A BRONZE tripod claimed to worth 6.8 million yuan (US$986,500) was found broken into dozens of small pieces when a Shenzhen antique collector opened the parcel delivered by SF-Express, according to the Southern Metropolis Daily.

The collector, surnamed Wang, asked SF-Express to compensate him, but SF said that they would give only 30,000 yuan in compensation since the sender of the parcel had only insured the antique at a value of just around 30,000 yuan when making the order.

The sender of the parcel, surnamed Tan, sold 12 antique pieces, including the bronze tripod, that he claimed to have been passed down by his ancestors in Shaanxi Province.

“The bronze tripod dated back more than 3,000 years from the Western Zhou Dynasty, and the buyer decided to purchase it after an expert evaluated the antique,” said Tan.

On April 2, Tan asked SF-Express to deliver the antique to Wang. Tan said he had all 12 antiques insured for 30,000 yuan whereas the antiques were valued at more than 100 million yuan.

When Wang opened the parcels the next day, he found that the bronze tripod had been seriously damaged. Tan contacted SF-Express a few times but was told that cultural relics could not be delivered in the first place so they couldn’t give him compensation.

Tan accused SF-Express of taking the order without informing him of the rules in advance and even charging him 150 yuan to insure the antiques.

SF said in response that Tan did not insure the antiques at their real value, so the company could only give the 30,000 yuan in compensation as the parcels were insured. (Zhang Qian)