Recently, such a case happened: The Collection of Fish and Goose, which should be a precious collection of Sichuan Library, wonderfully appeared in the auction exhibits of an auction house in Guangdong thousands of miles away, attracting the attention of fans. After comparison, discussion and research, we basically come to the conclusion that this cultural relic of the auction house is genuine. So everyone realizes that it may have disappeared from the Sichuan Provincial Library.
The response of Sichuan Library is that the national movable cultural relics have been systematically registered, and if such a thing really happens, it is likely to be caused by theft. On the other hand, according to the investigation of all parties and the explanation of the auction house, it can be seen that the fish and goose collection was auctioned as early as ten years ago, so there is a high probability that someone stole the cultural relics by illegal means before the establishment of the system registration system and circulated them to the market for auction, but it was not discovered in time at that time, which made it rediscovered until now. Now the cultural relic has been temporarily detained by the relevant departments for further investigation.
According to the current Cultural Relics Law, immovable cultural relics and movable precious cultural relics belong to the state, and private individuals are not allowed to buy or sell them illegally. Other cultural relics can be obtained between individuals through legal channels. There is also a common saying that newly discovered cultural relics need to be handed over in a unified way after the founding of New China. Cultural relics that have been reasonably excavated and circulated before this can be privately collected and passed down, but if they are found to have great historical value, they generally need to be handed over to the state for management.
Cultural relics are always fragile after being carved by history and time. We still hope to reduce the inexplicable loss of cultural relics in the collection, which requires libraries and museums to strengthen management and inventory, and auction houses engaged in cultural relics auction to examine the source and historical circulation track of cultural relics more strictly, and then return them to state-owned management earlier and in time under such circumstances.