Art theft leads to death sentence
An official once in charge of guarding cultural relics has been sentenced to death in China’s biggest antiquities theft case since the start of Communist rule in 1949.
Li Haitao was convicted of stealing 259 objects, some of them national treasures, from an imperial villa in Chengde, a city north of Beijing, the official Xinhua News Agency reported this week.
Four accomplices were sentenced to terms ranging from two to seven years for trafficking in stolen relics, Xinhua said.
Chinese museums are believed to have lost thousands of centuries-old paintings, porcelains and other antiquities to theft by employees or gangs helped by corrupt officials.
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