China wants “severe punishment” for the Philadelphia man fingered for stealing a thumb off an ancient terracotta statue.
China wants “severe punishment” for the Philadelphia man fingered for stealing a thumb off an ancient terracotta statue.
Michael Rohana was charged with stealing a thumb from the 2,000-year-old warrior statue last December during an ugly sweater party at the Franklin Institute.
He broke the thumb off the $4.5 million statue during the party after taking a selfie with the artifact, court documents allege.
Rohana was keeping the thumb in a desk drawer.
Man takes selfie, then steals thumb from $4.5M statue
“We ask that the U. S. severely punish the perpetrator,” Wu Haiyun, a Chinese cultural official, told state-run TV, according to the BBC . “We have lodged a serious protest with them.”
Wu runs the Shaanxi Cultural Heritage Promotion Centre, which loaned 10 statues to the Franklin Institute for the “Terracotta Warriors of the First Emperor” exhibit.
