British brothers jailed for stealing Ming Dynasty artifacts from a Geneva museum

LONDON (AP) — Two British brothers who broke into a Geneva museum and stole millions of pounds (dollars) worth of Chinese Ming Dynasty artifacts have been sentenced to prison in Switzerland. The Metropolitan Police say Louis and Stewart Ahearne were each sentenced Tuesday to 3 1/2 years in a Swiss prison following an investigation by U.K. and Swiss authorities. Police said two Ming Dynasty vases and a cup were stolen in 2019 from the Museum of Far Eastern Arts in Geneva. The 15th-century artifacts were valued at around 3 million pounds, or $3.8 million. Detectives traced evidence back to the Ahearnes and arrested them after posing as art buyers to buy a vase from them for 450,000 pounds, or $570,000.