Decisively pursue the cultural relics lost overseas

Answer 1

There were complicated historical reasons for the massive loss of China cultural relics overseas. These cultural relics carried the cultural memories and emotions of the Chinese nation, so it was of far-reaching significance to resolutely pursue the cultural relics lost overseas.

According to incomplete statistics, more than 10 million China cultural relics had been lost overseas, and there were more than 1.6 million in the world's museum. For example, the British Museum had 23000 pieces of China cultural relics, including Gu Kaizhi's Painting of Admonitions to Female History, Dunhuang scriptures, and the Tri-colored Arhat Statue of the Liao Dynasty.

However, the country of origin of cultural relics faced many difficulties and challenges in both international law and domestic law when it came to recovering lost cultural relics.

In terms of international law, there were many shortcomings in the relevant international conventions after World War II: first, the convention did not have retroactive effect, and it was impossible to recover cultural relics that had been lost before it came into effect; second, the wording of the core provisions of the convention was vague, the scope of application was narrow, and the monitoring mechanism was weak; third, many cultural relic market countries refused to join the relevant conventions in order to protect their own interests.

In terms of domestic law, from the perspective of private law, the widely existing systems of bona fide acquisition, acquisition prescription and extinction prescription in various countries constitute obstacles. It was difficult for the country of origin or the original owner of the cultural relic to prove that the current holder had not bought the cultural relic in good faith; even if the purchase was not in good faith, the holder of the cultural relic could obtain the ownership based on the time limit after a certain period of possession; the "prescription of extinction" system also constituted a legal obstacle to the recovery of cultural relics lost for more than 20 years. From the perspective of public law, many countries stipulated that public collections of cultural relics were "non-negotiable" and prohibited their governments from transferring their ownership to foreign governments or foreigners.

Despite the difficulties, China has made remarkable achievements in recovering cultural relics lost overseas in recent years. As the overall national strength continued to increase, the trend of returning cultural relics lost overseas gradually increased. Through law enforcement cooperation, judicial litigation, negotiated donations, rescue collection and other means, China has successfully promoted the return of more than 300 batches and more than 150,000 Chinese cultural relics lost overseas. For example, 361 pieces were returned from the United States in 2019; 68 pieces were recovered from the United Kingdom in 2020; 5 pieces were returned from Switzerland in 2023; 4 pieces of cultural relics and 1 fossil were returned from Australia; 38 pieces were successfully recovered from the United States in April 2024. At the same time, in 2020, the United Kingdom's cultural relic recovery operation established a model of negotiation, cooperative law enforcement, and judicial litigation.

On the one hand, China should strengthen the system construction within the domestic legal system and improve the ability and level of using the legal means to recover lost cultural relics; on the other hand, it should actively participate in global governance, promote the development of relevant international laws in a more fair and just direction, and play a more active role in recovering lost cultural relics overseas.
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