Chinese artifacts in the British Museum
Chinese treasure mysteriously disappeared
On October 30, 2004, while patrolling the British Museum in London, England, the staff suddenly found that the treasures in China's Display Box 33 were missing. They immediately reported the incident to the police. British police rushed to the scene of the crime immediately after receiving a call from the British Museum.
Through the investigation of the scene, the British police found that the glass of the display case was intact, and the security alarm of the display case did not sound. At the same time, the police did not find any signs of forced entry into the exhibition hall. So how did the thieves take these treasures? In this regard, the British police judged that this thief had quite superb theft skills. However, ms. Smith, the person in charge, disagreed with the police, believing that the thief's skills were not very skilled. She said the thief could cut the glass with a simple glass-cutting tool and then take the treasures out and put them in their pockets.
Later, the British Museum confirmed through inspection and with the assistance of the police that about 15 Chinese artifacts had been lost inside the museum on October 29.
The reporter also asked Ms. Smith some questions about the theft. For example, the reporter asked: "The British Museum has guards guarding cultural relics, and there are also security alarm devices to prevent theft, even if the thief's technique is skilled, it takes a certain amount of time and timing, and it is impossible to be easily stolen." The reporter also gave the example of a museum in Shanghai, China, where guards are everywhere and have no chance of letting thieves commit crimes.
In response, Ms Smith replied: "The guards in the British Museum do not work in fixed positions, they need to patrol the aisles. And due to the high cost of security alerts, the device was not installed in Showcase 33 of the China Pavilion. ”
Ms Smith's remarks illustrate the financial and manpower problems of the British Museum in London, which is also a factor in the theft of Chinese treasures.
The theft is suspenseful
After the British Museum in London confirmed the theft of Chinese cultural relics, the British media reported on November 2. However, the outside world has different accounts of this theft, making this theft seem suspenseful.
For some reason, the number of lost artifacts at the British Museum has been changing.
Initially, 7 Chinese artifacts were reported as stolen, followed by other reports of 15. The British Museum is unable to determine the exact number. It is said that these cultural relics are relatively small, and some of them are displayed in pairs, so it is difficult to carry out statistics.
In the end, the museum confirmed that a total of 15 Chinese artifacts were lost, including a pair of bronze belt buckles, a jade pendant, and a golden lion. Although the British Museum has not valued these artifacts, they have important historical value, which makes the museum very sorry.
Subsequently, police officers claimed that the artifacts were lost between 10 a.m. and 10 a.m. the next day on Oct. 29. But the thieves did not forcibly smash the display cases or touch the associated security alarm system. Therefore, it can be judged that the thief sneaked into the exhibition hall at a time when it was open to the public.
It is reported that if you visit the entire exhibition hall of the British Museum in London, it will take about 4 kilometers, although there are guards patrolling the museum, but there will inevitably be omissions. And although there are two people in charge of each pavilion, they still have to answer the visitors' questions, which is not much of a deterrent to thieves.
In addition, some of the pavilions were rarely visited, and there was no separate alarm device installed in the display cases, which also gave thieves an opportunity. Moreover, Hall 33 of the China Pavilion is the longest pavilion in the British Museum, with a length of about 110 meters and many blind spots for surveillance. Another point is that the Chinese Pavilion is close to the back door of the museum, which is convenient for thieves to escape.
Another suspense in this case is who the buyer of this batch of cultural relics is. British police believe the case may be linked to a theft at another museum.
On 4 October of the same year, a display case of Chinese artifacts at the Victoria and Albert Museum was opened by thieves and lost around £60,000 worth of artefacts. Most of these cultural relics are made of ink jade and green jade, which were born in the 10th century. The police believe that the bandits are organized and are likely to be operated behind the scenes by someone who loves jade.
Ms. Smith also said that about 12,000 artifacts and works of art were stolen worldwide. Initially, the proportion of Chinese cultural relics was relatively small, but the number of Chinese cultural relics stolen in recent years has been rising. In this regard, she believes that this is caused by the increase in market demand, and many people will use theft to balance this demand.
In addition, with the rapid development of the Chinese mainland economy, many people have entered the ranks of the rich, many of whom hope to return the cultural relics scattered around the world in China to the motherland through purchases. In this regard, the British media ridiculed the people who bought a large number of cultural relics as a group of "upstarts", but the Western media affirmed this behavior. Therefore, the police speculated that it is likely that some buyers took a fancy to the artifacts and then hired the thieves.
Chinese artifacts in the museum
According to relevant information, there are about 218 museums in the world, with a total collection of 1.63 million Pieces of Chinese cultural relics. The number of Chinese art collected by the people far exceeds this number. Among European countries, the United Kingdom has the largest collection of Chinese cultural relics, while the British Museum is the most numerous.
Founded in 1753, the British Museum is one of the largest museums in the world, with a collection of around 7 million artifacts from around the world.
Among them, there are more than 20,000 works of art and cultural relics in ancient and modern China, including books, paintings, embroideries and porcelain from the Ming and Qing dynasties in various periods of China. The most precious cultural relics are the Han Dynasty jade carving of the dragon, the Tang Dynasty Gu Kaizhi's "Female History Zhentu", the Song Dynasty's Han Sancai Statue and the Dunhuang Scriptures.
The British Museum also houses one of China's most famous lost overseas artifacts, the Diamond Sutra, which was printed in 868 AD and is the world's oldest preserved engraving with a year. In 1900, the Englishman Stein brought the book back to his country in Dunhuang.
It is reported that many of the cultural relics lost by China overseas were mostly exported during the old social period, mainly in three ways. The first is that foreign invaders forcibly take them away, the second is that some foreigners steal them, and the third is that Chinese collude with Westerners to sell these cultural relics at low prices.
Therefore, most of the Chinese cultural relics in the British Museum were robbed, stolen and deceived by the British between the 19th and 20th centuries. For example, in 1860, when the British burned the Yuanmingyuan, they took the opportunity to loot the "Female History Zhentu", the white jade horse, the scriptures and various precious hand scrolls that Stein cheated from Dunhuang in the early 20th century.
The famous actor Zhang Tielin once said: "Foreign museums display exhibits from all over the world, while our museums only display their own things, there is no foreign things, this is our lack, this is China's limitation."
Subsequently, he was accused by netizens: "How did so many Chinese cultural relics in your British Museum come from, Zhang Tielin, don't you know?" ”
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