Maya site museum robbed of artifacts

It was an audacious crime but it now appears that the thieves may have had more guts than brains. On Wednesday night a gang of burglars broke into the small museum building at the Maya site of Cahal Pech overlooking San Ignacio. They entered by tearing off a piece of the roof and made off with a number of extremely valuable Mayan artifacts, including several jade pieces. Placing a value on the ancient treasures is an inexact science at best, but experts in the Department of Archeology have estimated the market price of the stolen items at somewhere between 100 and $300,000. This otherwise sad story may have a happy ending however. Although San Ignacio police refused to divulge any information on the case, sources indicate to News Five that three suspects and at least half the artifacts have already been recovered by law enforcement authorities. A fourth suspect, the alleged mastermind of the project, is still being sought. It appears that the detainees, all local Cayo residents, had visited the site earlier in the day and made a point of asking an awful lot of questions about Mayan art. It is believed that the museum had an alarm system but no guard specifically assigned to the building. The visitor’s centre is managed by the Belize Tourism Board but the artifacts are on loan from the Department of Archaeology. Since the burglary, security has been increased at the site.