Society

Police nab suspect of Palace Museum heist

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2011-05-11 23:30

BEIJING - Beijing police said Wednesday that they have apprehended a person, who is suspected of stealing several art pieces from the Palace Museum in Beijing's heavily-guarded Forbidden City.

The suspect, named Shi Baikui, male, 28, from east China's Shandong Province, was caught by police at 7:40 p.m. Wednesday in Fengtai District in Beijing, 58 hours after the relics were stolen, police said.

The missing items were on loan from the Hong Kong-based Liang Yi Museum and were discovered missing at 8:20 a.m Monday. They include small Western-style make-up cases encrusted with jewels.

As of now, Shi confessed he had stolen the relics in the Palace Museum and he has been detained, police said, revealing no more details about the man.

Police said some of the stolen items have been recovered. An investigation into the theft is still underway.

According to the police, a museum staff member found and questioned a "suspicious" man in the museum at 10:30 p.m. Sunday night. The man fled when the worker called museum authorities to report the man's presence.

Several pieces of art were later found missing from a temporary exhibition in the museum.