Had they left them behind, there's a good Chance Mao's PLA, red guards, or workers' unions would have destroyed 'symbols of oppression' or 'symbols of bourgeois' or 'anti-proletarian symbols'. In any event, they would have been symbols of the Four Olds [旧思想 旧文化 旧风俗 & 旧习惯)] which needed to be extirpated. They went so far as denounce, burn and destroy historic statues of emperors, buddhas, etc. So... maybe not.