CCTV News: According to the website of the Ministry of Public Security, 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 in the case, achieving remarkable results.

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 supervising seven major series of excavations and reselling cultural relics, including "4.07" in Linfen, Shanxi, "5.25" in Jilin, and "11.29" in Huaibei, Anhui, 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 damaging 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, including bronze phoenix of the Western Zhou Dynasty, bronze foils of the Spring and Autumn Bronze, bronze foils of the Eastern Han Dynasty, and the "March Ten Thousand Houses Housing Seals" of the Dongxia Kingdom in the Jin Dynasty. Among them, the stolen first-level cultural relics, the head ring of the Warring States bronze gilt shop in the Ming Dynasty, and bronze Arhat statues in the Ming Dynasty, etc.

It is understood that China's stolen (lost) cultural relics information release platform has released 763 stolen cultural relics information and coordinated the 400 stolen artwork database of stolen artworks to release, providing effective support for cultural relics retrieval work.

At the same time, local public security organs have focused on strengthening the construction of public security prevention capabilities of cultural relics protection units, organized more than 100,000 inspections around cultural relics museum units, and conducted more than 7,000 joint law enforcement inspections in conjunction with cultural relics departments, and investigated more than 8,000 hidden dangers, providing strong guarantees for the protection and utilization of cultural relics.

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.