In February 2023, the Supreme People's Court and the National Cutural Heritage Administration released 15 typical cases of cultural relics protection, involving cultural relics damage, reselling, digging ancient tombs, ancient cultural sites, property rights protection disputes, ecological environment damage and other issues. The cases include three major types of litigation: criminal, civil, and administrative, covering various economic regions and cultural relics types across the country. Among them, the case of "Yao Mouzhong and 12 other people robbing, robbing and digging ancient cultural sites, ancient tombs, and reselling cultural relics" is the case that has recovered the most stolen cultural relics and captured the most suspect since the founding of New China.

Basic case

From 2012 to 2014, Yao Mouzhong and 10 others illegally excavated ancient cultural sites and tombs in Liaoning and Inner Mongolia, damaging the cultural relics and historical features, and stealing first-class cultural relics. Yao Mouzhong resold 15 first-class cultural relics and made a profit of 1.95 million yuan; Li Moubao resold 8 first-class cultural relics and made a profit of 485000 yuan. In October 2014, Yao Mouzhong and others violently robbed cultural relics, including second-class cultural relics.

Judgment result

The Intermediate People's Court of Chaoyang City, Liaoning Province, tried the case of 11 people including Yao Mouzhong suspected of robbery, excavation of ancient cultural sites, ancient tombs, and resale of cultural relics. In the first instance, Yao Mouzhong was sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve, deprived of political rights for life, and had all personal property confiscated; The other defendants were sentenced to sentences ranging from life imprisonment to two years of fixed-term imprisonment. The second instance upheld the original verdict. The case highlights the importance of the rule of law in cultural relic protection. China has abundant cultural relics and heritage, including 56 World Heritage sites, over 760000 immovable cultural relics, and 108 million sets of state-owned movable cultural relics. In order to strengthen the protection of cultural relics, China has issued the Regulations on Museums, the Regulations on the Protection and Management of Underwater Cultural Relics and other regulations. The Supreme People's Court signed a cooperation framework agreement with the National Cutural Heritage Administration, established a branch of judicial research on cultural relics, issued administrative measures for the identification and evaluation of cultural relics involved in the case, and issued opinions on handling criminal cases that hinder the management of cultural relics. The whole society should participate in the protection of cultural relics, enhance the awareness of the rule of law, and jointly build a legal barrier for the protection of cultural relics.