Relics returned by Italy on display at the national museum

Chinese cultural relics returned from Italy will be on display at the National Museum of China in Beijing from Wednesday.

Some of the Chinese cultural relics returned from Italy are on display at the National Museum of China in Beijing on April 24, 2019. [Photo: IC]

The exhibition, titled "The Journey Back Home," showcases more than 700 pieces of returned Chinese artifacts, including a painted pottery pot from the Western Han Dynasty (202 B.C. - 8 A.D.), a colored camel pottery figurine from the Tang Dynasty (618-907) and a white-glazed bowl from the Song Dynasty (960-1279).

China and Italy exchanged related certificates returning 796 Chinese cultural relics on March 23. This batch of Chinese artifacts arrived in Beijing on April 10.

Some of the Chinese cultural relics returned from Italy are on display at the National Museum of China in Beijing on April 24, 2019. [Photo: IC]

The return of these Chinese historical artifacts is the most time-consuming case of its kind, and the largest returning of lost Chinese cultural relics in nearly 20 years, according to Luo Shugang, China's Minister of Culture and Tourism.

The exhibition will be open until June 30.

Some of the Chinese cultural relics returned from Italy are on display at the National Museum of China in Beijing on April 24, 2019. [Photo: IC]

China and Italy began personnel exchanges on archaeology, cultural relics and museums in the 1980s, and have been working on the return of Chinese cultural relics with judicial, diplomatic and other collaboration over the past decade.

China has also been pushing forward legislation regarding cultural relic protection and strengthening the crackdown on cultural relics-related law violations for the past decades.

More than 5,000 pieces of Chinese cultural relics have been repatriated from countries including Australia, Canada, Denmark, France, the United Kingdom and the United States, as result of efforts made by China such as law enforcement cooperation with other countries, lawsuits and negotiations.

Taking the return of these cultural relics as a start point, China and Italy will further improve their negotiations, policy coordination and law enforcement collaboration, and will promote multiple cooperation regarding cultural relic protection, said Guan Qiang, deputy head of China's National Cultural Heritage Administration.