A 38-year-old man is facing a federal charge for allegedly stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of rare and historical Chinese manuscripts from the UCLA library system, according to court papers obtained Friday.

Jeffrey Ying of Fremont, in Alameda County, is charged with theft of major artwork, a felony punishable by up to 10 years in federal prison, the Justice Department said.

Ying, who is in state custody, is expected to make his initial appearance in Los Angeles federal court in the coming days.

According to an affidavit filed in the case, Ying stole rare books and manuscripts worth nearly $216,000 from UCLA’s library from December 2024 to July 2025. He would rent the documents, bring them home to the Bay Area for days at a time, then return a dummy manuscript instead of

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