Hello everyone, I'm Lantai.
In July 2000, the owner of a well-known art shop in Hong Kong and a well-known collector of cultural relics in Hong Kong took the initiative to find the relevant state departments and expressed his willingness to donate the national treasure-level cultural relics "Painted Relief Samurai Stone Carvings of the Tombs of the Five Generations of Kings" to the state free of charge. However, authorities not only rejected the Hong Kong collector's generous donation, but also filed a lawsuit against him in the United States.
To understand why the collector was rejected and sued in the United States, we need to go back to the early 2000s.
At the beginning of 2000, the Hebei Provincial Bureau of Cultural Relics received a call from the United States across the ocean. A professor at the Academy of Fine Arts, who is a visiting scholar in the United States, found a samurai relief in a TV commercial for Christie's auction house in the United Kingdom, similar to the relief of Wang Chuzhi's tomb stolen in Quyang County, Baoding, Hebei Province in 1994.
Wang Chuzhi was a great warlord in Hebei during the late Tang Dynasty and played an important role in the Liang-Jin War in the early Five Dynasties. His grave was stolen in 1994 and attracted widespread attention. Although most of the funerary goods and reliefs were stolen, the preserved artifacts became priceless.
Professor Yuan Yunsheng discovered Christie's auction items through a TV advertisement, and the Hebei cultural relics department took urgent action to determine that it was a stolen cultural object and demanded that it be recovered. Under the coordination of the National Heritage Service, U.S. Customs and the courts intervened to stop the auction and confiscate the samurai relief.
However, just after the seizure of the antiquities by U.S. Customs, Hong Kong's antiquities collectors stepped forward. It turned out that he was a client of Christie's, and it was the stolen samurai relief that was entrusted for auction.
But as the artifacts were about to be returned to China, the Hong Kong collector changed his mind. He claimed that it was his ancestral artifact, which was more than a decade old. This argument is untenable, because in the field of cultural relics, heirlooms have changed hands and are recorded accordingly.
The relevant state departments provided a large amount of evidence, including even soil samples around Wang's tomb. However, the Hong Kong collector was not reconciled and raised the so-called "suspicion": the samurai statue was different in style, and the relief was not dry from other reliefs soaked in water.
Faced with the response of the national heritage department, the Hong Kong collector could no longer find room for quibbling. At the same time, after learning of the incident, Ellsworth, a collector of antiquities in the United States, actively contacted the relevant departments, indicating that he had a samurai relief of the same size as the auction item in his hand and was willing to donate it to the state.
After expert appraisal, it was confirmed that the samurai relief in Ellsworth's hands matched the stolen artifacts. On June 26, 2000, Ellsworth finally donated the cultural relics to China**. The move also prompted Hong Kong's once-"generous" collector to offer to donate the artifacts to the state again in an attempt to salvage his reputation amid the imminent confiscation of the relics.
However, the authorities refused to accept the "donation" and formally prosecuted the Hong Kong collector. In 2001, in accordance with the United Nations Convention on Cultural Relics, the U.S. District Court for the District of New York returned the national treasure "Relief of the Warriors of the Tomb of Wang Chuzhi" to China in accordance with the law, and imposed a fine on the Hong Kong collector.
The incident caused the famous Hong Kong collector's art shop business to plummet, and he eventually had to close his business and leave Hong Kong for Canada. This incredible experience has become a good story in the history of China's cultural relics recovery, and it also bears witness to the country's firm stance on the protection of cultural relics.
China's National Treasures Abroad: A Thrilling Journey of Cultural Retrieval Recovery.
The article details a thrilling chase involving a national treasure and the feud between Hong Kong antiquities collectors and American auction houses. The whole process is full of twists and turns and suspense, not only a protection and recourse to national treasures, but also the story behind the cultural relics.
First, the article reveals the intricacies of stolen artifacts. In the 1994 theft of Wang's tomb, although most of the burial goods and reliefs were stolen, some rare treasures were survived. This shows the importance of cultural heritage preservation, and if it is stolen, it can be lost forever.
Second, the article highlights the efforts of the national antiquities department. When it was discovered that the stolen artifacts would be auctioned in the United States, the National Administration of Cultural Heritage quickly organized experts and coordinated customs and court actions to successfully recover the national treasure. This fully reflects the great importance and firm position of the state on the protection of cultural relics, and shows a strong sense of action.
In this process, the Hong Kong heritage collectors involved are even more eye-catching. On the one hand, he showed his cherishing of national treasures and was willing to donate cultural relics to the country free of chargeOn the other hand, he tried to preserve his reputation by changing his statement when the artifacts were about to be confiscated. This reflects the struggle between profit and reputation of some individuals, and also reveals the complex relationships within the field of artefacts.
Throughout the process, the involvement of the United States and the final verdict made this pursuit of cultural relics protection even more fascinating. The decision of the U.S. District Court of New York reflects the international community's support for the recovery of cultural relics and sends an important message to the world about the preservation of cultural relics. This cross-border cooperation provides a new paradigm for the protection and recourse of cultural relics, and underscores the shared responsibility of the international community to protect cultural relics.
Overall, this article not only profoundly reflects on the importance of cultural heritage conservation, but also shows the efforts made by the national cultural relics department and related individuals in the process of protecting national treasures. This is not only a chase for cultural relics, but also shows the many complexities and challenges of cultural heritage conservation. Through this case, we can better understand the necessity of cultural heritage protection, as well as the practical problems faced by conservation work.
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