£18million-worth of ancient Chinese artifacts has stolen

The mob got away with 18 precious pieces including six from the Ming Dynasty, mainly in jade.

The robbery at Cambridge’s famous Fitzwilliam Museum, part of the city’s university, came less than two weeks after jade artefacts valued at £1.8million were nicked from Durham University’s museum.

It is feared organised crime syndicates are targeting Chinese art collections in the UK to sell to rich foreign buyers on the black market.

Art crime rakes in £3.7billion a year, making it the world’s third highest grossing illegal enterprise behind only drug and arms trafficking.

And booming China’s art market has become the globe’s biggest. Expert Dick Ellis said: “There are mountains of money being thrown at it.”- The Sun

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