Jiangsu public security cracked an extraordinarily large case of excavation and resale of cultural relics and arrested 58 suspects to recover 2 first-class cultural relics

Beijing, 13 Dec (Xinhua) -- Yang Nianhu, a first-class senior sergeant of the Criminal Police Corps of the Jiangsu Provincial Public Security Department, said in Beijing on 13 December that the Jiangsu public security organs recently successfully cracked the "4.3" extraordinarily large case of excavation and reselling of cultural relics in Jiangyin, which was listed and supervised by the Ministry of Public Security.

On the same day, The Ministry of Public Security of China held a press conference on "Achieving Results in Education and Rectification, I Do Practical Things for the Masses" to report on the deployment of public security organs throughout the country, together with the state cultural relics protection departments, to jointly carry out special actions to combat and prevent cultural relics crimes in accordance with the law.

Yang Nianhu said at the press conference that in accordance with the requirements of the deployment of the national special action to crack down on and prevent cultural relics crimes, the Jiangsu public security organs have recently successfully cracked the "4.3" extraordinarily large theft excavation and resale of cultural relics in Jiangyin, which was listed and supervised by the Ministry of Public Security; the whole chain has smashed the criminal gang of excavating and reselling cultural relics, arrested 58 criminal suspects, recovered more than 1,100 pieces of porcelain, lacquered woodware, gold and silverware, and other cultural relics, and has identified 2 first-class cultural relics, 13 second-class cultural relics, and 49 third-level cultural relics.

"In particular, the two first-class cultural relics - the Longquan kiln blue glaze bristle furnace and the blue glaze eight square cups, which are small in existence and very precious." Yang Nianhu said that the stolen excavation of the tomb was identified by the cultural relics department as a high-grade ancient tomb of the Song Dynasty, which has important historical, artistic, and scientific archaeological value, and is a case of extraordinarily large cultural relics in which the public security organs of Jiangsu Province have cracked the largest number of people involved in the case, the most complete criminal chain, and the highest level of recovery of cultural relics in recent years.

It is understood that at the beginning of 2021, the Wuxi Jiangyin Municipal Public Security Bureau took the initiative to carry out clue mapping and found an important clue from Jiangyin to Jiangxi to resell cultural relics, and after more than 4 months of arduous investigation, the special case team gradually identified an underground cultural relics criminal network headed by Tang Mouhua, Zhao Moudong and others.

Yang Nianhu said: After the case was reported to the Ministry of Public Security, the Criminal Investigation Bureau of the Ministry of Criminal Investigation listed it as a case of ministerial supervision, and deployed and directed the public security organs at the jiangsu, municipal, and county levels to draw capable forces and go all out to carry out investigations and tackle tough problems. At the beginning of April, the special case team launched the first round of network collection operations, and arrested 10 major backbone personnel such as Tang Mouhua in one fell swoop. After interrogation, digging deep and following the line, in Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Guizhou, Sichuan and other places continued to carry out multiple rounds of centralized net collection, successively arrested Xu Moujun, Zhou Moufei, Yan Moujun and other personnel who explored, excavated, and resold cultural relics, pursued more than 1,100 pieces of various cultural relics along the line, and found that the stolen cultural relics came from ancient tombs at the construction site of Jiangwan City in Jiangyin City.

He said that after review, the gang confessed that since 2019, Xu Moujun, Zhou Moufei and others have used metal detectors, excavators, shovels and other tools to explore and excavate ancient tombs at construction sites such as Jiangyin Jiangwan City and Canal Gongyuan for many times, and the stolen cultural relics have been sold at high prices by Tang Mouhua, Zhao Moudong and others for profit. (End)

Source: China News Network