Local police announced yesterday that they have arrested two art thieves who stole 19 precious works of Chinese calligraphy and traditional paintings since 1990.

The two suspects, Deng Yongxing and Chen Zheng, are both natives of Nanjing. Police said they stole the works from star-rated hotels in Beijing, Shanghai and Nanjing using a series of schemes that were sometimes shockingly simple.

"Eleven works were chased down and we are still tracing the rest," said Yang Lieyi, vice director of the Changning District Public Security Bureau in Shanghai.

Police said 10 of the returned works had a combined suggested price of 540,800 yuan (US$65,157), but they would probably sell for much more at auction.

The loot included works by some of the biggest names in modern Chinese art, including Liu Danzhai, Ya Ming, Fan Zeng and Shu Tong.

Liu's "Horses" has a suggested retail price of 400,000 yuan (US$48,386.9), but police estimate it could go for more than 2 million yuan (US$241,935) in an auction.

The pair were caught after they almost got away with stealing "Horses" from the VIP meeting room in a Shanghai hotel, which local police refused to name.

Police allege the duo checked into the hotel on December 6. Later that night, Deng told members of the hotel staff on duty outside the meeting room that someone was sick in a nearby washroom. While the employees went to investigate, Chen snuck into the room and stole the paintings.

"Such a scheme is so simple, however, we found that in some cases, they rented the presidential suite at a hotel and took away paintings in the rooms," said Yang.

Chen used to be an apprentice of Ya Ming, which allowed him to paint copies of some of Ya's works to deceive hotel employees.

Police said that they finally tracked down the thieves after carefully viewing hotel security camera footage from various crime scenes and then working with art departments at universities around the country to detect possible suspects.

(eastday.com December 31, 2003)