: 147 Loss of Overseas Cultural Relics

Yanjing Normal University.
Liu Zhenhe's office.
A dozen people sat around a round table.
These people include Chinese historians, scholars, archeologists, cultural relic experts, and researchers at the Palace Museum.
Each of these people has a great reputation and reputation in the corresponding circle, and has a very high level of accomplishment in a certain area of ​​research.
"Lao Liu, I saw the pictures of the bronze plate, bronze tripod, and bronze sword on my mobile phone. I have carefully studied the bronzes in the pictures these days, and read some of the inscriptions. These They are all heavy implements of the Xia Dynasty. They are very incredible things. What is going on? "Wu Zheng raised a tea cup at one end, took a sip of tea, and asked Liu Zhenhe.
Everyone looks at Liu Zhenhe.
"Everyone knows by looking at this paper." Liu Zhenhe sent a copy of the paper to everyone present and said.
Everyone took the paper and started to read it.
In this paper, the contributors have demonstrated the arguments of
whether the Xia Dynasty exists and whether Xia Dynasty has entered the threshold of civilization
and that the pedigree of the Xia Dynasty is very meticulous and clear. Combined with the hundreds of clarity inserted in the paper, The real illustration picture is very credible.
After half an hour, everyone finished reading the dissertation.
If you read more than 100 pages of papers, it will take at least a few days to study them carefully.
However, today Liu Zhenhe recruited everyone, apparently not for them to look at the thesis, there are very important things to discuss with you.
Everyone just glanced at the paper. Knowing the general situation.
Even so, everyone was surprised and shocked.
"This batch of bronzes is no less important than the oracle bone pieces of Yin Ruins," said an old professor with emotion.
"Lao Yang is right. The Shang Dynasty was generally recognized by the international academic community because of the excavation of the oracle bone pieces of Yin Ruins. I believe that the birth of these bronze wares is enough to allow the international academic community to redefine Chinese civilization and the world to recognize China again. Civilization is very important. "
"For half a century, looking for evidence of the Xia Dynasty has become a diligent goal of Chinese scholars. They have always believed in the existence of Xia civilization. With the advent of these bronzes, I think their efforts and efforts have not been wasted."
...
"Old Liu. Where were these bronzes discovered?" A professor asked Liu Zhenhe.
"This batch of bronzes was not excavated in China, but suddenly appeared overseas." Wu Zhenhe said.
"What, these bronzes have been lost overseas." Some scholars said distressedly at once.
It's not just this scholar who is distressed. The dozen or so people present have such distressed feelings.
To say that China has lost cultural relics overseas. That was an extremely large number, big enough to shock the hearts of the people, and enough to make the world stunned.
The major British museums and libraries have collected 1.3 million Chinese cultural relics.
Among them are treasures and national treasure-level cultural relics.
2.6 million pieces of museums and libraries in France.
Japan, as many as 2 million.
US, 2.3 million + pieces.
Germany, 30+ million pieces.
...
This is still a small part of the record. Most of the Chinese-language logistics have been secretly collected or kept in the hands of private collectors after they lost their overseas residence.
When it comes to China's loss of cultural relics overseas, any Chinese who knows this will be heartbroken.
These Xia Dynasty bronzes were lost overseas. The possibility of wanting to recourse is very small.
You should know that China is not in the minority of national treasure-level cultural relics lost overseas, but very few can be recovered.
A simple example. Egypt, like China.
Egypt, as one of the four ancient civilizations in the world, has a large number of precious cultural relics. These cultural relics have been ravaged by overseas cultural relic collectors and cultural smugglers, especially after frequent wars in the last century, many Egyptian national treasures were invaded Take it overseas.
There are no less than 100,000 Egyptian artifacts in the three major museums in the world-the British Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and the Louvre in France.
Egyptian artifacts stored in other museums, secretly, or in private hands are several dozens of this number. Reached millions.
But for more than 50 years, only a few thousand artifacts have been recovered in Egypt. Among them, there are less than a hundred large, important and high-value cultural relics.
Egypt's cultural logistics lost millions of pieces, but only a few thousand were successfully recovered.
1000: 1, a simple data comparison. It is conceivable that the road to recover cultural relics lost overseas is difficult.
There are two main obstacles to this difficulty.
First, the lack of legal basis.
Second, resistance from cultural relic holders.
For example, in 2002, 18 museums worldwide, including the Louvre Museum in France and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, issued statements that publicly opposed the return of lost cultural relics.
Everyone can imagine that these batches of Xia dynasty bronzes, which are of great significance to China, have been lost overseas. It is very likely that they will stay overseas forever and never recourse.
"There is a possibility of recourse." A scholar asked Liu Zhenhe.
Liu Zhenhe shook his head and said, "Nearly, this batch of Xia Dynasty bronzes was salvaged from a British merchant ship called" Gelsoppa "that sank in the central Atlantic Ocean.
From the logbooks of the 'Gelsoppa' and the list of items shipped on board, as well as from the archives, I also checked some materials and information about the 'Gelsoppa' in the archives ~ www .EbookFREE.me ~ can very clearly show that the British commercial ship 'Gelsoppa' departed from Guangzhou, China on June 9, 1841 to Liverpool, and carried a batch of Chinese bronzes and porcelain on board. "
In other words, these bronzes were lost overseas in 1841, 174 years ago.
According to some rules and principles of international law, it is almost impossible to successfully trace these bronzes.
Everyone was very disappointed when they heard Liu Zhenhe's answer, and they were distressed and indignant.
"But ..." Feng Zhenhuan turned, Liu Zhenhe said, "The good news is that the holder of these batches of bronzes is a Chinese named Chen Rui. I think everyone knows Chen Rui He has a very good reputation in the international community, and has contacts with the prime ministers, presidents, and kings of many countries. In the international community, his reputation is very good.
His main achievements are adventure and treasure hunting.
He had found a Spanish gold ship that had sunk during the colonial period on the seabed off the coast of Cuba. (To be continued)