Beijing police said Wednesday night that they have apprehended a man who is suspected of stealing several art pieces from the Palace Museum in Beijing's heavily-guarded Forbidden City, Xinhua reported.
The suspect, named Shi Bokui and from Caoxian county of East China's Shandong province, was taken away by the police from an Internet bar in Fengtai district in Beijing at 7:40 pm on Wednesday, police said.
Shi, born in 1983 and about 160 cm tall, has confessed the theft to the police and some of the stolen art pieces have been recovered, according to China Central Television (CCTV).
The missing items were on loan from the Hong Kong-based Liang Yi Museum and were discovered missing at 8:20 a.m Monday. They include small Western-style make-up cases encrusted with jewels.
A spokesman with the Palace Museum apologized on Wednesday.
"The Palace Museum bears an unshirkable responsibility for this regretful incident," said Feng Nai'en, assistant curator and spokesman of the museum.
"I apologize to all those who care about the Palace Museum."
"The incident shows that we need to speed up the installation and upgrade of our security systems," Feng said.
Feng said guards saw a suspect trying to flee an area in the museum where the exhibition was held that night but the man eventually escaped despite a thorough search.
A large hole was found in a decorative wall at the palace, said Ma Jige, deputy director of the exhibition department of the museum.
Media reports said alarms in the Palace Museum did not function during the incident.
Feng said the museum is currently undergoing security reinforcement.
Police said Two of the missing items, a Van Cleef and Arples diamond inset gold dinner bag and a Cartier gold cosmetic container, were recovered on Monday at the foot of a wall on the east side of the museum.However, the two items had been damaged and could not be repaired easily, said Tracy Wong, curator of the Hong Kong Liangyi Museum, which is owned by collector Fung Yiu-fai.