There are three main channels for the loss of old China cultural relics overseas: first, the imperialist powers snatched them from China after the Opium War; Second, some foreigners who came to China stole it from China; Third, foreigners colluded with reactionary warlords and profiteers at that time to buy and smuggle out of the country at a very low price.
As early as 1840, the great powers listed China's cultural relics as an important part of cultural aggression, which started the great loss of cultural relics in modern China. 1860, the British and French allied forces savagely looted and burned the Yuanmingyuan. Forty or fifty halls in Yuanmingyuan are decorated with countless mahogany furniture, displaying a large number of rare treasures at home and abroad, including furniture, tapestries, carpets, Shang and Zhou bronzes, ceramics, lacquerware, tooth carvings, agates, amber, crystals, wood carvings and jade articles, precious stones, calligraphy and painting, clocks and watches, ancient books and so on. Hugo, a French writer at that time, said: "Even if all the treasures of Notre Dame in China are added together, it can't compare with this magnificent Oriental Museum." However, this art treasure house has been looted, and a large number of rare treasures, including Yongle Dadian, have been plundered overseas and collected by museums and private collections in Britain, France, the United States, Japan and Western Europe, especially the British Museum and the Fontainebleau Palace in France. At present, there are more than 30,000 rare China books in the British Museum, including the earliest copy of A Woman's History written by Gu Kaizhi in the Eastern Jin Dynasty. The China Pavilion in the French Fontainebleau Palace also houses more than 30,000 pieces of China's famous paintings, jade articles, porcelain, incense burners, chimes, precious stones and silverware.
At the same time, some foreign explorers plundered countless China cultural relics in the name of scientific investigation. According to statistics, during the period of 1856- 1932, Russia, Britain, Germany, France, Japan, Sweden, the United States and other countries visited the northwest of China for 66 times, and each visit plundered a large number of China cultural relics. In all previous investigations, Stein and Boccio plundered the most cultural relics in Dunhuang Tibetan Sutra Cave. Stein stole more than 9000 papers and more than 500 paintings, some of which were collected in the British Museum, some in the British Library and some in the Library of Indian Affairs. More than 6,000 kinds of classics and some scrolls stolen by pelliot are mainly collected in the French National Library. After years of looting, coupled with some domestic warlords, profiteers and ignorant citizens, a large number of China cultural relics have been smuggled out of the country, and China cultural relics abroad have become increasingly rich.
Around 1899, Oracle Bone Inscriptions was discovered in Yinxu, Anyang, Henan. Oracle Bone Inscriptions has been losing since it was unearthed. It was first sold as a medicinal material, and then bought in large quantities by cultural brokers of western powers in various names. According to incomplete statistics, there are nearly 200,000 pieces of Oracle bones unearthed in Xiaotun, Anyang, and nearly 30,000 pieces have been lost overseas and collected by 12 countries and regions.
After the1931"9.18" incident, the Japanese army carried out large-scale cultural relics excavation in Northeast China, North China, Central China and East China, and a large number of cultural relics were robbed. During this period, Americans used the social unrest in China to buy China cultural relics.
1949 after liberation, China once bid farewell to the history of a large number of cultural relics outflow. However, after 1980s, stimulated by illegal profits, criminals at home and abroad colluded with each other, which set off an upsurge of stealing and smuggling cultural relics.
According to statistics, since 1982, more than 800 ancient tombs have been stolen in yugan county, Jiangxi. 1987 65438+1in just half a year from October to June, more than 2,000 ancient tombs were looted by more than 700 villagers in Qinghai/kloc-0, and more than 0,000 pieces of cultural relics were taken away. 1990, 23952 ancient tombs were stolen in Sichuan province. The area of ancient tombs stolen from a county in Shaoyang City, Hunan Province in 2003 was nearly 1/5 of the county's 2,000 square kilometers. Shaanxi, Shanxi and Henan provinces, which are rich in cultural relics in China, once became the golden triangle for smugglers at home and abroad to buy and sell cultural relics. According to the statistics of the General Administration of Customs, from 199 1 to 2000, the national customs seized more than 654.38 million smuggled cultural relics. 1in may 1997, Tianjin customs seized a case of smuggling cultural relics in a container containing more than 5,000 cultural relics. According to the incomplete statistics of the Ministry of Public Security, from 1993 to 1997, the public security organs cracked 4,943 cultural relics cases and seized more than 50,000 cultural relics.
In the past 20 years, the smuggling of China cultural relics overseas has reached a climax, and the number of cultural relics smuggled out of Hong Kong alone is unimaginable. It is reported that Hong Kong masters who collect and store cultural relics boxes and pots are very busy, sometimes earning more than 500,000 to 600,000 Hong Kong dollars a month. After London and new york, with a large number of smuggled cultural relics from the mainland, Hong Kong quickly became the third largest cultural relics art center in the world after the 1980s.
In order to further illustrate the fact that a large number of China cultural relics have been lost overseas, the important China cultural relics collected by some foreign museums are listed as follows:
British Museum: Most of the Oriental Art Museums in this museum are rare treasures of China, with a total of more than 30,000 pieces, most of which are priceless.
British Library: There are more than 60,000 kinds of precious cultural relics and ancient books in China, including the earliest edition of China Paramita Classic, 45 volumes of Yongle Grand Ceremony, Oracle Bone Inscriptions, bamboo slips, woodcut ancient books, Dunhuang scriptures and maps.
Nelson Art Museum, USA: The most outstanding collection of this museum is oriental cultural relics, among which the most wonderful and famous is China cultural relics, with a large number and high quality.
Boston Art Museum: The museum is famous for its oriental art works, and now there are more than 5,000 paintings from China and Japan. There were many famous paintings in the Song and Yuan Dynasties, such as the well-preserved Daolian Map and Five-color Parrot in the Song and Tang Dynasties.
Russian Oriental Culture Museum: The museum has bronzes, paintings and sculptures from the Shang Dynasty to the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Paintings include Chou Ying's Maid Map in Tang Dynasty and Ren Bonian's Lotus in Qing Dynasty.
Freer Art Museum, Washington, USA: Almost half of the collections in the museum are China cultural relics, including calligraphy and painting, Buddhist art, bronzes, jade articles, pottery and so on.
In addition, the Louvre is the most concentrated place for French collection of China cultural relics. Only its branch, Ji Mei Museum, has collected tens of thousands of China cultural relics, including 65,438+2,000 pieces of ceramics of past dynasties, ranking first in China ceramic collections of overseas museums. The Louvre also has a collection of more than 6,000 exquisite porcelains and more than 200 paintings of the Tang and Song Dynasties. The collection of China cultural relics in the Paris Museum is comparable to that in the Louvre. There are thousands of Japanese museums that collect China's cultural relics, especially the Tokyo National Museum, which has five exhibition halls to display China's cultural relics.
Faced with such dazzling ancient art treasures in China, we are proud of the long history and outstanding creativity of the Chinese nation, and at the same time regret that so many priceless treasures have fled overseas. In recent years, China * * and private enterprises have actively pursued and redeemed cultural relics lost overseas on a global scale, and achieved some results, but compared with millions of cultural relics lost overseas, few cultural relics can return to the motherland.