In 1983, there was a rural woman in Hebei who took two national treasures to go to the appraisal, but her treasure was confiscated by the Cultural Relics Bureau and has not been returned to her.
This rural woman's name was Liu Cuichao, and the treasures she took to identify were the white jade medicine mill and the black clay bowl.
According to her, these two things are heirlooms left by grandpa to herself, because she is not sure of the true value of these two things, so she took the treasure to the cultural relics department and looked for experts to identify.
The expert who helped her conduct the appraisal was surnamed Gao, but the expert did not directly give her the appraisal conclusion, but wrote her a receipt, asking her to go home first and wait for the appraisal results.
After that, Liu Cuichao waited for a long time and did not wait for the news. After inquiring around for a while, she was sad to find that the two treasures she handed over to the experts for identification had been confiscated by the Cultural Relics Bureau.
In order to get back the two treasures, Liu Cuichao also sued the Cultural Relics Bureau and the appraisal experts in court. Based on the clues provided by Liu Cuichao, the investigators found the expert, but they got a completely different account.
The expert, surnamed Gao, said he had never seen Liu Cuichao at all. On the day of the incident, he was at work when he suddenly got news that a woman had handed in a treasure and needed him to identify it.
According to the regulations at that time, if it was an excavated cultural relic, the thing should belong to the state, and if it was an heirloom, the treasure should be returned to the original owner.
Because of his work, he wrote a receipt to the staff of the Provincial Cultural Relics Bureau. In the end, this receipt fell into the hands of Liu Cuichao.
After writing the receipt, the senior expert took the treasure from the staff of the Cultural Relics Bureau for identification, and found that the two treasures were actually first-class cultural relics and were veritable national treasures.
After careful examination, the expert was pleasantly surprised to find that the two treasures had obvious traces of excavation, and he immediately realized that there must be a large ancient tomb in the area where Liu Cuichao was located. Subsequently, experts and superior leaders reflected this situation.
Facts have proved that Liu Cuichao's village does have an ancient tomb, when the expert brought people to the scene, the ancient tomb has been seriously damaged, in order to avoid greater damage to the treasure inside, the expert and the staff quickly excavated and cleaned up.
After careful study, everyone concluded that this should be a tomb in the middle of the Tang Dynasty, and the treasures inside have high research value.
It is worth mentioning that when the expert led people to carry out a protective excavation of this ancient tomb in the middle of the Tang Dynasty, Liu Cuichao's family was also at the scene, and they were very cooperative with the work of the experts, and also warmly invited the experts and staff to eat at home.
Speaking of this, the expert particularly emphasized that he was in direct contact with Liu Cuichao for the first time during dinner. Before that, he had never met Liu Cuichao.
Because of the excavation of this ancient tomb, the family of Liu Cuichao, as the first discoverer, has attracted the attention of many people. Later, Liu Cuichao received special commendations from the local government for his meritorious contributions to handing over cultural relics, and was also rewarded with 600 yuan in cash.
This money was a huge amount of money at the time, and Liu Cuichao's family was particularly happy when they got this money.
In order to prove this statement, experts also specifically found the documentary records and photo materials left by the local cultural relics bureau when commending Liu Cuichao.
I thought that this matter had completely ended, but I did not think that Liu Cuichao would suddenly come to the door 20 years later and ask for treasures from experts and cultural relics departments.
This result confused everyone, and in order to solve this problem as soon as possible, experts and cultural relics departments communicated with Liu Cuichao several times.
During the period, experts repeatedly stressed that the treasures handed over by Liu Cuichao that year belonged to the excavated cultural relics and should belong to the state, and they were just performing their work duties normally.
Liu Cuichao was very dissatisfied with this reply, and she has always declared that the two treasures that were taken for identification were heirlooms left to her by her grandfather, and experts and cultural relics bureaus should return the two treasures to themselves.
In the process of investigating the case, the staff also came to Liu Cuichao's home and inquired about her father, but Liu Cuichao's father did not take a position on this matter, and his words were always flickering, without giving a definite statement, nor did he talk too much about his daughter's lawsuit.
Every time the staff asked a question, he replied that if there was anything, he would look for Liu Cuichao, he didn't know anything.
According to the theory, if these two treasures are really heirlooms, Liu Cuichao's father must be very clear and very concerned about whether his daughter's lawsuit can be won, and his reaction is obviously abnormal.
Therefore, many people believe that Liu Cuichao may be because he regrets handing over the cultural relics and wants to find an excuse to return the two national treasures.
Liu Cuichao's affair is not an isolated case, many people who have handed over treasures have regrets, and some people will even mess around and try their best to ask for treasures. The dispute between Liu Cuichao and the cultural relics department is very much in line with this logic.
Because of this incident, Liu Cuichao caused a lot of controversy, but she did not take the discussion of others in her heart, and insisted on seeking treasures from experts and the Cultural Relics Bureau. Because it was impossible to negotiate a solution, Liu Cuichao sued the cultural relics experts and the local cultural relics bureau in court.
The first-instance trial result held that the Cultural Relics Bureau and the experts were performing their work duties normally and directly rejected Liu Cuichao's appeal, but Liu Cuichao did not give up.
After several years of trial and investigation, the intermediate court held that the treasure sent by Liu Cuichao by the Cultural Relics Bureau was directly identified as the excavated cultural relics suspected of violating the law, and it was necessary to return the two treasures to the plaintiff Liu Cuichao within 60 days of the judgment taking effect.
The Antiquities Bureau was not satisfied with the verdict and filed a lawsuit with the Intermediate Court to change the verdict. After a new round of investigations and rulings, the intermediate court upheld the judgment of the first instance.
Judging from the results, the intermediate court obviously ruled that Liu Cuichao won the case, and this result surprised everyone. So, what is the core reason for the intermediate court's judgment in favor of Liu Cuichao?
The reason given by the intermediate court was that the cultural relics protection department did not produce enough effective evidence in this case to prove that the two treasures handed in by Liu Cuichao in that year belonged to the excavated cultural relics, nor did it formally notify Liu Cuichao, who was a party, according to the corresponding legal process.
Therefore, the acts of the Cultural Relics Bureau, suspected of violating the law, need to bear corresponding responsibility for this matter. Judging from the results, Liu Cuichao won the lawsuit as he wished.
However, everyone also raised new concerns about this matter, Liu Cuichao is just an ordinary person, if she gets two national treasures, can she be preserved?
In order to avoid damage to cultural relics, the local cultural relics bureaus that have lost the lawsuit reflect the situation to the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, hoping that the State Administration of Cultural Relics can coordinate with the judicial department to properly resolve the matter.