The 700-year-old dragon head tile statue suddenly disappeared, the blogger posted a criminal complaint because he discovered a treasure for sale online

On April 28, a history and architecture blogger with a Weibo account “Tower-Loving Legend” was surfing Xianyu (Chinese online sales site) when he came across something that looked very familiar. It is a large “roof decoration”, sculpted with two open-mouthed dragon heads commonly seen in the style of house building in the Yuan Dynasty.

A 700-year-old tile statue for sale on Xianyu.

“The lapis lazuli tile statue has the inscription Thai Dinh Emperor of the Nguyen Dynasty. The dragon’s mouth has been slightly repaired. This sculpture has a historical taste. If you want a perfect antique, please don’t. buying!”. The seller gave the price for this glazed tile statue at 88,000 yuan (more than 305 million VND).

Emperor Taiding of the Yuan Dynasty was a great-grandson of Kublai Khan, who reigned from 1323 to 1328. An inscription on the tile statue shows the year 1324. Accordingly, this tile statue is nearly 700 years old, containing great historical value.

According to the blogger, this glazed tile statue for sale on Xianyu looks exactly like a tile roof decoration of a protected ancient building in Shanxi province (northern China) that he took 11 years ago.

Surprised by the image of antiques on Xianyu, the blogger wrote an article comparing the two items. The post went viral and within a few hours, the sales information was taken down from the Xianyu platform.

Photo taken by blogger from 11 years ago.

An archaeologist surnamed Li shared with local media, on the evening of April 27, he also saw a picture of the Xianyu shopping list on a QQ chat group.

“I didn’t pay much attention to it at first. Later, I looked at the photos and realized that the tile statue was located in a national key cultural relic protection area. From the photos taken on Xianyu, I knew the piece of the statue. tile has been repaired”.

The local authorities entered the investigation. Police have cordoned off the relic area in Changzhi city (Son Tay) on April 28, and are looking for online sellers and are continuing to investigate.

On April 29, the Center for Tourism Development and Protection of Cultural Relics of Vu Huong district confirmed that the lapis lazuli tile statue for sale is a decoration on the roof of a house in the Phuc Nguyen Vien relic area. The lapis lazuli statue is not known when it was disassembled and disappeared.

Under Chinese law, sellers can face up to 10 years in prison if found guilty of “selling protected cultural relics for profit”. Online platforms and local cultural authorities will also be held accountable if they are found not to have tightened their oversight of the matter.

Source: Sixthtone