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September 13, 2009

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Hunt for Buddhas thief

TWO people have been detained for allegedly looting 14 stone sculptures of Buddha heads dating back to around 1,000 years ago from a temple in Shaanxi Province, an official said yesterday.

A third suspect, who is believed to have all the sculptures, is still at large. The items are on a national list of protected cultural heritage.

The three men pretended to be tourists and entered Wan'an Buddha Hall in Huangling County about 5:30pm on Friday. They tied up and beat the three employees of the temple, robbing them of their cash and cell phones.

Then the three cut off the heads of 14 Buddha statues, all about 9 centimeters to 15 centimeters tall, which were engraved during the Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127), and escaped, said Wang Chunmei, director of the county's press office.

Police seized Zhang Yingjie and Zhang Mingqiang about 8pm the same day after receiving a tip-off, but the third suspect was still at large, said Wang.







 

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