A 39-year-old Bay Area man was sentenced to a year of home confinement and three years of supervised release for stealing ancient Chinese manuscripts from the UCLA library. Prosecutors said the man was charged with stealing $216,000 worth of “rare and historical” Chinese manuscripts from the library, which he would rent for days at a time before returning a “dummy manuscript” instead, according to an August 2025 Department of Justice news release.
The man, a Fremont resident, will not have to pay a fine, but restitution fees are still to be determined, Ciaran McEvoy, a spokesperson for the DOJ’s Central District of California office, told SFGATE in an email. (McEvocy said that a previous news release stating that the man was sentenced to a year in prison was inaccurate.)
The man pleaded guilty in October 2025 to a felony charge of theft of a major artwork, McEvocy said, specifically a 17th century Qing dynasty manuscript that he stole from the UCLA library in December 2024. McEvocy said the man also admitted in court to stealing other manuscripts between December 2024 and July 2025…