Online trade mars China's heritage
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Valuable Chinese relics are finding their way abroad through a growing online business that the authorities are finding hard to stop.
According to the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, more than 200 online e-commerce websites are now offering platforms for the trading of Chinese cultural relics. Many of the websites are illegal and operating without a license.
Although the administration has worked with police to crack down on the illegal trade and several sellers have been arrested after trying to get antiques and relics through customs, the business is still thriving.
The administration's data shows that last year more than a million cultural relics and antiques were exported via the Internet, with a total transaction value of up to a billion yuan (US$152 million).
Due to a lack of supervision of online shopping and auction websites, many relics under the protection of Chinese law have been sold to other countries, according to Xinhua news website News.cn.
A Shanghai Daily investigation has found that Chinese cultural relics and antiques are hot items on the international e-commerce platform eBay.com, where around 49,000 Chinese antiques can be found for sale by both Chinese and foreign sellers. These range from old Chinese coins with a price as low as under a dollar to rare paintings from the Ming Dynasty on offer at prices up to US$20 million.
Various kinds of vases, Buddha statues, masks and even ancient shrines can be found on sale at the shopping website.
Some sellers claim their items are genuine by offering certificates from Chinese appraisers, while others say they acquired them at auction.
According to a Hong Kong-based Chinese antiques seller on eBay, Chinese ink-wash paintings by ancient masters can be delivered to the buyer three to five days after payment.
The seller said the antiques would be delivered under the guise of "handicrafts" so the buyers didn't have to worry about being caught by Chinese cultural heritage administrations and, moreover, they could avoid taxes at customs.
"The Internet has become the important trading channel for Chinese cultural relics as it has all the advantages in trading such as high speed, low cost and wide coverage," Shan jixiang, director of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage told News.cn. "If the chaotic online relics trading is left unattended, it will severely damage the safety of China's cultural heritage."
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