Princely tombs, priceless burials... In the eyes of tomb robbers, Xuyi County in Jiangsu Province is not only beautiful in scenery, but also a "feng shui treasure land" where a large number of cultural relics are buried, and some so-called "gold lieutenants" have extended their evil hands to these underground treasures. Recently, after a public prosecution initiated by the Xuyi County Procuratorate of Jiangsu Province, the court sentenced the defendants Zhang Tao, Xu Yuan, Chen Jin and 8 others to fixed-term imprisonment ranging from 11 years and 6 months to 5 years for the crime of excavating ancient tombs in the first instance, and fined them each, and sentenced the defendant Zhang Fang to six months' detention for the crime of trafficking in cultural relics.
Mysterious cultural relics dealers crash into the legal net
"The construction site dug out a number of bronze dings, bronze pots and bronze mirrors, at least in the Han Dynasty, and the highest price was obtained..." In January 2021, xuyi county police received a report from the public that someone had illegally sold cultural relics online.
"Sellers use different accounts to advertise in cultural relics enthusiast groups and antique groups, all exchanges are in WeChat groups and QQ groups, never left contact information..." The police can only wait for the seller to contact each other after going online, but there is no chat, and the cultural relics that they claim to sell are only a few pictures that are difficult to distinguish between true and false.
For several days, similar situations continued to repeat, just when the police could not find a clue, the seller suddenly took the initiative to contact the police and sent pictures of cultural relics, and the police finally saw the "real thing" - a simple and exquisite bronze pot.
The seller said that the thing was dug out of the ancient tomb, fidelity, because of the road problem, has not dared to show, see the buyer is very interested, tried many times before deciding to single-line contact.
After many mutual tests and asking for prices, the police and the seller reached a deal and agreed on the time and place of the transaction. Subsequently, in a private house in a township in Xuyi County, the police arrested Zhang Tao, Yang Wen, Chen Jin, Zhang Xiao, Xu Jun, Zhang Huang and others who came to trade, and seized a bronze pot of suspected stolen cultural relics and several bronze mirrors at the scene.
After the surprise interrogation, the police not only found the 4 ancient tombs that were stolen and excavated, but also arrested Xu Yuan, Li Jun and another group of tomb robbers who participated in the excavation of the ancient tombs, as well as Zhang Fang, who sold cultural relics, and at the same time recovered the bronze sword, a bronze ding, and 6 bronze mirrors that had flowed into the people.
Cultural relics excavated by the cultural relics protection department in rescue
An ancient tomb stolen and excavated in Majiaba Town
I don't know how to find a "master" to help dig treasures
"I am nervous at hand, I know a little historical knowledge, I know that there are many good things underground in my hometown, and I want to dig something out." After arriving at the case, Xu Yuan explained the reason for the crime.
Because he likes history, Xu Yuan has a deep understanding of the customs and customs of his hometown Xuyi County. However, he did not use his knowledge on the right path, but instead excavated ancient tombs in the local area, and was sentenced to three years in prison with a four-year suspended sentence because of the less serious circumstances involved.
In October 2020, Xu Yuan, who was engaged in farming at home, felt that doing business was too hard and did not make much money, so he planned to dig a few tombs to make some "quick money". He felt that his historical knowledge was limited, so he decided to ask foreign aid to "find the dragon's cave".
Xu Yuan heard that the "master" Zhang Tao had worked in a cultural relics task force, and later went to jail for several years for crime, and then he started a tomb robbery in the name of watching feng shui, so he contacted the other party.
In November 2020, Zhang Tao brought his friend Yang Wen to Xuyi County. A few days later, xu Yuan, in the name of "practicing his skills", took his friend Li Jun, as well as Zhang Tao, Yang Wen and others to a remote village in Tianchang City, Anhui Province, to excavate ancient tombs. In only half a day, Zhang Tao found an ancient tomb of the Han Dynasty by looking at the terrain and "hitting steel brazes" (a means of finding tombs), and after several excavations, Xu Yuan and others stole a complete bronze mirror.
After that, Xu Yuan took them to a farmland in Maba Town, Xuyi County. This time, Zhang Tao inspected it very carefully, which lasted a long time, and came to the conclusion that there should be a large ancient tomb here, and proposed to invite the "master" Chen Jin to help, and Xu Yuan agreed. After the preparation was ready, Zhang Tao, Xu Yuan and others officially began the "treasure digging" operation.
However, although they found the location of the tomb, the tomb was not only buried deeply, but also seemed to have an anti-theft tomb mechanism, and several excavations were not smooth. Due to the soft soil, there have been many landslides. After several twists and turns, Zhang Tao and others entered the ancient tomb and stole a bronze mirror, a bronze ding, and a bronze sword.
After that, Xu Yuan sold the cultural relics excavated by theft for more than 70,000 yuan, and the 4 people involved in the tomb robbery divided the money equally.
A few days later, Zhang Tao and others proposed that there was something going on at home and left, but what Xu Yuan didn't know was that Zhang Tao and the others had an ulterior motive for leaving.
The "Master" also formed a treasure theft team
"When I entered the tomb, I found that it was a large tomb, and there should be good things in it, but I was worried about the collapse again, so I came up." According to Zhang Tao's confession, when he excavated the ancient tomb in Maba Town, he believed that there should be "good things" in the ancient tomb, so he deliberately did not tell Xu Yuan his judgment, but decided to find an opportunity to do it alone after leaving.
In December 2020, Zhang Tao contacted another "thief friend", Zhang Xiao, to inform him that he was going to dig several graves in the local area, and Zhang Xiao also hired Xu Jun, who was familiar with hydropower projects, to join him and prepare to do a big job.
A few days later, in a farmland in Huanghuatang, Xuyi County, they found an ancient tomb, excavated three robbery holes, and stole 6 complete copper mirrors. Soon after, Xu Jun contacted Zhang Fang, an antique dealer, and sold 6 copper mirrors for more than 22,000 yuan, in addition to giving Zhang Fang a 2,000 yuan introduction fee, the remaining money was divided equally by several people.
When Zhang Xiao encouraged Zhang Tao to do it a few more times, Zhang Tao told the other party about the lack of manpower when he wanted to steal the ancient tomb in Maba Town. In January 2021, Zhang Tao, Zhang Xiao, Chen Jin, as well as Zhang Xiao's friend Zhang Huang and others came to the ancient tomb in Maba Town and stole a beautiful bronze pot from the ancient tomb. Zhang Tao was excited and told Chen Jin and others to keep it strictly confidential and wait for a while before selling it. However, despite the meticulous arrangements made by Zhang Tao and others, it is still difficult to escape the law.
The procuratorial organ initiates a criminal incidental civil public interest lawsuit
After learning of the case of illegal excavation of ancient tombs in the jurisdiction, the procurator of Xuyi County Procuratorate intervened in the case in advance, guided the public security organs to fix the evidence in time, and quickly invited the cultural relics protection department to conduct a level appraisal of the stolen cultural relics, and at the same time inspected the theft of ancient tombs on the spot, so as to prepare for the subsequent restoration work.
After identification, Zhang Tao and others excavated 5 ancient tombs time span from the Western Han Dynasty to the late Spring and Autumn Warring States period, of which 4 are early Western Han Tombs, 1 is the Warring States Tombs, all have high historical, artistic and scientific value, of the 12 stolen cultural relics, bronze pots are national second-class cultural relics, bronze Ding, bronze swords and 4 bronze mirrors and other 6 are national third-level cultural relics, the remaining 4 are general cultural relics.
The appraisal report of the cultural relics involved in the case issued by the cultural relics protection departments of Jiangsu and Anhui pointed out that although the cultural relics were successfully recovered, the barbaric excavations of the tomb robbers caused serious damage to the ancient tombs. In view of this, the Xuyi County Procuratorate has made great efforts in recovering lost cultural relics and strengthening the protection of ancient tombs. After communicating with public security, cultural relics protection and other departments, and conducting a feasibility study on criminal incidental civil public interest litigation in the field of cultural heritage protection, the court initiated a criminal incidental civil public interest lawsuit in June 2021, requiring Zhang Tao and others to bear criminal liability in accordance with the law, while bearing civil liability in accordance with the law, and respectively bearing more than 150,000 yuan in costs related to rescue archaeological excavation and restoration of ancient tombs.
Recently, the first-instance judgment of the case was pronounced, and while the court sentenced the defendant to a criminal punishment in accordance with the law, the judgment supported all the requests of the procuratorial organ for attached civil public interest litigation.
(The characters in the text are pseudonyms)
Author: Ma Qiang Wen Wu
Source: Procuratorial Daily Justice Network