[CPProt.net] Security guard steals 10 mln yuan paintings

[Museum Security and Cultural Property Protection (Ton Cremers)]

Security guard steals 10 mln yuan paintings  
 
www.chinaview.cn 2006-01-17 08:35:58 

    BEIJING, Jan. 17 -- Six paintings worth 10 million yuan (US$1.23m)
stolen from a Guangzhou art studio last month were returned to their owners,
the New Express said yesterday. The thief turned out to be a security guard
employed by the studio. 

    Top Chinese artist Huang Yongyu, who painted the six pieces, traveled to
Guangzhou from his hometown in Hunan Province on Sunday and thanked local
police for recovering the paintings. 

    The Shimofang - or stone mill - art studio, was started in 2003 by a
Guangzhou sculptor Xu Hongfei and seven other artists. It boasts a
collection of paintings, calligraphy works, as well as sculptures by many
famous Chinese artists. 

    The theft was reported Dec. 25 last year when the studio was being
refurbished. Four workers found the paintings missing and noticed blood
stains on the floor of the security room. 

    The security guard, identified as Ah Cheng, won the confidence of Xu,
who gave him keys to every room in the studio. The man, in his early 20s,
destroyed the cameras and the monitoring system before stealing the
paintings. He also took away several DVD recordings of Huang creating the
paintings. 

    Police decided Ah Cheng was the suspect and were able to track him down
in Nantong, a city in East China's Jiangsu Province. 

    Huang's paintings are normally auctioned at between 540,000 yuan and
630,000 yuan per square meter in Hong Kong. 

     

    (Source: Shenzhen Daily)