Riding the wind of rebirth

Chapter 1603: Stealing a Chicken, Losing a Piece of Rice

The Island University of Hong Kong also spoke out at the right time. Indeed, this is the latest result of our joint research with the Porcelain Identification Laboratory of the National Museum in the Mainland. It is called spectral thermal imaging analysis and dating technology. Its main purpose is to determine the age of the artifact through spectral thermal imaging characteristics. It is very effective in identifying materials that have been heated at high temperatures, such as porcelain.

Among ancient pigments, cinnabar is made of mercury sulfide, but because it often contains impurities, it needs to be purified.

An important step in purification is to mix the raw cinnabar powder with sulfur powder and roast and reduce it in a sealed environment. This technique is called "fuhuo method".

Therefore, cinnabar can also be used as one of the important bases for determining the age of cultural relics through spectral thermal imaging characteristics. As for the analysis of the proportions of other components, it is a very conventional technical means, which can basically be achieved by any ordinary chemical laboratory in any city.

The defamation lawsuit filed by Lu Lirong previously did achieve some purpose of confusing the public. Gradually, some people in Hong Kong Island also began to support him, especially some "independent thinking" rubbish, who tried to lead the matter in the direction they wanted and continued to build momentum for Lu Lirong.

After Liang Pingyi proposed to solve this problem through scientific identification, he immediately attracted everyone's support, and the pressure was immediately put on Lu Lirong.

When faced with media inquiries, Lu Lirong remained ambiguous and did not comment.

Such an attitude obviously cannot satisfy the majority of citizens who are just watching the show. Everyone can only become more and more skeptical about Lu Lirong's "inherited from ancestors" theory. Even those independent thinkers who had previously "stood up for justice" for Lu Lirong began to be ridiculed by the citizens, and for a time even their voices were drowned out.

However, a few days later, Lu Lirong's lawyer announced that although the relevant domestic departments had proposed some ways to resolve the dispute, Mr. Lu was already going through customs procedures to send the relief statue of the general to the United States for auction. The relief had already been sealed and stored in the customs warehouse. Therefore, any further identification of the composition would be a very troublesome matter in itself, and Mr. Lu himself had no such legal obligation.

Just today, the warrior relief statue has been sent to the United States. It is meaningless to dispute its ownership in Hong Kong Island. Therefore, Mr. Lu decided to end the matter, withdraw the lawsuit against the Hua Ying Daily News, and apologize to the people of Hong Kong Island for occupying too many public resources for this matter.

Liang Pingyi angrily held a media meeting in Hong Kong Island, stating that the relevant national departments had notified the US Embassy about the auction of stolen Chinese cultural relics by Christie's auction house in New York City, hoping to take necessary measures on a friendly basis and in accordance with international conventions to stop Christie's auction house from auctioning the warrior relief statues from the tomb of the Five Dynasties Wang Chuzhi, which was listed as lot 209, and return the cultural relics to the country. At the same time, the relevant departments also issued a notice to the US Central Bureau of Interpol, requesting cooperation.

In order to coordinate the work, the relevant departments also informed the Chinese Embassy in the United States and the Consulate General in New York City of the situation. Then, the officials in the United States urgently met with Ms. Goldblatt, a senior official of the U.S. Customs New York City Central Bureau, and explained the country's position to her.

Subsequently, the Customs Department of the U.S. Embassy and the U.S. Customs New York City Center respectively sent letters to relevant Chinese ministries and the Chinese Embassy in the United States, stating that in order to help prevent the auction of Chinese cultural relics, they will handle it in accordance with the regulations of UNESCO and hope that China will provide the necessary legal documents and evidence.

Prior to this, the relevant departments had already sent urgent telegrams to the public security and cultural relics departments of Hebei Province, asking them to overcome all difficulties, prepare the required physical evidence and written materials and deliver them to the capital in the shortest possible time.

At 11:00 this morning, the Hebei Provincial Public Security Bureau has delivered the videotape of the tomb robbery, on-site investigation records, photos, the county bureau's case filing report, and the Hebei Provincial Cultural Relics Bureau's written materials on the tomb situation, expert explanations, archaeological excavation reports, and other documents to the relevant ministries and commissions on time. At the same time, the relevant national departments have also promptly prepared relevant national laws, the time when the Quyang County government announced Wang Chuzhi's tomb as a protected unit, and many other materials.

At 5 o'clock this afternoon, the Criminal Investigation Bureau of the Ministry of Justice sent an express telegram to our embassy in the United States and the Consulate General in New York City. The physical evidence will be taken to the other side of the ocean by our staff.

We declare once again that we will resolutely stop any act of reselling national cultural relics. We will pursue the cultural relics that have been illegally lost overseas within the legal framework established by UNESCO and will never give up.

The two announcements were made almost simultaneously, causing an uproar on the island.

  What Lu Lirong did before was clearly deception. He deceived the law, deceived public opinion, and deceived the people of Hong Kong Island. He made a fool of everyone!

Even if there were sympathizers for Lu Lirong before, there are no more now, because Lu Lirong's "success" has made the relevant national departments that intended to recover the cultural relics the "losing party" instead. Psychologically speaking, the people generally sympathize with the moral side and the weak side, and now basically a one-sided public opinion has formed.

However, it was not enough to just grasp the public opinion. That evening, Liang Pingyi, Tony Huang and Zhou Zhi boarded a plane to New York City.

Liang Pingyi is the main official in charge of this matter, and Zhou Zhi is a professional translator. He has provided a lot of previous information, including archaeology and professional terminology, to help Tony Huang in preparing legal documents. Tony Huang is naturally the attorney for this recovery case.

After the three landed, they were immediately taken to the Southern District Court by the New York Consulate. Tony Huang had previously filed a lawsuit remotely in Hong Kong Island. The first step was to ask the Southern District Court to impose civil preservation on Christie's Auction No. 209. Now, after submitting all the evidence, the civil preservation was changed to terminate the auction and implement civil forfeiture.

It should be said that Lin Wanqiu asked Tony Huang to join the recovery team in advance, which gave the Chinese side a great advantage in this case. Various materials were prepared very thoroughly and comprehensively, and the communication with the US side in advance was also very smooth and timely. With almost no effort, the District Court for the Southern District of New York notified Christie's Auction House to stop the auction of Lot 209 and issued a civil forfeiture order, authorizing the US Customs New York City Bureau to detain the warrior statue.

The next morning, Goldblatt brought several customs officials to Christie's auction house, showed the relevant documents to the person in charge, and seized the warrior statue. The auction was successfully stopped with the joint efforts of relevant departments and people from China and the United States.

  The pursuit operation was a success at the first battle!

It was not until this moment that Lu Lirong felt that something seemed to be wrong. The previous tricks in Hong Kong seemed to have been too smooth. He simply defined it as the bureaucrats in the relevant departments of the Mainland being too rigid and clumsy, unable to adapt to the legal system and public opinion of Hong Kong Island, and being played around by him. Now he realized that he might have been completely fooled.

  He did not take public opinion in Hong Kong into consideration. He originally wanted to immigrate, so he dared to take advantage of Hong Kong people and Hong Kong legal institutions unscrupulously. But now the relief statue of the general was quickly seized as soon as it landed in New York City. It was obvious that his opponent had already planned this move and had made full preparations for it, and was waiting for him here!

Now I have failed to gain anything and ended up losing a lot!