As we go to press, a third man has been arrested in connection with the theft of 18 Chinese artefacts from the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge.
The objects, which are mostly jade, date mainly from the Ming and Qing dynasties, and were taken on 13 April at around 7.30pm. Cambridgeshire police have released CCTV images showing four men and a white VW van thought to have been involved. Dr Victoria Avery, Keeper of the Department of Applied Arts, said: ‘The 18 treasures that were stolen belong to the public, and were housed at the museum so that they would be available for all to see and study. We urge anyone with information to contact the police as soon as possible.’ The museum’s new exhibition, The Search for Immortality: Tomb Treasures of Han China, will go ahead as planned. For our preview of the exhibition, see p. 59. To see all 18 stolen artefacts and the CCTV images, visit our website: www.world-archaeology.com.
This article is an extract from the full article published in World Archaeology Issue 53. Click here to subscribe