The Shaanxi Cultural Heritage Promotion Center will be sending conservationists in the United States to assist in the repairing of the defaced Terracotta Warrior that had its thumb stolen by one of the visitors in the museum in Philadelphia.
On Sunday, the cultural heritage department said that the US departments involved in the protection of relics in the country and that the parties involved will be held legally accountable.
The department also shared that after organizing 260 overseas exhibitions in 40 years, this is the first time they have encountered a situation like what has occurred last week.
The Terracotta Warrior in question, which dates back 209 BC, is just one of the 10 Terracotta Warrior statutes currently on display at the Franklin Institute in Pennsylvania. The exhibit will run until March 4th.
According to Wang Dongfeng, one of the cultural relics repair expert of Shaanxi's Emperor Qinshinhuang's Mausoleum Site Museum, the repairs on the defaced Terracotta Warrior may take at least three to five months to do because it is quite complicated.
This is not the first time theft of old Chinese cultural relics was recorded as there were similar cases in the 1980s and in the 1990s. However, considering the improvement of modern technology, stealing these artifacts are now difficult to do.
Back to the case, US officials arrested 24-year-old Michael Rohana, who was involved with the theft and was released on a $15,000 bail. His passport was surrendered and he is to undergo drug testing and not leave the country until the trials.
The missing thumb of the Terracotta Warrior was noticed on January 8 and the FBI found Rohana days a few days later.
