Michael Rohana of Bear, Delaware, who reportedly broken thumb of an ancient Chinese terracotta warrior sculpture on display at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia – accepted a plea deal for his drunken escapades at the institution’s 2017 Ugly Sweater Party. Rohana will plead guilty to one charge lesser in order to escape potential decades behind bars, PhillyVoice reported.
Rohana is due to plead guilty to interstate trafficking on April 17, which carries a maximum sentence of two years in prison and a $20,000 fine. The initial charges threatened a potential prison sentence of 30 years for theft and concealment of a cultural heritage object. Rohana’s first trial ended in a mistrial in 2019 and the second was delayed due to Covid-19 protocols.
According to the court, Rohana, then 24, attended a party at the Franklin Institute on December 21, 2017, during which he wandered through the institution’s galleries and slipped in front of a rope blocking the exposure. Terracotta Warriors of the First Emperorwhich featured ten life-size statues of warriors once buried in the tomb of China’s first emperor, Qin Shi Huang, discovered in northwest China in the 1970s.
Video footage showed Rohana taking a selfie with a 2,000-year-old horseman statue, then breaking her thumb and placing it in her pocket. Museum workers didn’t notice the thumb missing until January 8, 2018 – a review of surveillance equipment and ticket receipts from the night of the party pointed to Rohana’s involvement.
The ten sculptures in the exhibition, on loan from the Chinese government, have been valued at around $4.5 million. The thumb of the rider figurine was worth $5,000 on its own. After FBI Special Agent Jacob B. Archer arrived on Rohana’s doorstep in February 2018, the suspect confessed immediately and returned the stolen cipher, which he had stashed in his desk drawer.
Chinese authorities didn’t take it kindly to the criminal of the phalanx, prompting the city of Philadelphia to pass an official resolution apologize for the offence.
Rohana admitted to making a drunken mistake during her court appearance in 2019, saying, “I don’t know how I could have been so stupid.” His lawyers argued that the charges against him were aimed at countering a premeditated and major theft, not “juvenile vandalism”.
“These charges were laid for art thieves,” said attorney Catherine C. Henry. said in his closing statements. “He was a drunken kid in an ugly, bright green Christmas sweater.”
