Stealing Beauty

• Xiaoli is a poor village in China.
• Most of the people in the village are farmers.
• It has become hard to make money at farming, so the farmers became tomb raiders.
• Tomb raiders steal beautiful and valuable artwork from tombs beneath the ground.
• Looting-stealing things of value to sell for money.
• Little Su, a doctor, paid for his education by looting.
• Thieves have broken in to 220,000 tombs in China.
• Looting is a major problem in other countries as well, like India and Cambodia.
• Many art pieces are sent to collectors in Europe and the USA.
• Many people believe that stealing art is like stealing a country's beauty and history.
• Interpol-an international police agency that helps prevent the buying and selling of illegal art.