao cultural
relics management department, stole 158 cultural relics items under his control.
””””Waibamiao is part of the imperial summer resort of the Qing dynasty
(1644-1911).
””””Seventy of the items were allegedly found in Li's home, while some 40
pieces, though already sold, could be retrieved, but the whereabouts of the rest
unknown.
””””Initial investigations indicated several of the 158 relics had been
identified as first grade, the country's highest level, and the rest were second
or third grade.
””””Li had worked at his post since 1990 and police allege he had been stealing
artifacts for about 12 consecutive years.
””””Suspicions were raised in October 2002 when two royal cultural relics
labeled "Forbidden City" were found in an auction in Hong Kong by a visiting
expert from the Chinese mainland.
””””In the 1950s and 1960s, some cultural relics had been sent fromBeijing's
Palace Museum to local museums and not returned.
””””The expert reported his findings to the State Administration ofCultural
Heritage, which carried out a follow-up investigation andspotted Chengde as the
source.
””””Police claim Li had committed the crime clumsily, simply by replacing the
stolen items with fakes made beforehand.
””””Finding that no one had noticed the situation in his museum, Lithen
directly took the cultural relics home without bothering to make copies. All he
did was alter the registration records of the relics in the museum, police
allege.
””””Holding keys for the three consecutive gates of the repository of the
museum, Li had easy access to the items.
””””Though Waibamiao section had changed its head five times, none of them had
ever checked the number of the relics, a serious breach of their duties.
””””Li allegedly tried to flee abroad with a false passport and themoney he
collected from his crimes, according to the police.
””””Investigations into the case are still underway. Enditem
””
””