An American man broke the thumb of the US$4.5 Million China's terracotta warrior statue while on display at a museum in Philadelphia. The incident took place more than a year ago and a trial was held for vandalism charges.
According to South China Morning Post, the jury in the US court failed to reach a verdict during the trial of a 25-year-old man who admitted to breaking the thumb of the multi-million statue that China loaned to the museum. Thus, the trial ended in the declaration of a mistrial.
The offender identified as Michael Rohana was charged with vandalism after he snapped off the thumb of an ancient terracotta warrior in December 2017. Based on the narration, the 25-year-old was attending a party at the Franklin Institute when he decided to enter a closed exhibit area where the Chinese statue known as "The Cavalryman" was located.
After taking photos with the valuable relic, he suddenly detached the statue's right thumb and took it home with him. The incident has been captured on surveillance cameras but it took a few days before the museum officials noticed the missing thumb.
During the Rohana's trial, he did not deny the fact that he broke off the 2,000-year-old terracotta warrior's thumb and even admitted that he brought it home. However, he was charged with theft and concealment of an object of cultural heritage. With this, his lawyer argued that her client has been charged under the wrong law.
Rohana's counsel explained that what the court is charging the man is for real art thieves whereas, her client was just a drunk kid who wandered off and ended up in front of the Chinese relic.
"These charges were made for art thieves - think like Ocean's Eleven or Mission: Impossible," Fox News quoted Catherine C. Henry, a federal public defender, as saying during her closing arguments. "Rohana wasn't in ninja clothing sneaking around the museum. He was a drunk kid in a bright green ugly Christmas sweater."
Michael Rohana also testified in court and he said that what he did was a dumb mistake. "I don't know why I broke it," he told the jurors. "It did not just happen, but there was never a thought of, 'I should break this.'"
Meanwhile, the vandalism reportedly outraged the officials in China since the museum failed to protect something that is very precious in the Chinese heritage. Besides, it was only loaned and will be returned with one part missing as the thumb was never reattached.
In a new update, BBC News reported that China wants Michael Rohana to get severe punishment. It was said that officials from the Shaanxi Provincial Cultural Relics exchange center remarked that this is the first time that such a cruel incident happened in the 40 years that China held over 260 cultural exhibitions.
Chen Lusheng, former staff at the National Museum in China added that for them, it was emotionally difficult to accept a mistrial verdict. In view of this, it was reported that China will investigate the responsibility of the Franklin Institute or anyone who may be held liable for the damaging of a cultural treasure.
