Grave robbers stole carvings from the tomb of Huang Li-yung (黃禮永) in Changhua County’s Lukang Township (鹿港), police said on Tuesday.
The theft took place after Tomb Sweeping Day on April 5, when the site was last seen intact, Huang family sources said.
Huang was a rice thresher, and his family became one of Lukang’s richest and most prominent during the Japanese colonial era.
The carvings, which were broken off the flanks of the headstone, were crafted by Chiang Hsin (蔣馨) family masons, which suggests that the culprits were well aware of the value of such artifacts, the source said.
The family had removed some of the carvings adorning the tomb following a theft more than three decades ago, but did not anticipate that thieves would again prey on what was left, the source said.
“It breaks my heart that they just pried the pieces from the headstone,” one relative said.
Lukang Precinct Investigative Division head Lee Wang-hsing (李旺興) said that officers are reviewing surveillance camera footage from the site.
History researcher Chen Shih-hsien (陳仕賢) said that the stolen pieces were the oldest surviving work of the Chiang Hsin family.
The Chiang Hsin family was famous for the expressiveness of their sculptures of human figures, Chen said.
Their work can be seen at the Tianhou Temple (天后宮) and Nan Yao Temple (南瑤宮) in the county, and at heritage sites throughout Taiwan, he said.
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