Many people may have a misunderstanding about the protection of cultural relics: since they are cultural relics, they will be well protected both abroad and at home. But in fact, many cultural relics lost overseas for reasons are often damaged due to poor protection, such as the "Female History Proverbs" created by Gu Kaizhi in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, which was once cut into 3 sections by the British Museum.
Therefore, many collectors are committed to recovering cultural relics not only out of patriotic enthusiasm, but also out of the cherishing of cultural relics. Speaking of which, it is necessary to mention a famous collector who donated 183 Pieces of Chinese cultural relics to the Boston Museum of Fine Arts in the United States 2 years ago, which once became a hot topic.
His name was Ongwango. Born in Shanghai in 1918, Weng Wange went to the United States to study after the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War. The cultural relics collected by Weng Wange basically belong to ancestral treasures, and his ancestor Weng Xincun was a member of the Qing Dynasty's Bingbu Shangshu and Tirenge University, and Weng Tonggong (Weng Xincun's son) was the Minister of Military Aircraft and the Prime Minister's Minister of State Affairs.
In the Qing Dynasty, the Weng family was once a rich family of Zhong Mingding, so it is not surprising that Weng Wange inherited countless rare collections in the family. At the age of 31, Onwango transferred all these treasures to the United States, which according to him was done to better protect the cultural relics and prevent them from being destroyed by the war.
At that time, China had not yet stabilized, so no one questioned his approach. However, in 1999, when the news came out that Weng Wange was going to transfer to the ancient books collection, the personnel of China Guardian International Auction Company immediately flew to the United States for the first time to find Weng Wange for consultation.
This collection of ancient books is very precious, spanning the Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties, with a number of up to 542 volumes, which is a rare overseas private collection of rare books and well preserved. After several negotiations, Onwango reluctantly agreed to send them back into the country, but for a fee. The following year, the Shanghai Library spent $4.5 million (more than 30 million yuan) to bring the collection of ancient books back to its homeland.
As the saying goes, "leaves fall back to their roots", Chinese have more or less local concepts in their hearts, but although Weng Wange pays lip service to saying that he lives to protect Chinese cultural relics, it is very contradictory to implement it in action. After entering the 21st century, he once donated more than 20 precious chinese cultural relics to the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, which was donated, not sold.
Generally speaking, museums rarely have the opportunity to receive a large donation and change the scale of the collection in one fell swoop, but Weng Wango single-handedly helped the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, and 2 years ago, coinciding with his 100th birthday, he donated 130 paintings, 31 calligraphy, 18 rubbings and 4 embroidered artifacts spanning the 1300-year history of 5 dynasties.
This made the staff of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts in charge of the Asian collection excited and thanked Ongwango one after another. Onwango, on the other hand, has publicly stated that the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston was the first museum he visited after coming to the United States, and he hopes that his family collection will be integrated with this museum, which is "fateful".
In contrast, Weng Wange seems to be completely unaware that these cultural relics originally came from China, and the act of donating to the outside world and charging high prices to the motherland has also caused a lot of controversy. Objectively speaking, Weng Wange has the right to dispose of his family's collection, but these relics are so precious that it is difficult to understand what considerations he made a very different choice.