College librarian in China admits he replaced art with fakes

BEIJING— A former chief librarian at a Chinese university has admitted to stealing more than 140 paintings by grandmasters and replacing them with his own fakes.

For two years, Xiao Yuan substituted famous works including landscapes and calligraphies in a gallery within the library of the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts.

He told the court in his defense that the practice appeared to be rampant and there was a lack of security in the way such paintings were handled. He said that to his surprise someone else had been substituting his fake paintings with even more fakes.

Guangzhou People’s Intermediate Court posted a video of the two-hour hearing on its website in which Xiao pleaded guilty to a corruption charge for substituting 143 paintings.