In 20 19, Italy voluntarily returned more than 700 sets of national treasures to China. What's behind it?

Cultural relics are symbols of witnessing the development of human history and civilization and local traditional culture, but they are also important targets plundered by other countries. Today, among the four ancient civilizations, only China is thriving, and the other three ancient civilizations have long since disappeared in the torrent of history. But China has also experienced various disasters and wars, but fortunately, it survived in the end. Because of the war, many cultural relics in China have fled overseas and cannot be traced. In 20 19, Italy finally decided to return a large number of cultural relics belonging to China seized in 2007. It took 10 years to wait for a paper ruling, which shows how difficult it is to recover cultural relics!

There are three reasons why it is difficult to recover transnational cultural relics. First, because of the time limit and proof of recovery, according to the provisions of the Convention on the Transfer of Cultural Relics and the Convention on the Illegal Export of Cultural Relics, the state has only 50 years of ownership of its own cultural relics, that is, those within 50 years can be recovered according to the Convention, but the slightly valuable cultural relics have exceeded 50 years. In addition, there is evidence that most cultural relics were lost because of war or theft, so it is difficult to produce evidence to prove it.

The second reason is collectors. In the west, the 19 museum jointly issued a statement opposing the return of ancient cultural relics. Although the reason is exaggerated, it still can't hide their intention to take the cultural relics for themselves. Finally, there is the question of the convention. Although the Convention clarifies the principle of cultural relics return, it does not emphasize how and when to return them, and the Convention has no corresponding binding means.

The third reason is that although there are national conventions, some countries have not acceded to them. Some provisions in international conventions clearly stipulate that looted cultural relics should be returned to the country, but these conventions are not binding. According to these treaties, some countries can't recover their cultural relics lost in other countries, and some even can't lend exhibitions. In order to preserve these cultural relics, some western countries choose not to join the treaty, which makes it more difficult to trace these cultural relics.

In 2007, Italian soldiers found a large number of illegal cultural relics in the cultural relics market. These illegally lost cultural relics come from China. When China got the news, he pursued the Italians. After 10 years, more than 700 sets of cultural relics have returned to their hometown. This return reflects Italy's respect for culture. Cultural relics can only reflect their culture in their cultural matrix, and also express a correct understanding of cultural relics. Compared with some countries, they are much more educated. I believe that with the prosperity of the motherland and its active participation in international affairs, more lost cultural relics will return to our arms.