Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, February 17 (Reporter Xiong Feng) The reporter learned from the Ministry of Public Security on the 17th that in 2024, the national public security organs and cultural relics administrative departments closely cooperated and deepened the special work of cracking down on and preventing cultural relics crimes, strengthened the investigation and rectification of public security hazards in key areas such as surrounding cultural relics museum units, and cracked more than 940 cases of various cultural relics crimes such as excavation, theft, reselling, and damage, and recovered 16,000 pieces (sets) of various cultural relics involved.

Over the past year, the public security organs have focused on the crimes of robbing ancient cultural sites, ancient tombs, and theft, reselling, and intentional damage to cultural relics. They have listed a number of major cases, focused on carrying out special crackdowns, and recovered a number of cultural relics involved. By listing and supervising seven major series of excavations and reselling cultural relics, the Ministry of Public Security directed relevant local public security organs to arrest a group of criminal suspects, colluded with and solved more than 130 cases, and recovered more than 4,800 pieces (sets) of cultural relics involved; in the special work of cracking down on and rectifying illegal and criminal damage to cultural relics, more than 60 criminal cases such as intentional and negligent damage to cultural relics and intentional damage to famous places and historical sites were filed and investigated. The public security organs have recovered more than 1,000 pieces (sets) of first, second and third-level precious cultural relics.

The public security organs actively work with the cultural relics administrative departments to consolidate basic work, improve the guarantee mechanism, and weave a tight and solid cultural relics safety protection network. The Ministry of Public Security, together with the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, has improved the long-term joint working mechanism for combating and preventing cultural relics crimes, continuously deepened cooperation in the fields of online search notification, case consultation, cultural relics identification, etc., strengthened the operation and maintenance of China's stolen (lost) cultural relics information release platform, released 763 stolen cultural relics information information, and coordinated the 400 stolen artwork database releases information, providing effective support for cultural relics retrieval.

A relevant person in charge of the Ministry of Public Security said that the public security organs will further improve the working mechanism of linkage with relevant departments, maintain a high-pressure crackdown on cultural relics crimes, promote the improvement of the safety prevention capabilities of cultural relics museum units, and resolutely protect the safety of historical and cultural heritage.