Thumb theft 'unlikely to stop art exchanges'

But Terracotta Warrior incident a wake-up call, experts say

Experts on Chinese art in the United States don't believe that the theft of a thumb from a 2,000-year-old Terracotta Warrior statue on loan to a Philadelphia museum will stop similar exchanges of artifacts from China in the future.

"I believe the cultural exchange activities will still continue," Willow Weilan Hai, senior vice-president and director of the China Institute Gallery in New York, said in an email.