When it comes to patriotism and cultural relics donation, many people first think of Hong Kong "gambling king" Ho Hung Sun, without him, as a huge rich man in Hong Kong, he bought too many overseas lost cultural relics back to China, once brought fire to the market for Chinese cultural relics in overseas auctions, and even foreign auction houses took advantage of this trend to regard Chinese rich people as "mobile cash machines", deliberately increasing the starting price of Chinese cultural relics to obtain more profits.
Because the Beast Head of the Yuanmingyuan donated by Ho Hongshen to China is too famous and carries the precious national sentiments of a period of national hardship, he himself is almost a household name in the mainland. However, few people know that there is an overseas Chinese in Guangdong who also has the heart to repay the country with fists and fists, and has also made great contributions to recovering lost cultural relics.
His name is Zhao Tailai, born in 1954, his ancestral home is in Dongguan, Guangdong Province, and he is a large local family. His ancestors had the great diplomat Wu Tingfang. After the founding of new China, my grandfather and father, who were originally doctors in Hong Kong, dragged their families back to Dongguan. In that era of waste, Zhao Tailai's family was already able to live a relatively good life.
In 1969, 15-year-old Cho Tai-lai's parents died, and he was forced to go to Hong Kong to join his aunt. Zhao Tailai's aunt is a celibacy and gladly accepts her sister-in-law's child, here, Zhao Tailai and his aunt have been living a warm and happy life, in 1977, Zhao Tailai's aunt quietly told Zhao Tailai that she had a number of inheritances in Hong Kong and Europe, and she had set Zhao Tailai as the only heir, but Zhao Tailai wanted to keep it a secret.
The young Zhao Tailai was naturally interested in this legacy. In 1979, he acquired his aunt's property in Hong Kong, including tens of millions of dollars worth of property and two floors of antique artifacts. In 1981, Zhao Tailai's aunt died, and Zhao Tailai received a notice from the British to go to England to receive his aunt's inheritance, a manor house outside London that was purchased by the Zhao family more than 80 years ago.
When he came to the manor and opened the cellar according to his aunt's treasure map, he was shocked, the cellar was full of various cultural relics and antiques, covering calligraphy and painting, pottery, jade, bronze and other categories, most of this batch of cultural relics are Wu Tingfang's collection, including even tens of thousands of Yuanmingyuan cultural relics, the initial estimated value can reach billions.
Looking at this batch of cultural relics, Zhao Tailai fell into contemplation. There is no doubt that he cannot be unmoved by this huge wealth, but after the initial stimulation, Zhao Tailai thought about it for a long time and finally decided to send this batch of cultural relics back to China. In order to prevent the leakage of the wind and make the cultural relics bear the risk of theft, Zhao Tailai did not mention the matter to anyone, he did not even dare to ask the security guards and nannies, but just a person silently registered and packaged these cultural relics.
In 1991, he donated the first batch of 853 cultural relics to the Yancheng Museum in Jiangsu Province. In the following ten years, he successively transported cultural relics back to China like ants moving, donating more than 60,000 pieces of collections free of charge, with a total price of more than 800 million yuan. The cost of packing these cultural relics alone was as high as 960,000 pounds, and in order to pay for this cost, Zhao Tailai also sold four villas in the Uk.
During the period of sorting out cultural relics, Zhao Tailai actually married a wife. For the absolute safety of the cultural relics, he never mentioned the cultural relics in the family to his wife. Even though the existence of some artifacts is sometimes revealed, he never mentions the value of these artifacts. It wasn't until he was ready to transport the relics back to China to donate that he told his wife, "You have to be mentally prepared, our family's broken copper and iron can buy a small town in England." ”
Zhao Tailai, who thought that his wife would be very surprised, did not expect that in fact, this smart woman had already seen through everything, but it was not easy to see that it was not easy for her husband to hide from her, so he deceived this lovely man in a foolish way. "I already knew you were the poorest billionaire in the world," she said. ”
In this way, through his continuous efforts, Zhao Tailai moved these precious historical heritage back to China little by little, so that he would not be spared the tragic fate of being exiled to other places. In 2001, in order to show his praise for Zhao Tailai's behavior, he was invited to Beijing to attend the National Day ceremony, and four years later, he was invited to Beijing for the same reason.
On September 3, 2005, Zhao Tailai and the famous writer Jin Yong and others were awarded the "2005 World Outstanding Chinese Award", although Zhao Tailai is not famous in it, but in fact, the work he has done is worth a lot. And his indifference to fame and fortune, not making a statement, also gave the best protection of the cultural relics back home.
Article 52 of the Mainland's Law on the Protection of Cultural Relics stipulates that the State encourages citizens, legal persons and other organizations other than cultural relics collection units to donate their collection of cultural relics to state-owned cultural relics collection units or lend them to cultural relics collection units for exhibition and research. State-owned cultural relics collection units shall respect and properly collect, preserve and display donated cultural relics in accordance with the wishes of donors. Cultural relics prohibited from being exported by the State shall not be transferred, leased or pledged to foreigners.
At the same time, in chapter VI of the Law on the Protection of Cultural Relics, the provisions on the entry and exit of cultural relics pursue the standards of "first-class cultural relics only enter and leave", "the rest of the cultural relics are wide and strictly out", and there are detailed provisions according to the classification of cultural relics.
Article 65 of Chapter VII Legal Liability stipulates that whoever violates the provisions of this Law and causes the loss or damage of cultural relics shall bear civil liability in accordance with law. Where violations of the provisions of this Law constitute an act of violating the administration of public security, the public security organs are to give a public security administration punishment in accordance with law. Where violations of the provisions of this Law constitute smuggling and do not constitute a crime, the Customs shall give punishment in accordance with the provisions of relevant laws and administrative regulations.
On November 4, 2017, the 30th Session of the Standing Committee of the 12th National People's Congress decided to amend the Law of the People's Republic of China on the Protection of Cultural Relics. The bill on the protection of cultural relics has been improved again, and acts such as Zhao Tailai have once again been praised and advocated.