"Is this the place Ma Lao said?"

After the end of the Republic of China Treasures Special Session, Wu Tianyuan followed Ma Lao back to the capital as soon as possible, and took a taxi early in the morning to find a dilapidated three-story building according to the address, with two signs hanging next to it. One is the National Treasure Archives Program Group, and the other is the destination, the Chinese Cultural Relics Rescue Foundation.

"Hello, is Mr. Niu Feng here?"

Wu Tianyuan re-compared the address and found that it was here, went up to the third floor in confusion, found an office, and knocked on the door.

"I'm Niu Feng, who are you?"

After a while, a man in his forties opened the door, looked at Wu Tianyuan, and asked curiously.

"Hello, my name is Wu Tianyuan, and it was Mr. Ma Dingxiang who introduced me to you."

Wu Tianyuan took the initiative to stretch out his hand to say hello, and when Niu Feng heard it, he smiled and said, "It turns out that you are Xiao Wu?" Ma Lao just mentioned you to me, saying that he found a good seedling for me, please come in! ”

Wu Tianyuan walked into an office of only more than 20 square meters, which was full of materials and files, just a desk, and it seemed that Niu Feng was alone.

"Sit down, drink some water first!"

Niu Feng poured a glass of water for Wu Tianyuan, sat down himself, and saw Wu Tianyuan a little surprised, and said helplessly: "Is it different from what you imagined?" ”

Wu Tianyuan was a little embarrassed, shook his head and said: "Brother Niu, I thought that the Chinese Cultural Relics Rescue Group was such a big name and an official organization, so it should be ......."

"Haha, it should be in the most prosperous location in the city center, a whole building, all of which are subordinates?"

Niu Feng laughed at himself: "Brother, you don't know, although we are an official agency directly under the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, we have no real power. It sounds good to rescue cultural relics, what is used to rescue them? money, there are hundreds of millions of special funds every year, but you should know what the market is now. Don't say it's the Song and Yuan dynasties, even the Ming and Qing dynasties can't buy anything! ”

Wu Tianyuan looked at Niu Feng's helpless appearance and nodded. There is no way, it is too difficult for overseas cultural relics to return, even if the country has been doing great work in recent years, but basically no country will respond obediently. There are especially cultural relics that are developed and powerful, and national treasures are in world-renowned museums, who cares about you?

"So up to now, the standing personnel of the rescue team are only you, Brother Niu! That is, to do some data collection, as well as contact work, no way! ”

Wu Tianyuan explained: "That's not bad, I heard Ma Lao say that Brother Niu has been studying the flow of national treasures, and there are clues to the lost treasures, can I take a look?" ”

"Okay, finally someone recognizes my efforts?"

When Niu Feng heard this, his eyes lit up, after so many years of research, few people paid attention to it. I didn't expect to meet my bosom friend today, Ma Lao's introduction must be outstanding, and he happily took out stacks of files and introduced them to Wu Tianyuan.

According to the statistics of the Chinese Cultural Heritage Society, since the Opium War in 1840, a large number of Chinese precious cultural relics have been lost overseas due to war, improper trade and other reasons. More than 10 million pieces of Chinese cultural relics have been lost to Europe, America, Japan, Southeast Asia and other countries and regions, of which more than 1 million pieces of national first- and second-class cultural relics have been lost. ”

"Mainly distributed in the United Kingdom, France, the United States, Japan and other countries, the British Museum alone has a collection of more than 23,000 pieces of Chinese cultural relics, including many national treasures and masterpieces, bronzes include Shang Shuangyangzun, Western Zhou Kang Hou Gui, Xing Hou Gui and other rare treasures."

"The United States has the largest collection of paintings, with more than 1,200 paintings at the Freer Museum in Washington alone, and nearly 500 Chinese paintings at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The British Museum has the finest collection of Chinese paintings. ”

"Porcelain, the Musée Guimet in France, which is known for its collection of Asian art, has the best collection. The porcelain in the museum ranges from the earliest primitive porcelain in China to the blue and white porcelain and colorful porcelain of the Ming and Qing dynasties, and the famous products of the major kilns of various dynasties are all available, and most of them are high-quality products.

"The largest collection of oracle bone fragments in Japan. Of the nearly 30,000 oracle bone fragments that have been lost overseas, Japan has nearly 13,000 pieces. ”

"Dunhuang treasures, and now there are only 20,000 pieces of Dunhuang testament in China, accounting for only three percent, seventy percent of the loss of foreign countries. Among them, there are 13,700 pieces in the Oriental Manuscripts Department of the British Library; There are 6,000 pieces in the collection of the National Library of Paris, France, among which three kinds of Tang rubbings of Dunhuang calligraphy and painting are rare treasures. 12,000 items are in the collection of the Institute of Asian Ethnology in St. Petersburg, Russia, and nearly 2,000 items are in the library of the British Department of Indian Affairs. In addition, Japan, the United States, Sweden, Austria, and South Korea also have Dunhuang cultural relics collections. ”

Niu Feng introduced the main destination of the loss of cultural relics now, Wu Tianyuan knew some before, but seeing the number of jù and photos with his own eyes was still shocking!

"Then we can't do something on our own?"

Niu Feng looked at Wu Tianyuan's sincere and firm gaze, and said with some relief: "For the time being, in the face of cultural relics lost by abnormal means, there are three main forms of return: repurchase, return and donation. ”

"Repurchase is currently a more commonly used market means, and the donation repurchase of the bronze statue of the pig's head in the Old Summer Palace is a successful case. The bronze statue of the pig's head was lost overseas in 1860 when the British and French troops invaded the city of Beijing. In the spring of 2003, antiquities experts sought the bronze statue from a private American collector, and after arduous negotiations, the collector finally agreed to transfer it to the Chinese side. After Mr. Stanley Ho, a wealthy businessman in Macau, learned of this news, in September 2003, he donated nearly 7 million yuan to the China Special Fund for the Rescue of Lost Overseas Cultural Relics to buy back the bronze statue of the pig's head in the Old Summer Palace.

"Of course, there are many difficulties in buyback, because the sky-high price of cultural relics is disproportionate to the repurchase funds, which often makes the repurchase die halfway. In addition, the source of funds for the special fund mainly depends on social donations and corporate donations, and enterprises often hope to hide the cultural relics returned by their donations in their enterprises, which has become a new contradiction. ”

"It is still the most difficult way to return cultural relics at present, because once other countries are asked to return their Chinese cultural relics, many historical issues and historical facts may be involved. Most of the restitution targets are for cultural relics looted during the war, especially immovable cultural relics such as murals and Buddha statues. ”

For example, "Forty Scenes of the Old Summer Palace" is the target of retribution. The work was painted by two court painters in the Qianlong period according to the most beautiful 40 scenes of the Old Summer Palace, and is the only existing poetry and painting work that can fully reflect the original appearance of the Old Summer Palace.

"There is no lack of precedent for cultural relics to be repatriated by donation, but the first thing that is required for donation is that the holder of the cultural relics reaches a level that is difficult for ordinary people to achieve, after all, any cultural relics are expensive, and there are very few at this stage."

"What do I want to do for the national treasures that have been lost overseas?"

Niu Feng smiled and patted Wu Tianyuan's shoulder, no matter what, this young man won his approval if he had this heart. After thinking about it, he said: "I heard Ma Lao tell me about your deeds, saying that you have a very high eyesight, especially for picking up leaks. That's what he meant when he introduced you to me, and it's good to have one more person working hard.

Niu Feng turned around and took out a form, handed it to Wu Tianyuan, and explained: "Although I only have one light pole commander here, it is also an official organization after all. You have the right to recruit caring people in the society as members of the rescue team, not only you, but many people are working hard. If you want, join us. ”

Seeing that Wu Tianyuan was excited to fill out the form, Niu Feng added: "Let's say it first, it's all obligation, and there is no salary!" ”

Wu Tianyuan hurriedly filled out the form, Niu Feng entered the cultural relics protection system, and he officially became a member of the Chinese cultural relics rescue team.

"Don't underestimate this identity, it will be of great use in the future!" Niu Feng saw Wu Tianyuan become his own person, and secretly explained: "In the future, as long as you can rescue the cultural relics above the second level and return to China, both customs and taxes will be zero tax!" If you want to set up a private museum, there are many preferential policies and support, in short, as long as you really help the national treasure go home, the society will not treat you badly! ”

Wu Tianyuan wants this sentence, the second-level cultural relics are already museum-level heavy weapons, and they will not sell them. In the future, if you pick up the leakage overseas, you will have no worries about customs or taxation. In the end, I will definitely build a museum and let the public share it when the time comes.