Beijing Museum Official Gets Life for Stealing Relics
A Beijing museum official has been sentenced to life imprisonment for stealing imperial relics and then destroying some of them to avoid detection, the Beijing Evening News said Friday.
The newspaper said Liu Junqi, 33, stole a cup, clothes, diamonds and a hat, worth a total of $7,600, from the Capital Museum between April, 1987, and September, 1988.
He sold part of his booty for $1,080 and used the proceeds to buy sofas and carpets. When the losses were discovered, he destroyed or threw away the rest of his plunder in a bid to escape capture, the paper said.
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