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Museum theft exposes poor management
By China Youth Daily |
March 22, 2012, Thursday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
A THIEF who had stolen gem-studded branded items then on display at the Palace Museum within the Forbidden City was sentenced on Monday to 13 years in jail and fined 13,000 yuan (US$2,058).
The court defended the heavy sentence by pointing to the "enormous damaging social impacts" of Shi's theft.
It would be hard to label Shi as a robber par excellence, because the theft was spur-of-the-moment, not preceded by any premeditation.
Shi had not been equipped with any tools, and had left enough fingerprints to help police net him up 58 hours after the theft.
The simple theft was embarrassing for the high-security museum guarded with a 240-strong patrol crew, police dogs and a high-tech surveillance system.
In fact, the "enormously damaging social impacts" can be more appropriately applied to the victim of the theft, the Palace Museum management, which had been embroiled in eight scandals in the three months after the theft.
The museum staff sent a silk banner to the Beijing police who caught Shi. But the museum used a wrong word, meaning exactly the opposite of what they intended to say. In the past, the museum staff were assumed to be steeped in culture.
Also, thanks to the attention created by the theft, it is revealed that the museum had turned one of its palaces into an exclusive club for the rich.
Shi's theft was enormous in its impacts, as we see, but not all of them damaging. Of course, Shi should count himself lucky. Shi is the first Forbidden City robber to be sentenced after the Chinese Criminal Law amendment in 2010. Previous convicts were either executed or sentenced to life imprisonment.
The court defended the heavy sentence by pointing to the "enormous damaging social impacts" of Shi's theft.
It would be hard to label Shi as a robber par excellence, because the theft was spur-of-the-moment, not preceded by any premeditation.
Shi had not been equipped with any tools, and had left enough fingerprints to help police net him up 58 hours after the theft.
The simple theft was embarrassing for the high-security museum guarded with a 240-strong patrol crew, police dogs and a high-tech surveillance system.
In fact, the "enormously damaging social impacts" can be more appropriately applied to the victim of the theft, the Palace Museum management, which had been embroiled in eight scandals in the three months after the theft.
The museum staff sent a silk banner to the Beijing police who caught Shi. But the museum used a wrong word, meaning exactly the opposite of what they intended to say. In the past, the museum staff were assumed to be steeped in culture.
Also, thanks to the attention created by the theft, it is revealed that the museum had turned one of its palaces into an exclusive club for the rich.
Shi's theft was enormous in its impacts, as we see, but not all of them damaging. Of course, Shi should count himself lucky. Shi is the first Forbidden City robber to be sentenced after the Chinese Criminal Law amendment in 2010. Previous convicts were either executed or sentenced to life imprisonment.
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