Bronze relics brought back from Japan
AN eight-piece set of bronzeware belonging to Chinese cultural heritage has been brought home from Japan following five months of pursuit by Chinese authorities, the National Cultural Heritage Administration said yesterday.
They are among the mostvalued relics sets that have been successfully sought and brought back to China in recent years after their illegal trade on the international market was stopped, said Guan Qiang, deputy head of the administration.
The bronzeware were identified by researchers as stolen items from ancient tombs dating back to the Spring and Autumn Period (770 BC-476 BC) and located in Suizhou, central China’s Hubei Province.
According to officials, the bronzeware, along with the 330 Chinese characters engraved onto them, provide researchers with valuable information regarding the ancient state of Zeng, which is mysteriously absent from historical articles.
The bronzeware returned to China on August 23, thanks to joint efforts from China’s diplomatic, cultural and public security departments, Guan said.
The bronzeware’s retrieval was conducted in accordance with international conventions, primarily the 1970 UNESCO Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property, and had the cooperation of the Japanese government. It contributed a new practical case to the international recovery and return of lost cultural relics, according to Chinese officials.
The bronze utensils will be on display at the National Museum of China from September 17. More than 600 Chinese cultural heritage items retrieved from overseas over the past 70 years will be on display.
The exhibition, jointly held by the National Cultural Heritage Administration and the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, will feature precious items such as writings of prestigious ancient Chinese calligraphers and bronze sculptures looted in 1860 from the royal garden — the Old Summer Palace — by Anglo-French allied forces during the Second Opium War.
Guan Qiang, deputy head of the NCHA, said the exhibition will be “unprecedented” in terms of its scale and the value of the exhibits.
(Xinhua)