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Two arrested over $30M Chinese art theft from UK museum

CAMBRIDGE, England — Police arrested two men Wednesday after Chinese art work estimated to be worth around £18 million ($29.2 million) was stolen from a UK museum.

The men were arrested at addresses in London on Wednesday morning in connection with the April 13 robbery, in which a gang of thieves broke into the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, eastern England, and stole 18, mostly jade items, Cambridgeshire Police said.

The arrests came a day after cops appealed for help to find the thieves on British crime-solving TV show “Crimewatch.”

The Fitzwilliam Museum was the second UK museum to be targeted by art thieves in a month.

A group of professional thieves tunneled through the wall of Durham University’s Oriental Museum, in northeastern England, and swiped £2 million of Chinese artifacts on April 5.

Police later discovered the items hidden in a field just a few miles from the museum.

Five suspects were arrested days after the incident, but their prime suspect Lee Wildman, also known as Jason Green, was released by mistake.

Wildman, 32, was finally re-arrested Tuesday after a month at large, along with a fellow suspect, 32-year-old Adrian Stanton.

Wildman was charged with conspiracy to commit burglary and was due in court Wednesday.

Police in Durham also named a third man they wish to trace in connection with the burglary at the museum, 31-year-old Justin Clarke.

Although no formal link has been made between the two burglaries, police said in a statement Wednesday that they were keeping “an open mind.”