[CPProt.net] Art thief comes clean after 50 years

[MSN and CPProt list (Ton Cremers)]

Art thief comes clean after 50 years 
Posted Mon, 07 Mar 2005 

A 78-year-old man has confessed to being involved in the robbery of an
ancient crown he believes is on display in a US museum and which the Thai
government wants returned, a report said. 

Li Kasemsang told the Nation newspaper that he and 20 others raided a temple
in the former capital of Ayutthaya in central Thailand in 1956, stealing the
crown and other precious items from inside a hollow Buddha image. 

"We were surprised to see so many golden objects and Buddha statues. There
were swords and crowns. We told ourselves they must have belonged to kings,"
he was quoted as saying in the English-language daily. 

Eight of the group were arrested and some of the items returned, but Li
evaded arrest and the crown, believed to be made in 1424, "was passed on
until it reached a foreign buyer". 

Li blamed his unhappy life, including seven stints in jail on different
charges, on his theft. 

"My family has never been happy either, no matter how much merit I have
tried to make and how much I apologised to the spirits guarding the
treasure," he said according to the report. 

"I want Thai people to help bring it back to Ayutthaya," he added. 

On Wednesday, the foreign affairs ministry said it was setting up a joint
committee with the culture ministry to unearth more information about the
crown before contacting US authorities to seek its return. 

Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has spearheaded the drive to
investigate the crown after seeing a local news report about it. 

It is reportedly on display at San Francisco's Asian Art Museum as part of
an exhibition showcasing 89 surviving works from the Ayutthaya period, which
ended in 1767 when the city was sacked by the Burmese. 

http://entertainment.iafrica.com/