Gang Members Found Guilty in $79 Million U.K. Museum Thefts
- February 29, 2016 13:01
After a four-year investigation, members of an international organized crime gang have been found guilty in the thefts of artifacts worth up to £57m ($79m). Fourteen men will be sentenced in April for the raids on museums and an auction house in the U.K.
Chinese jade and rhino horn were among the items stolen in Cambridge, Durham, Norwich and Lewes, East Sussex.
Durham University Oriental Museum, Gorringes Auction House in Lewes, Norwich Castle Museum and the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge were some of the main targets. A group of 18 important jade pieces from the Fitzwilliam have not been recovered.
Detectives maintained that the stolen items could be valued up to £57m ($79m) on the "booming" Chinese auction market.
_-Closing-the-Distance_100x100_c.jpg "Lot 204: Bob Kuhn (1920–2007),Closing the Distance, 1977, acrylic on masonite, 24 x 48 in, Sold: $409,500")
![A 19th century Seven Piece "Chrysanthemum" Pattern Sterling Silver Coffee & Tea Service, which was exhibited in the Tiffany & Co. booth at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exhibition in Chicago](/images/c/78/96/Tiffany___Co__Makers_Seven_Piece_"Chrysanthem100x100_c.jpg "A 19th century Seven Piece \"Chrysanthemum\" Pattern Sterling Silver Coffee & Tea Service, which was exhibited in the Tiffany & Co. booth at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exhibition in Chicago")
