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796 pieces of lost Chinese cultural relics returned to China from Italy

(People's Daily Overseas New Media)    10:33, April 12, 2019

A total of 796 pieces of lost Chinese cultural relics have been returned to China from Italy, marking the largest transfer of cultural and historical artifacts in the past 20 years, which is also expected to serve as an example for future transfers of lost treasures from China.

The relics arrived on Apr. 10 in Beijing from Italy, ending their hundred-year time away from home. The group of Chinese artifacts were first noticed by a unit of Carabinieri, or the national gendarmerie of Italy, on the local auction market for relics in 2007, which was followed by a domestic judicial trial. China’s National Cultural Heritage Administration then contacted its Italian counterpart after hearing the news and started a decade-long repatriation process, Xinhua reported.

This is the largest transfer of Chinese cultural relics in the past 20 year, and is a big event in China’s cultural relics community, said Wang Wei, director of the Department of History of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

It also marked the latest in recent years. China has successfully repatriated multiple cultural relics, while many others remain lost overseas, after signing bilateral agreements on the prevention of theft and illegal entry and exit of cultural property with 21 countries, including the US, Italy, and India.

The US, for example, has thrice returned Chinese historical artifacts since the two sides signed a MOU in 2009. The latest transfer took place this February, when 361 pieces were sent back to China, including a stone product dated back to the Neolithic age.

As of March this year, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage has successfully contributed to the return of more than 30 batches of nearly 4,000 pieces of lost cultural relics through international conventions, intergovernmental diplomatic negotiations, donations, and commercial auctions.

(For the latest China news, Please follow People's Daily on Twitter and Facebook)(Web editor: Jiang Jie, Bianji)

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