Trio jailed in Geneva museum £2m Ming vase heist as reward offered to find missing bowl

A four-year operation between the Met and Swiss law enforcement has led to the conviction of three men and the recovery of a Ming vase worth about £2million.

The men were arrested and charged in connection with the theft of a Chinese Ming Dynasty Vase from the Museum of Far Eastern Art in Geneva, in June 2019.

The vase was returned to the museum on October 15, 2021, after officers carried out an undercover operation.

On Friday at Southwark Crown Court, Mbaki Nkhwa, 48, of The Heights, Charlton, and Kaine Wright, 27, of Heavitree Road, Woolwich, were found guilty of conspiracy to convert criminal property.

David Lamming, 31, of Belmont Park Close, Lewisham, pleaded guilty to the same offence at an earlier hearing on March 23, 2023.

All three will be sentenced on October 13. Nkhwa and Wright have been remanded in custody and Lamming has been bailed. 

In July 2020, police received a call from an auction house advising that an anonymous person had e-mailed them with knowledge of the whereabouts of the stolen vase and were looking for a valuation.

Officers managed to trace the IP address for the email account to an address in Belmont Park Close, the home of Lamming.

An undercover operation was launched and when the vase was offered for sale, officers posed as buyers agreeing to a price of £450,000. 

Undercover officers arranged to meet Nkhwa at a central London hotel where the vase was handed over and Nkhwa was arrested at the scene.

Telephone data showed both he and Lamming had been in regular contact with Wright, who had driven them to the hotel for the exchange.

In total, three items from the Ming Dynasty were stolen during the burglary in 2019, estimated to be worth £3.5million. 

A bowl valued at £80,000 was sold at an auction house in Hong Kong in 2019 but later returned to the museum. This bowl did not form part of the Met’s case.

Officers are now appealing for the public’s help in locating the third of these stolen items.

A Serious Crime Reward of up to £10,000 is on offer for information leading to the recovery of a Ming Dynasty cup which was also stolen from the museum.

Two other British nationals await trial in Switzerland for their alleged role in the burglary of the Museum of Far Eastern Art in June 2019. 

Brothers Stewart Ahearne, 45, of Woolwich and Louis Ahearne, 35, of Woolwich were both extradited from the UK in 2022.

Detective Chief Inspector Matt Webb, said: “These convictions are the result of four years’ work crossing international boundaries and involving collaboration between many internal and external partners. 

“The white porcelain ‘vase’ – which is actually a bottle of the Yongle period of the Ming Dynasty – has an interesting tale over its hundreds of years and this is another chapter.

“I’m glad we were able to return it to its rightful owners.”

Pictured top: From Left, Mbaki Nkhwa, Kaine Wright and David Lamming (Picture: The Met)