Half a million worth of worth of historic East-Asian porcelain stolen in Pretoria

By Khanyisa Tabata
14 May 2011

Pretoria police are searching for thieves who got away with half-a-million-Rands’ worth of historic East-Asian porcelain artefacts stolen from the Akademie vir Wetenskap and Kuns.

The science and art academy’s Jacques van der Elst suspects the theft is part of a larger syndicate targeting porcelain art works. He adds that part of the historic building housing their offices was destroyed after the burglars came in through the roof.

They were disturbed by the alarm system, but had already taken half of the rare Japanese and Chinese porcelain collection.