Shenzhen Customs: Destroy a smuggling network of cultural relics

Recently, Shenzhen Customs and the public security department launched the "Mission 2021-13" special operation to combat cultural relics smuggling, successfully destroyed a cultural relics smuggling network involving Shaanxi, Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao, and seized a total of 23 cultural relics, including 1 first-class cultural relic, 2 second-class cultural relics, 1 tertiary cultural relic, and 19 general cultural relics.

On January 23, an e-commerce company in Dongguan declared the export of a batch of antique handicrafts from the Shenzhen Bay port in the form of cross-border e-commerce trade, and after inspection by customs control, it was found that the declared goods were likely to be mixed with cultural relics. Shenzhen Customs attaches great importance to it, and the anti-smuggling department quickly intervenes, and in the carriage of tens of thousands of tickets of goods, the anti-smuggling police and customs officers inspect the tickets one by one. Jointly identified by authoritative experts from the State Administration of Cultural Heritage and the Shaanxi Provincial Cultural Relics Appraisal and Research Center, 3 pottery figurines in the batch of goods were identified as precious cultural relics, including 1 first-class cultural relics and 2 second-class cultural relics.

According to reports, the seized first-class cultural relics are painted sitting figurines, originating from the Western Han Dynasty, with a height of 30.2 centimeters. From the appearance point of view, the figurine has a beautiful and elegant face, a dignified and generous posture, a gorgeous dress, and a sitting posture on the body, which vividly reflects the maid style in the homes of princes and nobles, and is a representative cultural relic of particularly important historical, artistic and scientific value to the mainland.

Due to the seriousness of the case, the Shenzhen Customs Anti-Smuggling Bureau immediately informed the Shenzhen Municipal Public Security Bureau of the situation and joined hands with the special case team to investigate the case. After the joint task force's research, judgment, and investigation, a criminal network involving the smuggling of cultural relics in Shaanxi, Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao surfaced. It was preliminarily ascertained that the case was a gang of cargo owners who had been engaged in the antique business in Guangzhou for a long time, and after acquiring cultural relics from Shaanxi, Henan, Sichuan and other places, they entrusted customs declaration companies to mix cultural relics in antique handicrafts and then smuggled them out of the country in the form of cross-border e-commerce exports.

In the early morning of May 14, the Shenzhen Customs Anti-Smuggling Bureau and the Shenzhen Municipal Public Security Bureau jointly launched a network collection operation, 6 suspects were arrested one after another, 225 suspected cultural relics were seized at the scene, and the smuggling chain was completely destroyed. According to the appraisal of the Guangdong Provincial Cultural Relics Appraisal Station, of the 225 suspected cultural relics, 1 is a third-class cultural relic and 19 is a general cultural relic.