23.02.2018
Franklin Museum Institute in Philadelphia held an exhibition of one of China’s national treasures. This is about 10 sculptures from the famous Terracotta Army. However, the exhibition ended in a scandal. The staff of the museum found that one of the soldiers broke and stole a thumb.
After some time the museum managed to find a thief. It turned out to be 24-year-old Michael Rohan. It is not clear why a young man needed a finger of 2,000-year-old sculptures, but his misdeeds could have very serious consequences. Despite the fact that the American Museum apologized, Shaanxi Cultural Heritage Center, which provided 10 sculptures for exposition, demanded serious punishment for Rohan. The management of the center is going to collect compensation from the museum on the basis of the rental agreement. In the appeal of the Chinese side it is mentioned that the historical and artistic value of the sculpture is “impossible to estimate”. But at the same time, the approximate cost of a Terracotta Warrior is called – $ 4,500,00. A dozen soldiers shown in the exposition are only a small part of the 8100th Army, found in the mausoleum of Emperor Qin Shihuandi. The Terracotta Army is the site of the UNESCO World Heritage Site.