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UK Police Arrest 17 Across Country in Artefact Theft Case

September 16, 2013 by Marion Maneker

Fitzwilliam Stolen Jade

Police in the UK are not taking the ring of museum thieves lightly. Knitting together police forces from around the country they’ve made a concerted effort to create real consequences for the theft of artifacts from regional museums, according to the Guardian:

17 men and two women were held in dawn raids involving hundreds of police around England and Northern Ireland. The operation, which follows a pan-European investigation, also involved officers from the Serious Organised Crime Agency.

The arrests were connected to six thefts over a four-month period last year: three at Durham Museum and the others at a Norwich museum,the Fitzwilliam in Cambridge and at Gorringes auction house in Lewes, East Sussex. Items stolen included Chinese antiquities worth more than £15m and a rhinoceros horn. […] So far, eight people have been convicted and jailed for more than 40 years for their roles in the crimes. They include a 15-year-old boy and three men convicted of conspiracy to burgle at the Fitzwilliam. Eighteen Chinese jade pieces worth an estimated £15m were stolen.

Nineteen arrested over museum thefts in series of dawn raid across UK (Guardian)

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Filed Under: Fraud, Theft & Restitution

About Marion Maneker

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