Tokyo police on Saturday arrested a man in his 30s for allegedly stealing a pure-gold tea bowl from an event site at an outlet of major department store operator Takashimaya.
According to sources including from the Metropolitan Police Department, the bowl, made of 24-karat gold, is priced at ¥10,406,000 ($67,860). It was stolen around 11:40 a.m. Thursday from the exhibition event venue on the eighth floor of Takashimaya's Nihonbashi store in Tokyo's Chuo Ward.
Security camera footage showed a man putting the bowl in his backpack and fleeing toward Tokyo Metro's Nihonbashi Station about 30 minutes later.
Investigators found the man in Tokyo on Saturday and questioned him on a voluntary basis before arresting him.
At the event, being held over six days until Monday, a total of more than 1,000 pure-gold items are on display, including a screen with a price of ¥100 million and a 2.1-meter-tall dragon using about 3,000 sheets of golden leaves which has a price tag of ¥38 million, according to Takashimaya and a company that organized the event.
The golden tea bowl in question was showcased in a hexagonal acrylic box without any alarm or lock. Takashimaya said at a news conference Friday that a salesperson near the bowl was turning around slightly at the time of the theft in order to attend other visitors.
With your current subscription plan you can comment on stories. However, before writing your first comment, please create a display name in the Profile section of your subscriber account page.