Riding the wind of rebirth

Chapter 1602 Lawsuit

The name of Huaying Daily is very impressive, but it is actually just an unknown 18th-tier tabloid. It usually makes up some gossip about celebrities to entertain the public. It has been embarrassed by celebrity lawsuits several times, but it has never changed its usual bad habits.

The most crucial thing is not this point. A newspaper that could not be any smaller was bribed by someone with ulterior motives to stir up trouble. Although it is one of the despicable means, it is just an ordinary trick. However, various media in Hong Kong Island reprinted this news, and it is obvious that the wind direction is wrong.

The public's attention can be guided. Hong Kong people live in a commercial society and love money. They like to discuss valuable things, so there is no need for careful teaching. The tabloid started directly from the value of the relief statue of the general and asked several famous collectors in Hong Kong to estimate its value. Everyone concluded that if this item was auctioned, the price would have to start at at least 5 million Hong Kong dollars, and the final transaction price, based on the current market's pursuit of Five Dynasties stone statues, should be between 8 million and 10 million.

However, experts pointed out that the core of the problem is not here. The core of the problem is whether this item was smuggled out of the country or is a heirloom.

There is a need to educate the public on this, that is, as the mainland opens up to the outside world and gradually integrates into the international community, while assuming obligations, it also enjoys a lot of rights. Therefore, there are now ways to deal with many gray methods that were difficult to pursue in the past.

The TV station also invited several experts to host a lively program to discuss the issue. The experts were very fair and believed that the matter could be viewed from both sides.

On the one hand, if this warrior statue is indeed a heirloom, then Lu Lirong's purchase of it and sending it to Christie's auction house for auction is a pure commercial act of ancient art, or in Hong Kong terms, a business, which is understandable.

But if this warrior statue was really stolen from Wang Chuzhi's tomb as claimed by the mainland, then according to some conventions that China has joined, China does have the right to claim it.

Then, under the guidance of the host, several experts also frankly said that at least from the current perspective, there has been no case in the mainland where stolen cultural relics have been recovered through legal means, and there has never been any recovery behavior, let alone a successful case.

Moreover, judging from the current protection measures for cultural relics in the mainland, although in theory the "Cultural Relics Protection Law" has been formulated, which stipulates that immovable cultural relics such as ancient buildings, stone carvings, murals, and representative modern and contemporary buildings belong to the state unless otherwise stipulated by the state, there is a most critical disadvantage for the mainland, that is, the "Cultural Relics Protection Law" itself was implemented on November 19, 1982.

According to the principle of non-recourse to the past, theoretically, if this cultural relic was lost before this date, it would not be protected by the Cultural Relics Protection Law that was enacted later. Tracing the lost cultural relics through other legal provisions would be more difficult than using the Cultural Relics Protection Law.

Therefore, the focus of the issue comes back to whether this warrior statue is a handed-down item or stolen or smuggled. To be more specific, if it was brought out from the country before the founding of the People's Republic of China, at the latest before November 19, 1982, it can be considered a handed-down item. Otherwise, it is an object of protection under the Cultural Relics Protection Law. One excited expert directly said that it can only be considered stolen goods.

As I said, Hong Kong Island is not big, and even the smallest thing can cause discussion in the city. This episode caters to everyone's hot topics. In name, it is about popularizing the law, but in fact it clarifies the logical context of the problem for the public.

However, in this program, there has been no case in the country of recovering cultural relics through legal means so far, let alone a successful case. However, this served as a disguised reminder to Lu Lirong and accelerated the procedures for sending the cultural relics out of the Hong Kong Customs.

In order to divert public opinion, Lu Lirong also filed a lawsuit against Hua Ying Daily for defamation. Hua Ying Daily was not to be outdone this time. Not only did it actively respond to the lawsuit, it also applied to the court to preserve the object of the dispute, that is, to temporarily detain the warrior statue and not allow it to leave Hong Kong Island Customs.

This was obviously not in the interests of Lu Lirong, so Lu Lirong's side immediately filed a defense, stating that the object of the dispute in the case was not the warrior statue, but the reputation rights of Lu Lirong and Xin Baozhai. The Huaying Daily's actions were obviously intended to confuse the public, and the court should not support it.

It should be said that Lu Lirong's lawyer was very powerful. The defense was quite successful. In the end, the Hong Kong Court rejected the Hua Ying Daily's application for preservation of the warrior statue and only filed a lawsuit for defamation.

The Huaying Daily then got some details of the robbery of Wang Chuzhi's tomb from somewhere, and used them as "evidence" provided by the so-called informant to prove that the article they wrote was not groundless but had a basis.

Lu Lirong insisted that the statue was his family's heirloom and had been kept in the warehouse for many years. He had no idea that Wang Chuzhi's tomb had been robbed. Even if Wang Chuzhi's tomb had been robbed, he could not link it to his family's heirloom statue. Therefore, the Huaying Newspaper was still groundless and defamatory.

On the surface, the lawsuit between the two parties was in full swing, but in fact, Lu Lirong was secretly making a move.

At this time, Liang Pingyi from the Security Department of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage got involved and announced to the media the latest progress in solving the Wang Chuzhi tomb robbery case, including the comparison between the size of the destroyed tomb wall and the stone statues, as well as the confession of the tomb robbers. It was a video that mentioned two stone relief statues of military generals they stole from the tomb. One of them showed a warrior stepping on a deer-horned auspicious beast with a phoenix hovering behind him; the other showed a warrior stepping on a deer-horned auspicious beast with a dragon lying on his shoulders.

The statue in Lu Lirong's hand is almost exactly the same as the second one mentioned by the criminal.

However, Lu Lirong's lawyer also raised a question, that is, the statues stolen from Wang Chuzhi's tomb were a pair, but Lu Lirong only had one in his hand, which shows that the descriptions of the two are unrelated. If these were stolen goods and Lu Lirong knew about it in advance, there would be no reason for him to sell only one and let the other one fall into his hands.

The only thing we can say is that two statues of military generals were indeed stolen from Wang Chuzhi's tomb, but those two statues have nothing to do with the one in Mr. Lu's hand.

Just when everyone thought that what Lu Lirong's lawyer said made sense, Liang Pingyi suddenly pointed out that during the rescue excavation of Wang Chuzhi's tomb, a relief group of maids was also discovered, which was also carved and colored using Quyang white marble.

The latest scientific research result of the Department of Archaeology at the University of Hong Kong is that it can determine the composition and age of ancient artworks through spectral analysis of chemical substances attached to them.

Moreover, such identification methods will not cause any damage or impact to the statues. Therefore, it is only necessary to make a scientific identification and comparison with the colored reliefs in Wang Chuzhi's tomb and the residual color blocks on some fragments to find out the truth.