Photo/Illutration A pure gold tea bowl was found at an antique store in Tokyo’s Taito Ward after being stolen from a department store exhibition. (Provided by Metropolitan Police Department)

Tokyo police have arrested a man on suspicion of stealing a pure gold tea bowl worth 10.4 million yen ($68,000) from an exhibition at a department store.

The Metropolitan Police Department said the suspect, Masaru Horie, 32, a resident of the capital’s Koto Ward of unknown occupation, has admitted to the allegations.

“There is no mistake,” police quoted Horie as saying. “I have sold the tea bowl.”

He was arrested on April 13, two days after the bowl went missing. It was recovered on April 15.

The 24-karat gold tea bowl, made by goldsmith Koichi Ishikawa for “matcha” green tea, was on display in the Dai Ogonten exhibition at the Takashimaya department store in Tokyo’s Nihonbashi district, the store said.

According to police, Horie swiped the tea bowl from a plastic case in a corner of the exhibition hall at 11:40 a.m. on April 11.

The case had no lock or alarm, and a security camera caught Horie taking the bowl.

Based on security camera footage, police believe Horie stayed inside the department store for about 30 minutes before fleeing on a subway line.

He has told investigators, “I was going to drink tea with the tea bowl.”

But instead, he is believed to have sold the tea bowl for about 1.8 million yen at an antique store in Koto Ward just after the theft.

When the police asked the store about it, the tea bowl was no longer there. But the store confirmed to police that the purchase price was about 1.8 million yen, and that it had sold the bowl to an antique store in Tokyo’s Taito Ward, according to investigative sources. 

On the morning of April 15, investigators went to the Taito store and found the tea bowl.

Police determined it was the stolen tea bowl based in its weight and engraving at the bottom. The bowl was not badly damaged.

When Horie was arrested on April 13, he had about 1.3 million yen in cash, investigative sources said. Police are investigating where the rest of the money went.

According to police, Horie explained how he stole the gold bowl.

“When I held the (plastic) case, it moved, so I took it because I thought I could take it,” he is quoted as saying. “I went in and out of the exhibition hall several times thinking I could take other things.”

(This article was written by Hiromichi Fujita and Arata Mitsui.)

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