Preventing illegal cross-border trade of antiquities

Lang Son is a border province adjacent to and regularly has trade activities with China. With such a location, Lang Son can easily become a transit place for transporting antiques abroad. To prevent this, in recent years, governments at all levels and relevant agencies have made efforts with many positive solutions.

Provincial Museum staff classifies antiques after receiving and handing over

Recently, functional forces in the province have discovered a number of cases of subjects taking advantage of border areas to transport artifacts and antiques abroad. Specifically, in March 2023, the Economic Police Division, Lang Son Provincial Public Security discovered and arrested a case of illegal transportation of a batch of goods, suspected to be antiques. The unit has sent a written request to the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism to coordinate in identifying the types of evidence of administrative violations. As a result, the 291 artifacts requested for appraisal were mostly traditional cultural artifacts of Vietnam and China, dating from several dozen to thousands of years ago. Among them, there are artifacts that are production labor tools and combat weapons of Dong Son Culture residents in our country from about 2,000 years ago.

Number of exhibits that have been assessed and handed over to the Provincial Museum according to Decision Execution No. 97/QD-CTHADS dated December 22, 2023 of the Provincial Civil Judgment Enforcement Department: 291 artifacts, including 264 antiques (including 188 antiques from the Dong Son culture, from the 3rd to 2nd centuries BC; 7 antiques from the post-Dong Son period, 1st-2nd centuries A.C; 2 ancient Le Dynasty artifacts; 4 antiques from the The Revival Lê dynasty period; 63 antiques of the Nguyen Dynasty; 9 Chinese antiquities, including antiquities from the 1st-3rd centuries AD and antiquities from the 16th century).

 

At the end of April 2023, in Hoang Viet commune, Van Lang district, the district police discovered and arrested a case of illegal transportation of antiques. According to inspection results, these are ancient coins of Vietnam and China crafted from many different periods. Among them, in addition to Chinese money from the Tang, Northern Song and Ming dynasties, there was also Vietnamese money from the Early Le period – 15th century. These ancient coins  are all cultural and historical relics, valuable in researching coin minting techniques and currency characteristics of feudal Vietnam and China; At the same time, it reflects economic and commercial activities through historical periods.

Lieutenant Colonel Hua Thai Son, Deputy Head of the Economic Police Division, Provincial Public Security said: Recently, under the direction of the Provincial Public Security leaders, the unit has strengthened the implementation and synchronous implementation of professional measures to fight, prevent and handle illegal trading and transportation of goods across borders, especially illegal buying and selling of antiques. The arrested subjects were from outside the province, they collected antiques in many areas across the country, then packed into boxes disguised as normal goods, transported from inland provinces to Lang Son for consumption in China. In the coming time, we will continue to do a good job of understanding the situation, coordinating with functional forces to strengthen patrols and control to fight against illegal transportation of goods in general and cross-border antiquities trade in particular.

The Department of Civil Judgment Enforcement of Lang Son province inspects and seals antiquities – evidence of administrative violations and hands them over to the Provincial Museum for management according to regulations.

It is known that now, after the cases were prosecuted, the antiquities – which are exhibits of administrative violations in the above cases that have been handed over by the Provincial Civil Judgment Enforcement Department to the Provincial Museum for management according to regulations. Mr. Nong Duc Kien, Director of the Provincial Museum shared: During the appraisal process, we conducted a comprehensive assessment of the characteristics of the artifact, including material, style, size, decorative patterns, combined and compared documents, we see that historical and cultural relics have existed in the country’s development history. These artifacts are very valuable in researching history, fine arts, traditional crafts, beliefs… of people in past periods. Therefore, after receiving the handed over artifacts, The Provincial Museum will store, preserve, and register to create scientific records for antiques to store and preserve for display, propaganda, and introduction to the public.

For many years now, illegal trading and transportation of antiques has been taking place throughout the country. With the characteristics of being a border province, Lang Son has become a transit point for subjects to smuggle antiquities abroad for consumption. Therefore, patrol, inspection and control work, especially in border areas, continues to be tightened by the competent forces. Colonel Pham Tuan Hung, Leader of Huu Nghi International Border Gate Border Guard Station said: We dispatched patrol and control forces along the border line in charge of the unit, especially on trails and shortcuts. At the border gate, we arranged forces to maintain inspection and control, coordinate with functional forces at the border gate to inspect and strictly control people and imported and exported goods passing through the border gate. We also coordinated with Bao Lam and Tan Thanh Border Guard Stations to regularly exchange information to promptly prevent cases of trafficking and transporting antiques across the border.

Antiquities are precious cultural assets of the country. Recent cases of illegal trafficking and transportation of antiques have once again sounded the warning bell about this problem. Therefore, there needs to be drastic, synchronous, and closer coordination of actions between the cultural sector and agencies and functional forces in preventing and stopping the “bleeding” of antiques, to protect antiquities and preserve our country’s cultural heritage over thousands of years of history.