According to a news conference held by the Ministry of Public Security on December 10, 2004, the case of the theft of cultural relics of Sichuan Provincial Library (hereinafter referred to as “Sichuan Library”) was successfully solved, and the stolen cultural relics “Fish and Goose Collection” (identified as a Class III cultural relic) and “The Eighteenth Immortal Site of the Golden Light Greatest Victory over the King’s Sutra” (identified as a Class I cultural relic, hereinafter referred to as the Buddhist Sutra of the Tang Dynasty) of the Tang Dynasty were recovered.
It is understood that on December 13, 2004, the staff of Chengdu Public Security Bureau in Sichuan Province received a report that a volume of Buddhist scriptures in the Tang Dynasty had been stolen. The case has not been solved because valuable trace material evidence has not been extracted from the scene.
On September 8th, 2020, Sichuan Entry-Exit Cultural Relics Appraisal Workstation found in its daily work that the letters and letters of Xie Wuliang, Liu Shipei and other modern celebrities to be auctioned by Guangdong Chongzheng Auction Co., Ltd. are part of the collection Fish and Wild Goose Collection of Chuantu. After checking the Sichuan map, it was found that six volumes of Fish and Wild Goose Collection, which was originally seven volumes, were missing.
After receiving the notification from Sichuan Cultural Relics Bureau, the Criminal Investigation Bureau of Sichuan Public Security Bureau quickly carried out the verification work and reported the situation to the Criminal Investigation Bureau of the Ministry of Public Security. The Criminal Investigation Bureau of the Ministry of Public Security immediately deployed the Guangdong police to withdraw and temporarily detain the cultural relics, commanded the Sichuan public security organs to set up a task force, and rushed to Guangzhou together with the cultural relics department and the staff of Chuantu to comprehensively carry out the screening, identification, recovery and case investigation of the cultural relics involved.
After investigation, the auction client of Fish and Wild Goose Collection was the group of letters from Shanghai Chongyuan Auction Co., Ltd. in April 2005. The task force rushed to Shanghai to collect the materials of the auction, and found that the same batch of entrusted auctions with Fish and Wild Goose Collection included the Buddhist scriptures of the Tang Dynasty stolen by Chuantu in 2004 and eight other ancient books, all of which were commissioned by Liu Decheng.
The task force conducted an in-depth investigation around the clients involved in previous transactions of cultural relics, and found out that the real identity of “Liu Decheng” was Chen Mou Army, a criminal with a criminal record of theft. On January 28th, 2021, the task force captured the Chen Mou Army in Deyang, Sichuan.
After the trial, the Chen Mou Army truthfully confessed the crime process. Chen Mou said that at the end of 2004, he strolled to the stacks of ancient books in Chuantu, thinking that there were high-value cultural relics in them and no one was watching them, so he had a bad intention temporarily. Later, the Chen Mou Army bought tools and returned, and after destroying the door lock of Chuantu Ancient Books Stack, it stole some of the collections stored in the stacks, and entrusted the auction as “Liu Decheng” for profit.
At the same time, the task force comprehensively traced the 10 stolen collections along the line, and found that 9 lots except Fish and Wild Goose Collection have been auctioned and transferred in Beijing, Shanghai and other places for many times since 2005, and have flowed into the hands of many buyers. After repeated communication and work, one of the holders agreed to donate the Buddhist scriptures of the Tang Dynasty to Chuantu.
The relevant person in charge of the Ministry of Public Security said that at present, the Ministry of Public Security, together with the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, is making every effort to organize a nationwide special campaign to combat cultural relics crimes and effectively protect the safety of national cultural relics. (Shan Peng Anyuan)