Murder on the Silk Road Read Online Free PDF

Italian nationalist stole the Mona Lisa from the Louvre.”
    “We never would have known about any of this if it wasn’t for Chief Tracey’s research,” interjected Bunny. “The state police never even thought of looking into the international situation.”
    Charlotte wasn’t surprised. It was Tracey’s dogged legwork that had resulted in the recovery of some valuable stolen herbals in the previous case on which she had worked with him.
    “But why resort to theft?” asked Charlotte. “If indeed the artworks were stolen originally, couldn’t the Chinese have gotten them back through legal channels?” She ignored a disapproving glare from Bunny.
    “Not likely,” said Tracey, shaking his head. “A few museums have voluntarily returned artworks to their countries of origin. A Danish museum returned some ancient manuscripts to Iceland, for instance. But most don’t want to set any precedents that they might have to live up to later on. If the British Museum, to use the best-known example, were to return its holdings to their countries of origin, it wouldn’t have anything left. The Elgin marbles, of course, are the best-known example.”
    Charlotte had read about the Greek government’s efforts to persuade the British Museum to return the Elgin marbles, which had been removed from the Acropolis by Lord Elgin in the nineteenth century.
    “In fact, the term Elginism has come to refer to the plunder of cultural treasures in general,” Tracey continued.
    Bunny snorted in contempt. “Plunder! I’d like to know what would have happened to these sculptures during the Cultural Revolution if they hadn’t been removed from China. If these countries had cared about their artworks in the first place, they wouldn’t be facing these problems now.”
    “I expect you’re right, Mrs. Oglethorpe,” said Tracey, ever deferential. “Anyway, to get back to the case at hand … We suspect that this theft is part of the greater pattern of thefts of artworks that originally came from Dunhuang. But we also might be dealing with a common thief, or even a very knowledgeable thief who wanted to make it look like this theft was part of the greater pattern of thefts. That’s where you come in, Miss Graham.”
    “Charlotte, please,” she said. After two years, Tracey still insisted on calling her Miss Graham. “What do you want me to do?”
    “Yes, Charlotte,” said Tracey with a smile. “We want you to see if you can locate Mrs. Oglethorpe’s missing sculpture. In the other cases, the artworks were returned to their original sites. If indeed the theft of this sculpture is related to the other thefts, it should have been returned to Cave 206 at Dunhuang. Mrs. Oglethorpe will provide you with a photo for identification purposes. I know you’re familiar with the sculpture—”
    “It’s my favorite,” said Charlotte.
    “Mine too,” added Bunny.
    “But there are hundreds of caves at Dunhuang, and probably thousands of sculptures, a good many of them of Buddhist monks,” Tracey continued. “They might all begin to look alike. If you do find that the sculpture is there, we can then try working through international channels to get it back.”
    Bunny shook her head in disgust. “Try, is right,” she said.
    “If it’s not, we can continue looking elsewhere. We’ve been trying to find out through Interpol if the statue’s in Dunhuang, but so far we haven’t had any success. When Mrs. Oglethorpe heard from Kitty Saunders that you were going to, Dunhuang, she couldn’t believe our luck.”
    “It’s as if fate had interceded on our behalf,” said Bunny.
    “Yes,” Charlotte agreed. “It is.”

3
    Three weeks and two days later, Charlotte found herself in the ancient Chinese capital of Xian, the setting-off point for the ancient Silk Road. Their group of three—Charlotte, Marsha, and Victor Danowski, another Sinologist from the Oriental Institute—had already been in China for a week. They had toured the Forbidden