A retrieved bronze cultural relic is seen in Xianyang City, northwest China's Shaanxi Province, Nov. 17, 2017. Chinese police have caught 91 suspected tomb raiders and antique smugglers, and retrieved more than 1,100 cultural relics, the Ministry of Public Security announced Friday. (Xinhua/Liang Aiping)
BEIJING, Nov. 17 (Xinhua) -- Chinese police have caught 91 suspected tomb raiders and antique smugglers, and retrieved more than 1,100 cultural relics, the Ministry of Public Security announced Friday.
The investigation lasted over a year, with arrests made in Shaanxi, Shanxi, Gansu, and Henan province, said the police.
The operation started July 2016 after police in Chunhua county, northwest China's Shaanxi Province, were alerted that the tomb of Lady Gouyi, a concubine of Emperor Wu (141 B.C.- 87 B.C.) and the mother of Emperor Zhao (87 B.C.- 74 B.C.) of the Han Dynasty (202 B.C.-A.D.220 ), had been raided.
