The artifacts are believed to have been stolen from tombs in Dabuzishan, Lixian County, Gansu Province. (Photo : China Daily)
Lost Chinese treasure has recently made its way back to China, thanks to a couple of French collections who returned 24 gold ornaments without compensation on Monday, Sept. 21. The relics are estimated to be around 2,000 years old.
The artifacts are believed to have been stolen from tombs in Dabuzishan, Lixian County, Gansu Province.
A famed French collector, Christian Deydier attended the handover ceremony with Vice Governor Xia Hongmin of Gansu Province at Gansu Provincial Museum. Deydier, according to reports, was the holder of most of the solid gold ornaments.
Gansu Provincial Museum will permanently display these relics, according to the State Administration of Cultural Heritage.
Deydier, along with fellow collector Francois Pinault, has already returned 32 artifacts from the Dabuzishan tombs back in July. During an exhibition, Deydier expressed hopes of all lost artifacts returning to their countries of origin.
"When I saw the Dabuzishan gold relics in 1993 for the first time, by my own judgment, they should be valuable, although my European counterparts didn't agree with me at all," Deydier said. "I invited my Chinese friends to France, and they confirmed my viewpoint after careful observation."
He added that in the international antiquities black market, people re-smelt the gold decorations and sell them.
"I've talked with officials in China's State Administration of Cultural Heritage, and told them I planned to collect the Dabuzishan relics lost in Japan as soon as possible. I wish to bring all of them here on my next trip to China," he said.
According to the report published by China Daily, the looted tombs belonged to the residents of Qin, a small kingdom that existed during the Spring and Autumn period (around 770 B.C. - 476 B.C.) of Chinese history. It was from this small kingdom where China's first emperor and the legendary Qin Dynasty was founded.
The return of the gold ornaments is the result of successful bilateral negotiations between France and China. A similar event happened earlier in 2015, when a 1,000-year-old Buddha statue with a mummified monk inside made its way back to its home country.
