When the public discusses museum thefts, we often think of precious ancient artifacts or paintings of famous people.
In the portrayal on the silver screen, the museum is always conceived as a top-notch place of protection: the treasures are guarded by layers of complex security systems and countless hidden locks.
(Stills from "Wonderful Night at the Museum")
In the real world, however, this is far from the case......
In the recent documentary "The Great Rhino Robbery" in the UK, they mention another kind of museum – in addition to the big museums that are well-known and have valuable collections, there are many smaller museums around the world that focus on universal education.
For example, most of the natural history museums in small places focus on popular science, aiming to show the public the mysteries and charms of the natural world, so that both adults and children can realize the importance of protecting nature.
These museums sometimes lack strict security measures, and the people who work here are ordinary people in related majors, and they have no experience in fighting with the Amazing Demon Bandits.
For example, Paul Wiscardy, deputy director of natural history at the Horniman Museum in south-east London, said:
"Working in a museum isn't usually exciting, and it's rarely dramatic – unless something special happens. ”
However, this special event really caused them to ......
Someone has set their sights on the museum's collection: rhinoceros specimens.
At the end of February 2011, Sworders, a long-established auction house based in Essex, England, was attacked.
The criminals forcibly broke down the door of the auction house and took a specimen of the head of a black rhinoceros hanging on the wall of the auction house.
In the estimate of the loss, the black rhinoceros head specimen is worth more than £50,000, far more than the heads of other animals – because the rhinoceros head specimen contains something particularly valuable: rhino horn.
At the time, the criminals fled from a nearby field with a black rhinoceros head and soon realized something else: there was a place where rhino specimens were also hidden, but it was much weaker and easier to attack than the auction houses – and that was a small museum.
In the months that followed, small nature museums across the UK began to suffer.
Paul, the aforementioned deputy director of natural history at the Horniman Museum, was one of the first to notice this series of attacks: the circle of natural science museums is small and united. He soon got the news and began gathering information on the location of the theft.
"The gossip of the theft is spreading, and at the same time, the auction price of rhino horn is soaring – some as high as £150,000. ”
"I wanted to warn people or find a way to deal with it, but I was amazed at how quickly things went. ”
(Paul)
Paul found that these criminals were well-trained, and that they did it in a similar way every time.
They pretend to be visitors who are interested in rhinos and come to observe the museum. Sometimes, they mingle in the crowd and listen to other people chatting with the museum staff, taking the opportunity to secretly observe the museum's security forces.
Some museums, such as the Natural History Museum in London, have strong security measures, not only are they heavily guarded, but the latest alarm systems will ring at the touch of a bell. But there are also small museums with weak security...... There is not even security at all.
In these small museums, the staff are almost unsuspecting, very welcoming to visitors, answering questions and sometimes revealing a lot of information in a few words.
The criminals then make plans to return at night – breaking down doors or walls, violently breaking down glass display cases and taking rhino specimens.
The rhino heads hanging on the walls were taken whole, while the complete specimens of the rhinos were sawed off with knives by criminals.
It's like poachers treating animals in the wild.
When criminals realized how easy it was to steal rhino horn from small museums, the looting quickly spread across Europe.
Rhino horn was looted at the Hassmel Museum of Education in Surrey, followed by theft of rhino products from Colchester, Ipswich, East Sussex, Norwich and Cambridge.
After criminals stole everything they could in the UK, museum rhino horn thefts began to occur in Germany, Italy, Portugal, the Czech Republic and the Netherlands.
In the end, the thieves stole 57 million pounds (510 million yuan) worth of rhino horn in 16 European countries.
At the same time as the theft, the price of rhino horn soared from a few thousand pounds to £50,000 per kilogram, with a horn worth almost £500,000, more expensive than gold.
Paul and his colleagues used an internal communications network to track down thefts and alert museums around the world.
"By the third or fourth theft, obviously it was a lot bigger than I initially thought, and there must be something darker behind it," he said. ”
-- After this matter became more and more troublesome, police experts finally began to pay attention to it and invested a lot of police force in cross-border cooperation.
(Police Expert)
Eventually, the police set their sights on an infamous organization in Ireland: the Rathkeale Rovers.
They arrested 14 members of the Association in the United Kingdom and the United States, and eventually found a leader: Vixay Keosavang.
This is a retired military officer known as the "head of wildlife smuggling".
The rhino horns that were stolen from museums were eventually shipped to his underground storage in Laos......
As the investigation deepened, experts found that Kosavang's black hand trading had actually begun long ago.
He wanted to do much more than "collect" the rhino specimens in the museum.
The real goal of him and the thieves was to exterminate the rhinoceros species and then sell the hoarded rhino horn at a high price......
This astonishing extermination campaign began more than a decade, or even decades ago.
( Khosavan )
The main habitat of the world's 27,000 wild rhinos is South Africa. In the early years, South Africa's hunting regulations were not very strict, and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species was not introduced.
At that time, South Africa stipulated that everyone could legally apply to shoot one rhinoceros per year.
This was to attract wealthy hunters to South Africa for hunting – but the South African regulations gave Kosavan an an opportunity.
He assembled a team of sex workers, smugglers, and experienced animal traffickers. He paid them a lot of money to fly to South Africa on their behalf, buy a permit, and hunt a rhinoceros each.
They would bring back the rhino horn to Kosavan and carry £750,000 worth of goods back to Laos every week.
Some of these rhino horns go to warehouses in Xhosavang, while others end up on the black market.
But that's not enough – to push the price of rhino horn to the limit, Kosavan has also hired professional rhino hunters to shoot as many rhinos as possible.
His goal is to reduce the number of rhinos.
"The rarer the rhino horn and the fewer rhinos left, the more sought after by wealthy customers who buy and trade it. ”
( 犀牛猎人 Chumlong Lemtongthai )
In Southeast Asia, rhino horn is sought after by many people – some believe it can cure fever, wound infections, mental illness, and even cancer, while others believe that it is an aphrodisiac.
Some Southeast Asian pubs incorporate this powder into their liquor, and a glass costs £130.
Others have already started stockpiling rhino horn powder: "Rhino horn has become a fashion trend at the party of the new rich, who add it to alcohol or mix it with drugs for lavish parties." Celebrities are always looking for all sorts of quirky things to show off their identity. ”
Rich and powerful people are always looking for something like this, the more niche, the rarer, the more illegal, the harder it is to obtain, the more unique and expensive it is, the more it can give them a sense of superiority.
Where there is demand, there is a market.
As a result, the mafia led by Kosavan were no longer satisfied with the output of wild poaching, and even targeted museums in Europe, which eventually attracted the attention of the police......
In 2012, although the case was solved, it was not a "cool ending".
The rhino hunter who specializes in hunting rhinos and reducing their numbers was sentenced to 40 years in prison, but was released after serving only six years, and the mastermind Kosavan has not even been caught.
And, even if this team's criminals are caught, there will still be other criminal teams eyeing rhino horn.
Rhino horns in British museums have been removed from display – most of the ones on display are now imitations to prevent theft, but sometimes even these replicas are stolen.
Paul lamented:
"I believe that in warehouses in Southeast Asia, there are people who are hoarding these horns, waiting for rhino populations to go extinct, after which they are free to set prices.
There are many people who would rather watch a beautiful species like the rhinoceros go extinct, just to make money, or to own something rare and exciting. ”
Such a reality is really helpless......
It is hoped that this crime can be resolutely curbed by the relevant departments and laws and regulations of various countries, and that the "dross" of rhinoceros horn used to be used will be withdrawn from the stage of history as soon as possible, and replaced by other harmless, sustainable things that will not persecute animals.