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Hong Kong Police / AP
Former Chinese leader Mao Zedong’s calligraphy scroll was cut in half by a buyer who had bought it cheaply, believing it to be a fake.
A scroll of calligraphy by former Chinese leader Mao Zedong estimated at millions of dollars was cut in half after it was stolen last month in a high-profile robbery in Hong Kong, police said.
The scroll was found damaged when police arrested a 49-year-old man in late September on suspicion of handling stolen property. the South China morning post, citing an unidentified law enforcement source, reported that the scroll was cut in two by a buyer who had bought it for 500 Hong Kong dollars ($ 98) and believed the scroll to be a fake.
“Based on our investigation, someone thought the handwriting was too long,” Tony Ho, chief superintendent of the Organized Crime and Triad Bureau Police, told a news conference Tuesday. “It was hard to show it, show it, and that’s why it was cut in half.”
Police said the scroll was part of a multi-million dollar robbery carried out by three robbers from the apartment of collector Fu Chunxiao in September. Fu, known for his stamp collection and revolutionary art, was in mainland China at the time of the theft and has not been in Hong Kong since January due to the coronavirus pandemic.
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The thieves took 24,000 Chinese postage stamps, 10 coins and seven scrolls of calligraphy from Fu’s apartment, where he kept his collections. Fu estimated that Mao’s calligraphy was worth about $ 300 million ($ 456 million) and that the theft totaled about $ 645 million. No independent appraisals of the collections were available.
Police arrested three men in connection with the robbery and on suspicion of assisting criminals. At least two people related to the robbery are still at large, Ho said.
Although some of the stolen items have been found, the 24,000 stamps and six other scrolls of calligraphy have not been recovered, police said.
