An American man was recently arrested by the FBI for causing significant damage to one of the famed Terracotta Warriors statues.
The man was attending, “an ugly-sweater party,” according to the FBI at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
The incident took place on the evening of December 21. Video shows the man, Michael Rohana walk into a closed off area, where he, “took a selfie and then broke a piece of the thumb off”.
The statue which Rohana damaged is said to be worth $4.5 million and the thumb that he broke off is worth around $5,000. Ten Terracotta Warriors were sent to the Franklin Institute on loan from China. The exhibit wasn’t open. In a statement which T+L shared, “the museum said that a security contractor did not adhere to “standard closing procedures.”
What’s crazy about the story is that nobody even noticed that the thumb was missing until over two weeks later. Soon after, the FBI figured out that Rohana committed the crime. When an FBI agent came to Rohana’s house he took the officer upstairs, where he got the thumb from a desk drawer.
China is mad and would love to see Rohana go to jail. As for the damaged statue, China is sending experts to the U.S. to help try to fix it.
Find out more from T+L here.
Wonderful Wanda-I was thinking the same thing- why would China want to loan items out if they aren’t safe at museums in the US.
He’ll have to pay a huge fine, do jail time in the USA or China. There really was no reason for someone to cut off a thumb. This will make it harder for the USA to get an more loaner items to museums.