In 2004, 222 cultural relics were stolen from the country's protected ancient sites and museums, 14.6 percent down compared with the figure of 2003, said the Beijing News Daily Tuesday.

Forty stealing cases involving cultural relics occurred nationwide last year, an 81.8 percent increase over that of the previous year, the newspaper reported quoting a recent report of the State Administration of Culture Heritage.

Twenty-one, or 52.5 percent, of these cases involved relics protection units of different levels, while 11 occurred in museums and 8 cases happened in government offices responsible for relics, representing 27.5 percent and 20 percent of the total cases, respectively.

Source: Xinhua