At present, the American Museum has 10 murals of Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes, 22 volumes of scriptures, 2 silk paintings, and 2 painted sculptures. In the 1920s, American Langdon Warner twice led a Harvard University delegation to China to steal exquisite Mogao Caves artifacts. This act made his name a household name in China.
Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes have been devastated several times, before Warner, there were Stein and Beshixi swept a large number of Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes scriptures, a large number of exquisite cultural relics lost overseas. One of the most serious was the wanton plundering carried out here by the American Langdon Warner.
Warner graduated from Harvard University, worked in the Fine Arts Department of Harvard University in the twelfth year of the Republic of China (1923), and taught oriental art courses at Harvard University, and was proficient in Buddha statue archaeology. At that time, Harvard University President Lovell had a strong interest in Northwest Chinese art, Warner came to China in the fifth year of the Republic of China (1916) to collect cultural relics, quite familiar with China, driven by interests, Warner led Harvard students to investigate Chinese cultural relics in the name of the beginning of a trip to China - stealing Chinese murals.
Langdon Warner
In the thirteenth year of the Republic of China (1924), on the way to the Mogao Grottoes in Dunhuang, his partner Jayne withdrew due to the cold in the northwest. In January, Warner arrived at the Mogao Caves in Dunhuang, and when he entered the Thousand Buddha Caves, he was almost stunned by the exquisite carving art here. At this time, it happened that the caretaker Wang Daoist went out to make a fortune, and for the next ten days, he admired the exquisite murals here.
Later, he once described himself in "On the Long Ancient Road in China": "I can no longer speak except because I am stunned and stunned, and I now understand why I have to travel thousands of miles across two continents..." In the face of such exquisite carving art, he could not suppress the excitement in his heart, and was determined to take away some beautiful murals. He wrote to his wife: "It is my duty to save any of these artifacts that are about to be destroyed, which have been unharmed for centuries, but at present, their end is coming, and I have not wavered in stripping them of everything here." ”
As can be seen from "On the Long Ancient Road in China", he was even angry that more than 900 White Russian soldiers scribbled here, cooked on fire and smoked the black murals, but he himself used more aggravated means to harm the cultural relics here.
Warner gave Wang Daoshi 75 taels of silver, and Wang Daoshi acquiesced in stripping off some of the murals, and later, he wanted a statue, but Wang Daoshi refused. He prayed for everything, and Wang Daoshi still gave him an old Tang Dynasty icon with one knee, but this Buddha statue has become a particularly precious cultural relic at harvard University's Fogg Art Museum.
Wang Yuanzhen
Warner used a special chemical solution for stripping, and before coming to China, he asked mural expert Daniel Thomson for the technique of dispensing murals with glue. Despite the difficulties he faced, he stole 12 murals in Dunhuang.
In April of the thirteenth year of the Republic of China (1924), he led an expedition to return to the United States with the stolen murals, which were highly valued by the president of Harvard University and others because of the preciousness of the murals. At the same time, they are preparing to organize a larger expedition.
In the fourteenth year of the Republic of China (1925), Warner organized a more professional expedition to plan to peel off all the murals in Cave 285 of the Mogao Caves in Dunhuang, with a clear division of labor, some people responsible for measuring, some people responsible for stripping, some people copying, and some people responsible for configuring chemical solutions for stripping murals. In addition, he was commissioned by Harvard University and the Hall Foundation to find a suitable school in China to establish a partnership to study Chinese culture together, but for various reasons, the joint study of Chinese culture eventually collapsed.
The Warner delegation first arrived in Beijing to visit Peking University, and the team that went to the northwest joined two Chinese, namely, Chen Wanli, a teacher at Peking University, and Wang Jinren, an interpreter. On the way to accompany him, Chen Wanli learned the truth about Warner's desire to steal the Dunhuang murals, and began to coordinate the forces of all parties to prevent their theft.
On May 19, the Warner expedition arrived in Dunhuang, and the group visited the local county government, and the governor of Yang County no longer allowed them to stay in the Thousand Buddha Cave. Zhai Yin, a member of the Warner expedition, said: "We plan to peel off some murals and display them in Beijing for Chinese and foreign people to study." "The crowd unanimously lamented that Warner stole more than 20 murals two years ago (in addition to the Dunhuang murals, there are other murals in other places), and this time they will never give them another chance, asking them to formulate detailed activity plans, not allowing long-term residence, not allowing the destruction of the murals, and even a dozen villagers spontaneously monitored the behavior of the group, and finally the group ended without a problem.
In addition to stealing Dunhuang murals, Warnana has also repeatedly stolen murals from other parts of China. Under the banner of studying Chinese culture, he stole Chinese cultural relics at a time of Chinese peril, which was extremely inhumane, and the use of mural peeling methods was very harmful to cultural relics, and the fragments lost their overall artistic sense, resulting in blurred mural images, and its damage to Chinese cultural relics was painful.