U.S. returns 64 cultural relics, fossils to China

NEW YORK, Sept. 17 (Xinhua) -- The United States has returned 64 Chinese cultural relics and paleontological fossils to China, China's National Cultural Heritage Administration (NCHA) said Thursday.

The items were handed over in two batches in Washington and New York on Wednesday and Thursday by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and the Manhattan District Attorney's Office, respectively.

At the return ceremonies, Rao Quan, vice minister of Culture and Tourism and administrator of the NCHA, signed the confirmation of the return and receipt on behalf of the Chinese side.

The returned items, seized by U.S. law enforcement agencies, include the torso of a bodhisattva statue from the Tianlongshan Grottoes, as well as statues, terracotta figures, dinosaur skeleton fossils, fish fossils and dinosaur egg fossils.

The NCHA said that it worked with Chinese diplomatic and consular missions in the United States and relevant U.S. authorities to facilitate the return of the artifacts and that this week's return marked the fifth time the Manhattan District Attorney's Office had returned cultural relics to China.

The latest repatriations are part of China-U.S. cooperation to combat illicit trafficking of Chinese cultural property under a memorandum of understanding signed in 2009 and renewed three times since.

Present at the ceremonies were Chinese Ambassador to the United States Xie Feng and Consul General in New York Chen Li, along with representatives from the U.S. State Department, the HSI and the Manhattan District Attorney's Office.