我在文物交接仪式的一张现场合影里发现，有一位浙商也在美国见证了整个仪式。于是，我第一时间连线了参与本次文物交接的中方工作组的浙商丁沪生，听他还原文物交接现场和流失文物背后的故事。

中美史上最大的一次文物返还

丁沪生是总部位于印第安纳波利斯的印州美中商会主席、海育国际教育科技有限公司董事长、师董会导师，也是浙大校友，浙江大学热能工程学士、工程热物理硕士。

“我只是接待文化部和外交部的工作组和领导们，做好后勤保障工作；海量的前期工作由美国联邦调查局打击艺术犯罪组的众多探员和印第安纳大学普渡大学联合校区的Cusack-McVeigh教授及她的数十名学生花了近五年时间完成，国家文物局的专家们也付出了大量心血！”

在美国的丁沪生向我们讲述了仪式现场的整个过程。

这是中美历史上最大的一次文物返还仪式，中国国家文物局外事处处长温大严与美国联邦调查局代表签署并互换文物返还证书。

美国副助理国务卿阿莱莎在交接仪式后浏览了现场展示的20多件文物，当看到一尊面带微笑的陶俑时说：“他看起来很激动，（因为）他马上要回家了！”

丁沪生从美国联邦调查局（FBI）打击艺术犯罪组了解到，此次交接的文物来自印州南部颇有争议的一位传奇私人收藏家唐纳德·米勒博士（Dr. Donald Miller）收藏的4.2万多件文物中的一部分，由FBI打击艺术犯罪组的特工于2014年4月在他的农场别墅查获。随后印第安纳大学普渡大学联合校区的Cusack-McVeigh教授带领她的数十名学生，在中国文物局专家的支持帮助下，历时近五年时间将文物清理分类完成。

亦正亦邪的米勒博士

91岁的美国私人收藏家米勒的故事，2014年4月美国很多媒体曾有过报道。不过，丁沪生说，2015年老人已经在美国去世。

通过与Cusack-McVeigh教授，以及负责侦查这起现实版“夺宝奇兵”的FBI主任特工Carpenter先生的介绍，丁沪生大体还原了一个比电影更传奇的故事。

米勒从普渡大学获得博士学位后，第二次世界大战期间曾在美国陆军通信兵团服役，后作为曼哈顿计划的一部分被招募到新墨西哥州的Trinity原子武器试验基地工作。米勒博士和他的妻子Sue于1984年成立了Wyman研究公司，该公司开发并销售业余无线电SSTV（慢扫描电视Slow-scan TV）和ATV设备。

米勒博士对文物收藏和寻宝的极度痴迷，始于童年时代在家中农场的地里挖到原住民用的箭头。

他是一位环球旅行家，多年来周游了200多个国家，收集了数万件来自世界各国的珍贵文物，其中包括来自中国的明代玉器、真人大小的红陶雕像、埃及的石棺、插有箭头的印第安人头骨化石、美国南北战争纪念品等。

丁沪生说，米勒博士向FBI特工承认，他对文物收藏痴迷到上瘾的地步，沉迷其中无法自拔，这使得他难免在收集藏品的过程中跨越了法律红线，以非法或不当方式取得很多藏品。这也正是FBI从米勒博士家中收缴了7000多件文物的原因。

随着老人的过世，这4万多件文物藏品当初是如何被获取的大多成谜。丁沪生说，与此前部分媒体报道不同的是，FBI并未收缴米勒博士的所有藏品，而仅仅是收缴了可以确认为非法或不当取得的7000多件文物。

“米勒博士收集文物跨度长达80年，他也从未对外隐瞒他的宝藏，而是欢迎周围民众来家里参观。虽然达不到博物馆馆藏的保护标准，老人还是尽了最大努力收藏保管这些珍贵的文物，藏品总体保存良好。老人也热心公益事业，做了不少善事。可以说，米勒博士是个亦正亦邪的传奇历史人物。”丁沪生说。

目前，FBI的调查工作仍在进行中。

（图片来自视觉中国）

助读

近年来，国家文物局通过外交斡旋、司法合作、友好协商等方式，促成包括圆明园兽首、大堡子山金饰片、虎鎣以及美国政府三次返还文物在内的30余批次4000余件（套）流失文物回归中国。

第一次，2011年3月，美国政府在华盛顿举行仪式，向中国归还十余件美国国土安全部于2010年收缴的珍贵文物，包括北齐石灰岩佛像、清代瓷瓶、宋代观音头部雕像等。

第二次，2015年12月，美国政府向中国政府移交中国流失文物和化石，包括16件（组）玉器、5件（组）青铜器、1件陶器在内的22件流失文物和1件古生物化石。经中方专家初步鉴定，有关文物均为唐代以前文物，具有很高的历史和艺术价值。古生物化石是来自中国辽宁的赫氏近鸟龙化石，距今约1.6亿年。

这一次返还，就是第三次，中美双方历经长达5年的努力，涉及多个文物门类，这次仪式现场展示了其中的20余件（套）文物。

Chinese Antiques Come Home from USA

After spotting Ding Husheng, a businessman from Zhejiang, in a photo taken at a ceremony at Eiteljor Museum in Indianapolis to send a cache of 361 Chinese antiques back to China, we contacted him to know more about the event.

Now based in Indianapolis and engaged in the handover work on the Chinese side, Ding provided reception and support services to a group of Chinese officials from the Ministry of Culture and Ministry of Foreign Affairs to work with the government of the United States to return the 361 artifacts to China. “I was in the services. All the previous works were largely done by FBI agents and Professor Cusack-McVeigh and dozens of her students in the past five years. Experts from China National Administration of Cultural Heritage also took part in the work before the handover.”

The handover was the third and the largest one between China and the USA. The government officials attended the handover ceremony to send the artifacts back to China. Officials from the USA and China signed a repatriation agreement at the ceremony held on February 28th, 2019.

The Chinese government has not yet revealed a manifest of all the 361 artifacts, but the cache includes antiques that date back to times from the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) to the Neolithic Age in China, which is about 5,000 years ago. Most of these artifacts were unearthed from ancient tombs in China.

The United States government first returned a group of ten plus antiques to China in March 2011. The artifacts had been seized in 2010 by the Department of Homeland Security. The second repatriation occurred in December 2015 when the US government handed over twenty-two pieces of jade, bronze and pottery and one fossil to the Chinese government. All the 22 antiques date back to the time before the Tang Dynasty (618-907). The bird fossil is about 160 million years old.

Controversial Figure: Dr. Dr. Donald Miller

Ding told us that the 361 artifacts were from the huge collection of Dr. Donald Miller. In April 2014, FBI agents grabbed the Chinese artifacts at a farm of Dr. Donald Miller. Then with the assistance of Chinese experts, Professor Cusack-McVeigh and her students spent about five years appraising, cataloguing, and documenting them.

Ding learned the story of Dr. Donald Miller from Professor Cusack-McVeigh and Mr. Carpenter, an FBI agent in charge. Miller obtained a doctoral degree at Purdue University in Indiana. He served in the USA army in World War Two and was stationed in New Mexico during the Manhattan atomic bomb project. He and his wife started a business in 1984, developing and selling radio products for amateur radio enthusiasts. With a penchant for treasure hunting and working as an amateur archaeologist, he traveled widely around the world and participated in numerous excavation projects, and built up a treasure collection of over 40,000 pieces. FBI investigated and seized about 7,000 pieces of his collection, telling Dr. Miller that his artifacts were suspected as “stolen” and that it might take a dozen years or more to catalogue them and determined what was lawfully owned and what was not.

Dr. Miller admitted to the effect that some of his collectables came from channels that were not exactly legal. In more than 80 years as a treasure hunter and collector, Miller never hid his collection from the public. He did his best to keep the collection in good conditions. He supported charitable activities, gave tours to schoolchildren and Scout troops who came to visit his collection on field trips, and built churches in Colombia and Haiti. He passed away in 2015. With his demise, how he actually acquired all the artifacts and built up such a colossal collection largely remains unknown.

The investigation is not yet over, according to Ding Husheng.