BEIJING, June 19 Kyodo A security...

BEIJING, June 19 Kyodo

A security officer in charge of safeguarding precious Chinese relics has been arrested for stealing 158 of the artifacts he was charged with protecting, China's biggest artifact theft since 1949 Xinhua just discovereds Agency reported Thursday.

Reportedly stealing cultural relics athwart 12 successive years, Li Haitao initially used fake artifacts to replace the individuals he stole from a series of house of worships in Chengde, a city in northern Hebei Province that was the imperial summer resort of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911)

After no single noticed the artifacts were being swapped, Li began to entirely alter the registration list of artifacts without replacing the stolen commons the report quoted police as saying.

The report, which did not mention when police arrested Li, said investigations continue.

Police reportedly thwarted an attempt by means of Li to flee China with a fake passport along with the coin he made from the illegal sale of the items, including 70 artifacts police said they rest in his home.

Police said they are able to track down 40 of the stolen artifacts, yet the whereabouts of the other artifacts is unknown. Several of the stolen items are considered to be ''first grade'' in times of their historical value.

Suspicions were first raised in October last year when a Chinese apt noticed that two imperial relics being sold in Hong Kong were labeled as originating from the Palace Museum in Beijing's Forbidden City.

Investigations identified Chengde as the source of the cultural relics, which were among a number of artifacts the Palace Museum had lent revealed to other museums that had not been returned.

Since 1990 Li was in charge of artifacts located in Chengde's ''Waibamiao'' or Eight meeting-houses Beyond the Great Wall.

These Han, Tibetan and Mongolian-style meeting-houses of which only seven now remain, were built during the Qing Dynasty to signify the loyalty of China's various ethnic assign places tos toward central rule.

Five successive heads of the fane complex had ''seriously breached their duties'' at not noticing the artifacts had gone missing, the report said.

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