CHINESE archaeologists are facing an epidemic of professional tomb raiding.

    The predicament came into the spotlight after 12 grave robbers were arrested in Southwest China’s Sichuan Province. They are suspected of stealing artifacts from a tomb dating back to the Song Dynasty (960-1279) in Ziyang City.

    Police said their loot, including two carved tomb chamber doors and some valuable items buried in the tomb, might be worth a million yuan (US$161,000).

    Antique collector Liu, one of the suspects, said he kept some of the most valuable items in his shop while the rest were sold to other dealers, Huaxi Metropolis Daily reported Sunday.

    In a country with several thousand years of history, stories abound about people making a fortune from robbing tombs.

    In June, the tomb of Liu Yongfu, a national hero who fought in the Sino-French War and died in 1917, was desecrated by criminals who almost emptied it. The site, in the mountains of Qinzhou in South China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, was placed under State protection in 2001.

    In 2012, three stone sculptures in the mausoleum of Prince Jingjiang, a regional member of the imperial family in Guangxi during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), were spirited away. A warrior sculpture, also in the mausoleum, was beheaded two days later.

    “Tomb raiders dig in the hopes of finding precious burial objects,” said Su Dong, curator of Guangxi’s Qinzhou Museum. “Liu Yongfu’s tomb, for instance, has been raided several times since the 1990s.”

    Greed and a national fervor for antique collecting have aggravated the situation, according to Liang Xiao, an expert in preserving relics.

    “Collecting antiques has become hugely popular in China,” he said. “Criminals cater to the fervor by stealing and selling historical artifacts.” Liang believes the popularity of the best-selling novel “The Grave Robbers’ Chronicles” (《盗墓笔记》) as well as its spinoffs exacerbated the problem.

    Chinese authorities have stepped up efforts to crack down on the crimes, but to no avail. Mo Zhidong, an official with Guangxi’s Provincial Department of Cultural Relics, said that tombs and ancient ruins are usually situated in the wild, making surveillance very difficult.

    “Due to limitations such as the lack of power and other infrastructure in remote areas, surveillance cameras are difficult to install,” Mo said. “When graves are robbed, it is very hard to track down suspects.”

    In Guangxi alone, 17 of the 66 historical sites protected at the State level are located in the wilderness while most of the 355 ancient sites under regional protection are also located in remote areas. Meanwhile, a dearth of supervising personnel makes the situation even worse.

    “Cultural relic departments in most Chinese counties have an average of four staffers,” Mo said. “Just imagine the difficulty of protecting a vast expanse of relic sites with only four people.”

    Zhou Keda, with the Guangxi Academy of Social Sciences, said the government should raise public awareness of the issue and provide more money to hire more people and set up more surveillance equipment.

    “Law enforcement departments also need to keep a close eye on the illegal trade of artifacts,” he said.

    Zhou called for authorities to set up a national database to keep records of found artifacts. “This will make it easier to track down a robbed artifact once it is sold illegally, which will in turn make it easier to capture the robbers.”

    (Xinhua)