Mistrial declared in terracotta warrior theft case

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A mistrial was declared in the case of an American man who confessed to breaking the thumb off a terracotta warrior, in a courtroom in Philadelphia on Tuesday.

Seven out of the 12-person jury thought that Michael Rohana, who was charged with theft and concealment of an object of cultural heritage, should be acquitted, while prosecutors asked jurors to reconsider by likening the case to the theft of part of the clock on the city's Independence Hall.

Theft of terracotta warrior thumb

The 2,200-year-old terracotta warrior, known as “The Cavalryman” was on loan to a Philadelphia museum for an exhibition from September 2017 to March 2018.

Screenshot from CCTV video shows a thumb snapped off from "The Cavalryman." /Photo via CCTV

In December 21, 2017, Rohana, who was attending a party at the Franklin Institute, sneaked into a closed exhibit and was captured on surveillance cameras taking photos next to the statue, and snapping the statue's left thumb off and putting it in his pocket.

It took more than two weeks for the museum to discover the incident, and it was exposed by media months later in February 2018.

Terracotta warriors, which had been buried beside China's first emperor, Qin Shihuang, in northwest China's Shaanxi Province, has been hailed as "the eighth wonder of the world" and listed as a world heritage. What happened to one of the few fully restored terracotta figures recovered in the 1970s sparked fury among Chinese.

The official responsible for the overseas exhibition of terracotta warriors from the province's cultural relics exchange center said an incident like that had never happened in the more than 40 years the warriors have been on loan overseas.

A dumb mistake?

Screenshot from CCTV video shows the Franklin Institute. /Photo via CCTV

In the courtroom, Rohana told the jury that it was a dumb mistake. "I don't know why I broke it," the Associated Press quoted him as saying. "It didn't just happen, but there was never a thought of, 'I should break this.'"

His lawyer, describing the 25-year-old suspect a “drunken kid,” and argued Rohana wasn't charged under the right law. “These charges were made for art thieves – think like 'Ocean's Eleven' or 'Mission: Impossible',” the lawyer was cited as saying by the Associated Press.

Assistant U.S. Attorney K.T. Newton dismissed those arguments. "Michael Rohana deliberately broke the thumb," Newton said. "He took it out of the Franklin Institute and he took it home. That is theft. That is stealing."

Poster of the terracotta warriors exhibition in the Franklin Institute. /The Franklin Institute Photo

The jurors were dismissed on Tuesday. Prosecutors will decide whether to retry the case before May 15.

It was not the first time terracotta warriors suffered after leaving the motherland.

In 1983, when the terracotta warriors were on exhibit in Japan, a Japanese tourist smashed the glass protective cover and pushed the statues to the ground, causing serious damage to the relics.

The Chinese government shipped the terracotta warriors back ahead of schedule, and the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs sent someone in person to China to apologize afterwards.

(with inputs from Associated Press)

(Top image: "The Cavalryman" shown before and after the theft at the Franklin Institute museum. /Photo via the official WeChat account of Xinhua News Agency)