不翼而飛又失而復得的資壽寺明代十八羅漢首｜The Lost & Found of 18 Arhats' Heads of Zishou Temple | Theft of Chinese Relics

On Christmas night in 1993 the 18 arhats housed in Zishou Temple were decapitated by robbers. After scaling the wall of the temple, forcing their way into the main hall and sawing the heads from the figures, the thieves headed for Guangzhou the same night with the heads concealed in bags of carrots. Although the robbery resulted in the arrest of the gang and their driver, the man to whom they sold them successfully crossed the border into Hong Kong. Since then 18 heads have scattered all over the world！
In February 1998 it was reported that Ch'en Yung-t'ai, director of Taiwan's Aurora Foundation, an educational foundation, had located and purchased the stolen heads of all 18 arhats from Zishou Temple on the international market. Ch'en wished to return the arhats to the temple; in order to do this, he had to arrange for special dispensation from the authorities in Taiwan to override regulations forbidding objects more than 100 years old from being taken from the island. With the help of diplomatic organisations in Taipei and Shanghai, Ch'en eventually succeeded in presenting all 18 heads to China's cultural relics authorities. After being briefly displayed in the Shanghai Museum, the clay heads have been faithfully restored with the help of a team of scholars from the Shanxi Cultural Relics Association. The crowds who flocked to the August 18th consecration ceremony at the Zishou Temple were delighted that no wounds were visible on the arhats after four months of restoration and a six-year odyssey around the world.