Size does not matter

When it comes to looting and smuggling antiquities, size does not appear to matter. Not anymore, anyway.

Special Agent James McAndrew of the Department of Homeland Security mentioned in a recent presentation that the days are gone when only small portable artifacts are smuggled. Indeed, the case of the 27-ton Tang sarcophagus stolen from the tomb of Tang Empress Wu Huifei (AD 699-737) has taken this alarming trend to a new extreme.

How did a 27-ton stone coffin measuring 4 meters long, 2 meters wide and 2 meters high leave China unnoticed? It is huge (as the photo indicates) in size and weight, in addition to its obvious historical significance. How did it enter the US? Container ship?

Something this big had to have been hacked into many pieces before the looters and the smugglers could haul it, even with heavy machinery. Just think: if the coffin were cut up into 20 pieces, each would still weigh over a ton. How many people did it take? Who would display a huge stone coffin in a private home or was it going to be resold to some museum?

So, finally, what is all worth it? For the buyer in Virginia who reportedly paid $1 million for the piece, any price is too high when his purchase had to be returned. Given China's penalties (considered Draconian by some) the price the looter(s) pay could be life. For us all, the potential damage to the piece itself, the rest of the tomb and the history it contains can never be repaid. Even if the sarcophagus was not 27-ton heavy.

Looting at any size does not pay.

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