In December 2002, an apology that shocked the whole country took place. The reason why this theft case has such a great social impact is that the stolen items are not ordinary things, but important cultural relics of great value- the holy will of the Qing Emperor. At that time, Huai'an Qingyan Garden consulted with The Father and Son of Shaanxi farmer Zhang Zhenhua to display the Nine Sacred Treasures of several Emperors of the Qing Dynasty in the family' collection in the park.
What is the origin of Zhang Zhenhua's holy will? It turned out that his ancestors had been a prominent and famous family, and his ancestors had served as chief soldiers during the Chongzhen period of the Ming Dynasty. During the Shunzhi period of the Qing Dynasty, this family successively produced jinshi, general soldiers and other military generals of other ranks. This family was distinguished in the process of unifying Jiangnan and pacifying the Three Domains by the Emperor of the Qing Dynasty, and was repeatedly commended and rewarded by the imperial court.
After Zhang Zhenhua disclosed the holy will collected at home. He was often invited by museums, exhibition halls, and gardens across the country to exhibit locally, and he himself basically refused these invitations. First, although these cultural relics are private collections, they are also the tangible cultural heritage of the Chinese nation, and second, these exhibitions can also bring him great benefits.
In December 2002, Zhang Zhenhua's father and son agreed to the invitation of Huai'an Qingyan Garden and came to the park with the Nine Sacred Wills for exhibition activities. The two sides signed an agreement, and QingyanYuan paid 14,400 yuan to Zhang Zhenhua as an exhibition fee for a period of two months. The safety of the period was mainly responsible for the QingYan Garden, and Zhang Zhenhua assisted in supervising.
The exhibition went very smoothly until the eve of closing, and there was no discrepancy. However, on February 24, Zhang Zhenhua did not lock the door of the exhibition hall after closing, and the security guard on duty the next morning was not in place due to special circumstances. It was not until the afternoon of February 25 that Zhang Zhenhua discovered that the holy will displayed in the exhibition hall was missing two. After discovering that the Holy Will had been stolen, Zhang Zhenhua and the director of Qingyan Immediately called the police.
Because there was no trace of damage to the doors and windows cabinets at the scene, and the keys to the exhibition hall were completely in the hands of Zhang Zhenhua, qing yanyuan and the police suspected that Zhang Zhenhua was suspected of self-theft. After several years of investigation and evidence collection, although no case was solved, Zhang Zhenhua's suspicion of committing the crime has been ruled out by the police.
At this time, Zhang Zhenhua was very angry in his heart, the heirloom of the ancestors was stolen, and he was also regarded as a criminal, which was tantamount to a great shame. He immediately found the person in charge of the Qingyan Garden and demanded that the other party compensate for his losses. However, the Qing Feast Garden did everything to prevaricate and did not want to bear the responsibility of compensation. Later, Zhang Zhenhua, who could not bear it, sued Qing Yanyuan in court with a complaint.
Zhang Zhenhua's appeal is to demand compensation of 400,000 yuan from Qingyanyuan. However, the QingYanyuan side categorically refused, and put forward many reasons. One is that the main reason why the Holy Will was stolen was because Zhang Zhenhua, who had the key, forgot to lock it, so Zhang Zhenhua should be mainly responsible. The second is that the holy purpose has not been identified by experts during the exhibition, and there is no guarantee that what is lost is the authenticity, so it cannot be compensated according to the value of the genuine product.
In response to Qing Yanyuan's statement, Zhang Zhenhua proposed to find a professional appraisal agency for appraisal and valuation. In the end, the court entrusted the Xuzhou Sacred Will Museum to undertake this work. After appraisal and valuation by the Sacred Will Museum, the total amount of the two Sacred Wills that Zhang Zhenhua lost in the Qing Feast Garden was not less than RMB 200,000.
In the end, the court made the following judgment based on the evidence and appraisal: Zhang Zhenhua and Qing Yanyuan had equal responsibility in this cultural relics theft case, and should jointly bear the losses caused by the theft of cultural relics. Referring to the valuation of the Xuzhou Sacred Will Museum, the final judgment was that Qing Yanyuan should compensate Zhang Zhenhua for 90,000 yuan.
However, the court did not determine the claim made by the Qing Yanyuan that it could not determine the authenticity of the stolen holy will. Because the Qing Feast Garden was publicized to the outside world during the exhibition of the Holy Will as the "True Relic of the Holy Will of the Qing Dynasty". Therefore, it is considered that the Qing Feast Garden has recognized the fact that the lost holy will is true. However, the QingYanyuan side proposed that it had not been appraised, which can only be regarded as an omission in the work of the Qingyanyuan and cannot be used as the basis for compensation and loss. Therefore, the reason for the Qing Feast Garden is not valid.
After the court's judgment was announced, Qing Yanyuan said that it was unacceptable, and they insisted that they had no primary responsibility and should not bear half of the losses, and immediately appealed to the Huai'an Municipal Court. However, the appeal was quickly dismissed, and in the end, Qing Yanyuan compensated Zhang Zhenhua for a total of 90,000 yuan.
After the dust settled on the case, Zhang Zhenhua's collection of sacred wills and several other Qing Dynasty cultural relics did not appear in the public eye. Although he was compensated, the treasures in his home were priceless to him and could not be measured by money.
Conclusion: Nearly twenty years have passed, and Zhang Zhenhua and his descendants have never given up on the search for the lost holy will. Their footprints have spread all over the motherland and even abroad. With the rapid development of modern technology, many lost cultural relics have been recovered. I hope that Zhang Zhenhua can also find his heirloom as soon as possible.