The sculpture was part of a temporary exhibit of 10 statues, on loan from China, where "[t]housands of the life-size statues, each unique" were buried with Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor, who died in 210 B.C.,
the NYT reports.
“We call on the American side to severely punish the person who committed this destruction and theft of mankind’s cultural heritage,” the unidentified [Chinese] official told the Beijing Youth Daily, a Communist Party affiliated newspaper, on Sunday.
After-hours ugly-sweater partiers were allowed to mingle with these statues?
The Franklin Institute said in a statement that a security contractor had not followed “standard closing procedures” the night of the party. “As a result of this incident, we have thoroughly reviewed our security protocol and procedures, and have taken appropriate action where needed,” it said, adding that it had cooperated with the F.B.I. Calling the theft “a deplorable act,” the institute said it would push “to ensure that justice for the individual responsible is served.”
You mean the individual who didn't secure the area or just the idiot from Delaware who behaved like a moron at an ugly-sweater party?
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34 comments:
Every single time I try to write "statue," I typo "statute." Speaking of thumbs, it's something I hate about my fingers.
“We call on the American side to severely punish the person who committed this destruction and theft of mankind’s cultural heritage,”
A finger for a finger.
Walter Sobchak:
You want a toe? I can get you a toe, believe me. There are ways, Dude. You don't wanna know about it, believe me.
The Dude:
Yeah, but Walter...
Walter Sobchak:
Hell, I can get you a toe by 3 o'clock this afternoon... with nail polish.
The Institute shifts responsibility to "a security contractor," but it was responsible to ensure that the security is handled properly. It allows parties to be held in the museum after hours, among the artwork — parties designed around stupid behavior. Of course, people will try do selfies in their ugly sweaters with the artwork — wasn't that the idea?
I presume the FBI was able to find many pictures of partiers in their sweaters posing with the warriors.
I hope the Chinese only loaned the embarrassing Franklin Institute on the crappiest of the thousands of warriors. What clods we are! What an embarrassment!
How has it happened that the word rules has been replaced by the word protocol?
In the age of Internet outrage, I’m thinking 10 years of hard time for this guy.
That gay snowboarder broke his thumb. The culprit stole a thumb. Even our FBI can do that math. APB for two gays doing a great kiss!
Who has an ugly sweater and three thumbs? That guy.
Eat your heart out Florida man. You ever start an international incident? Delaware: We're number thumb!
Mistyping statute for statue could be a common lawyer problem.
I learned how to type in high school on a manual typewriter. The nun used a ruler with one of those sharp metal strips to maintain class discipline. I coulda lost a thumb.
I'm curious how they managed to track the guy down. By his sweater?
sneaked into a closed-off area during a party
Unlocked door.
I didn't know there was a market (open or black) for terra cotta Chinamen.
Let's put this thumb on the Scales of Justice right away.
God, people from Delaware. You can't take them anywhere.
Horrible, but I for one take some comfort that they are "reviewing their security protocols" to ensure "standard closing procedures" are followed in future. Although I admit I'd feel better if they affirmed this was contrary to their corporate culture and did not reflect who they are.
There are hundreds of these goddamn statues in Xian, hundreds. I believe the Chinese uncovered a dozen or so and decided it would be far far better to have hundreds or maybe a thousand. I have been there and seen them with my own eyes, there in the quanset-style building with the Chinese anthropologists working away in the front of the ranks of the Terra cotta troops. How did they know this was the end or rather the front of the column of soldiers? I imagine the anthropologists are still there with their tiny shovels and brushes working away for the tourists looking down from the observation platform. In the exact same spot. My cynicism earned me a small Terra cotta soldier brought back from Xian by a believing friend.
Selfie = Selfish, is aptly labeled.
This is a classic AA blog story. A good reason to keep visiting and supporting AA.
Probably a big donor, can't trouble the elite, got to keep the money flowing.
Now the terracotta dude will hitch-hike in a circle.
This is a classic AA blog story.
No doubt the perp was drunk, too.
The Franklin Institute has a giant heart that visitors can explore where one can find the interior covered in graffiti, so this classy incident comes as little surprise.
As a former Vice-President, the Delaware Man should have known better.
"The Franklin Institute has a giant heart that visitors can explore where one can find the interior covered in graffiti, so this classy incident comes as little surprise."
Whoa! Suddenly, I remember, I've been there. I've been in that heart. When I was a kid. That thing is so old it seems really gross, graffiti or not.
Ugly Sweater Party? Are we sure it wasn't RUSSIANS?
Partying in a museum? And with booze no less? I know fundraising for cultural institutions is necessary, but this is just nuts. I remember the King Tut exhibition we attended had heavier security than at Hilary Clinton's It Takes A Village book signing event that I also went to, and for good reason. I understand museums need to fund-raise, but parties featuring cocktails in a museum filled with irreplaceable loaned antiquities is just stupid. This whole caper sounds like a bit from an Indiana Jones movie and which would be kind of funny, if it weren't for real. The Chinese have a right to be furious about this.
I don't know what's worse, the fact that one moron vandalized the artwork or the fact that the Chinese had to make a big stink to get anyone to do anything to punish the criminal? Either way, a very bad situation.
Museums have traditionally relied on making loans between institutions, and curators and registrars held to the highest standards of maintaining the objects. Imagine all the work done by the curators requesting the loans, then registrars creating condition reports where every inch of each object is examined, then all the extraordinary packing and unpacking, then more extensive condition reports by the receiving registrars, and after all that a thumb gets broken off? Amazing and pathetic. A real stain on Philadelphia's reputation.
PS Where were the security guards? Union or non-union? That's the weak link.
The Chinese wouldn't want us to beat and torture the guy and send him home in a coma, now, would they? Their neighbors did that to Warmbier for stealing a poster.
A real stain on Philadelphia's reputation.
As football announcers like to remind us, Philadelphia is he town where they booed Santa Claus. That’s its reputation.
"What clods we are! What an embarrassment!" My first thoughts exactly.
Haven’t I seen that movie?
I’m sure it was just an accident; I’ll bet he tried to put I back and hoped nobody would notice....
/snark
Second time this week that these damn protocols are causing so much trouble!
Let's get rid of them!
Or better yet, maybe "journalists" can start jeering and blowing raspberries whenever some CYA bureaucrat starts speaking in passive voice like this.
(Not holding my breath for that.)
I've been to a gala party at the Franklin Institute; it's not a crazy idea to hold a gathering there. The first floor has huge gorgeous lofty marble rooms/lobby/atria that are mostly empty space and don't contain vulnerable artwork or exhibits (the plastic heart is off in a side area; it is indestructible and also smelly). There's no way that the Institute would have placed the statues in an area open to the after-hours party goers; he must have snuck into a room or down a roped-off hallway.
Your phrase, "behaved like a moron at an ugly sweater party," is open to at least two readings. I'm going with, "he behaved like a moron," followed by the location, because I am told there have been ugly sweater parties whose participants consist of more than just morons. Although claiming that he behaved like a typical ugly sweater party participant also works, if you think all them folk are morons.
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