LILLE.- Six Frenchmen were arrested after the theft of a Ming vase, stolen in April in the museo real de Mariemont en Blgica and found on Tuesday in Roubaix (north of France), They indicated on Thursday the shelf French and the Belgian prosecutor.
This 16th century Chinese porcelain was the target of thieves, who entered the royal museum on the night of April 20, said the head of the regional judicial police service, Suzanne Moser.
The thieves only stole this piece with an estimated value of 20 million euros, but they broke its cover during the theft. The museum had received a ransom demand of several million euros, the police chief said.
Investigacin
Following investigations launched by Belgian authorities, a vast cross-border police operation was organized on Tuesday.
Two suspects were arrested on a French public road in Roubaix, near Lille, and two on the Belgian side of the border. Two other people were arrested on Wednesday and Thursday in the surroundings of Lille, police commissioner Moser said.
The suspects, of French nationality, are young people from Lille and with judicial records.
The vase, decorated with fish and multicolored aquatic plants, classified as a treasure from the Belgian Wallonia-Brussels region, was described by the Mariemont museum as a: “masterpiece of Chinese imperial workshops, dating from the 16th century (Ming Dynasty)” .
FUENTE: AFP
