Shaanxi cracked a series of cases of stealing cultural relics, 36 people were arrested and 95 cultural relics were recovered.
CCTV News:Recently, the Ministry of Public Security announced a series of cases of stealing cultural relics from the ancient pagodas. The public security organs in Xianyang, Shaanxi Province, spent more than a year to detect the theft of six ancient pagodas, including Xingping Qingfan Temple Pagoda, Xunyi Taita and Binzhou Kaiyuan Temple Pagoda, and arrested 36 people involved, including 95 stolen cultural relics including 4 first-class cultural relics. At present, many people involved in the case, such as Wei Yonggang, have been sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment ranging from 15 years to 2 years by Xianyang Intermediate People’s Court and fined.
The police got a clue that the cultural relics of Kaiyuan Temple Ancient Pagoda Palace were stolen.
At the end of 2017, the criminal police detachment of Xianyang Public Security Bureau got clues in its work. The cultural relics of the ancient pagoda palace of Kaiyuan Temple in Binzhou were once stolen by a group of Shanxi criminal suspects. Binzhou is a county-level city in Xianyang. In the local area, Kaiyuan Temple Pagoda is also called Binta, which was built in the Northern Song Dynasty and listed as a national key cultural relic protection unit by the State Council in 2001.
Zhang Jun, Deputy Director of Xianyang Public Security Bureau:The characteristic of this ancient pagoda case is that it is a hidden case, because he made a hole in the ground, and no one knows that this thing was stolen, or even whether there is an underground palace under the ancient pagoda.
Sun Qun ‘an, police of Binzhou Public Security Bureau Task Force:When we got the clue, we only knew that Wei Yonggang was the main suspect who took the lead in stealing Binta, but the identities of others were not clear. Is this information true or false? Where did this stolen cultural relic go? Who else is involved? We don’t even know.

The suspect served 10 years in prison for stealing cultural relics.
In 2001, Wei Yonggang teamed up with others to rent a house in the former stadium in front of Binta, and in the name of producing washing powder, he dug holes in the room in the direction of Binta in an attempt to steal cultural relics in the underground palace under the tower. The hole was only hit more than 20 meters, and some people reported it to the police.
Sun Qun ‘an, police of Binzhou Public Security Bureau Task Force:When we went to investigate, we happened to meet them working inside. At that time, Wei Yonggang’s father was called Wei Yunde, and he was on the lookout outside. We arrested at that time and caught all the people on the scene, but Wei Yonggang himself was not there.
At the end of 2001, Wei Yonggang was arrested by the local police for robbing another ancient pagoda palace in Yuncheng, Shanxi.
Sun Qun ‘an, police of Binzhou Public Security Bureau Task Force:We feel that Wei Yonggang is a sophisticated person with a deep mind. At that time, this case was tried together with the Shanxi case. The final judgment was that he was sentenced to 15 years, and finally served 10 years. He was released from prison in March 2011.
Open the breach from the criminal partner and arrest 7 suspects.
Focusing on Wei Yonggang’s social relations, the police launched a search and found that Yan Guoqiang and Wei Yonggang, from Changzhi, Shanxi Province, used to be cellmates. After they were released from prison, they also participated in the excavation of Binta Underground Palace. Because Yan Guoqiang fell in love with the Internet, Wei Yonggang was afraid of leaking the news and cleared him out of the gang. The police then secretly arrested Yan Guoqiang.
After Yan Guoqiang was arrested, he confessed that in April 2015, Wei Yonggang, Wei Moujun and others rented a house in the courtyard of Binzhou Medicinal Materials Company under the cover of opening a restaurant, and robbed the cultural relics of Binta Digong. Immediately, the task force went to Yuncheng and other places in Shanxi to arrest Wei Yonggang’s gang and arrested seven people.
Sun Qun ‘an, police of Binzhou Public Security Bureau Task Force:When we went to his basement to search, we found that there were a lot of processing tools in it, which were specially used to rob the ancient pagodas or ancient tombs. He is very professional, and there are machine tools in it. According to the needs of this excavation, they have processed some practical tools.


After Wei Yonggang and others were arrested, they confessed their criminal facts of stealing the Binta underground palace in 2015. Wei Yonggang believes that Binta is magnificent, and there must be high-grade cultural relics in the underground palace.
Criminal gangs operate catering business during the day and close doors and make holes at night.
This facade room was rented by Wei Yonggang’s gang in the past, and in the name of opening a Sichuan restaurant, he dug holes and robbed the underground palace of Binta. The stolen hole is located in a corner of the room.
Wang, director of Binzhou Public Security Bureau, measured:This is the original scene. Hit it straight, about 7 meters, then hit the front pillar horizontally, then measure it with a line divider, and then go straight to the tower.
During the day, criminal gangs operate catering business outside, and close the door and make holes after 10 pm until 4 am the next day.

After the underground palace was stolen, it not only partially collapsed, but also filled with water. After 24 hours of continuous pumping, the police entered the underground palace along the stolen hole for on-site investigation.
Zhang Xinquan, squadron leader of the technical squadron of the Criminal Police Brigade of Binzhou Public Security Bureau:There was basically nothing left in it, just collapsed stone bars and the like, and then I found an object account tablet, which was the records of the cultural relics enshrined in the tower at that time, and I remembered everything clearly on it.
Stolen cultural relics have been sold in cross-gang crimes.
As the investigation went deep into the police, it was learned that the criminal gang headed by Wei Yonggang, in addition to the case of robbing the underground palace of Binta in 2015, also crossed the gang from 2011 to 2014, and committed five crimes in Xingping, Pucheng, Qishan, Xunyi and Daixian, Shanxi Province. In addition, the gang also robbed the ancient tombs of the Western Zhou Dynasty in Yuncheng, Shanxi Province, and all the stolen cultural relics were stolen by Wei Yonggang and others.
Selling biscuits during the day and digging stolen holes at night for two months to get through the stolen holes.
Located in Xingping City, the Qingfan Temple Tower was built in the Tang Dynasty and is a national key cultural relic protection unit. In July and August, 2011, Wei Yonggang and Zhang Mouyong, who had died of illness, rented a facade room in the alley opposite Qingfan Temple and opened a shop. Under the cover of selling biscuits, they robbed the ancient pagoda underground palace. Criminal gangs sell baked wheat cakes during the day and dig stolen holes at night. Because of the close distance, it took them only more than two months to get through the stolen holes leading to the underground palace.
Wei Yonggang confessed that the cultural relic in the underground palace of the Pagoda of Qingfan Temple was a stone pagoda with five eaves and seven floors, which was sold to Luo Jianping in Wuwei, Gansu Province for 1 million yuan, and then sold to Liu San, who runs a museum in Beijing.
Sun Qun ‘an, police of Binzhou Public Security Bureau Task Force:When we found this surnamed Liu, we found that the museum he built was particularly magnificent. He built a pedestal in an important position on the first floor of this museum. At that time, he bought the ancient pagoda in Xingping as the treasure of his town hall.
Stolen cultural relics are very precious and of high research value.
The stone pagoda is engraved with the words "Buddhist stupas" and "Four years of auspicious symbols in the Great Song Dynasty", and the auspicious symbols in the Great Song Dynasty are the titles of Song Zhenzong Zhao Heng, the emperor of the Northern Song Dynasty, from 1008 to 1016.
Ge Hong, Director of Xianyang Cultural Relics Protection Center:This tower was built at that time, which also shows that the unearthed tower has a time accuracy, which is very significant in cultural relics identification or cultural relics research, and provides very important physical data for studying the development of Buddhism in the early Northern Song Dynasty.
In this stone pagoda with a height of two meters, there is a silver Ashoka pagoda for storing relics, which is very precious.
Ge Hong, Director of Xianyang Cultural Relics Protection Center:The relics are placed in the Ashoka Tower, and the Ashoka Tower is placed in this tower, which is such a whole. The value of cultural relics is very high, at least this is the only discovery in Shaanxi Province. The nirvana image of Buddha in the Song Dynasty was rarely found, and this nirvana image is also the most precious in the whole Taita underground palace.
There are 49 stolen cultural relics in the underground palace of Kaiyuan Temple Tower in Binzhou, including gold coffins, silver coffins and bronze statues of bodhisattvas. This is the property account tablet found in the underground palace during the on-site investigation by the police, and the recovered cultural relics are exactly the same as the records on the tablet.
According to the relevant person in charge of the Ministry of Public Security, since 2017, the Ministry of Public Security and National Cultural Heritage Administration have organized a nationwide special campaign to crack down on cultural relics crimes. By December 31, 2020, more than 1,100 cultural relics crimes were detected, more than 200 cultural relics criminal gangs were destroyed, more than 2,000 criminal suspects were arrested, and more than 22,000 cultural relics were recovered. At the same time, the public security organs appealed to the masses to actively report and expose clues of cultural relics crimes such as illegal excavation and reselling to the public security organs.





























