A lot of harsh words came from the Shaanxi Cultural Heritage Promotion Centre, as well as Chinese authorities, after a man stole a thumb from a terracotta warrior.

On display at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, reports suggest that 24-year-old Michael Rohana was – wait for it – attending an “ugly Christmas jumper party” at the institute on December 21 of last year.

During the party, as one does, Rohana then went through an “unlocked door into the Terracotta Warriors of the First Emperor exhibition,” reports The Guardian, and that’s where things got messy:

Using his smartphone as a torch, Rohana allegedly entered the exhibition at about 9.15pm on 21 December, embraced one of the ancient sculptures, and took a selfie before appearing to snap off a chunk of its left hand and pocket it.

Museum staff did not notice the absent digit until 8 January. Five days later, having tracked down the suspect through surveillance footage and credit card transactions, investigators went to Rohana’s home.

“Rohana admitted … he had stashed the thumb in his desk drawer,” China’s official news agency Xinhua reported.

USA Today said a friend of Rohana had seen a photo of the missing thumb on Snapchat.

Rohana was arrested, charged with concealment of a major artwork, and bailed out after surrendering his passport.

The statue, before and after Rohana’s criminal embrace:

China has now demanded the American man be “severely punished” for the damage caused to the R54 million exhibit:

Wu Haiyun, the head of the group that loans the terracotta army to overseas museums, told Chinese television a “serious protest” had been lodged. “We ask that the US severely punish the perpetrator,” Wu added.

He urged the US authorities to “seriously investigate” the incident, to “punish severely the culprit” and launch “compensation procedures”.

The centre said it had loaned statues over the last 40 years, but had never experienced a similar incident before:

According to the South China Morning Post, another official said: “The terracotta warriors are national treasures … We express strong resentment and condemnation towards this theft and the destruction of our heritage.”

The affected statue is a 2 000-year-old sculpture called Cavalryman. He is one member of the terracotta army, an “8 000-strong earthenware force commissioned to be buried alongside, and guard the tomb of, China’s first emperor, Qin Shi Huang”.

The statues were first unearthed in 1974 in Xian, in China’s northwestern Shaanxi province.

I think this one can be summed up as another moron doing damage to America’s reputation with the Chinese. Poor form, Michael.

[source:telegraph&theguardian]