Theft at the Forbidden City

Several highly valuable items belonging to a Hong Kong private museum were stolen from within Beijing’s Forbidden City — once the impenetrable heart of imperial China — on Tuesday night, Chinese press reported Wednesday in a strange story.

Several outlets said collections of gold and silver foreign boxes and cases were stolen from the Palace Museum. A 27-year-old man accused of being behind the theft was believed to have hidden inside the ancient city all night. It’s unclear how he was involved or hwo the theft was pulled off.

Caijing magazine reported the items stolen were worth “tens of millions” (more than $1 mmillion) of yuan but the museum only had insurance on the exhibit for 300,000 yuan ($45,000).