|
Nation to reclaim looted and stolen relics
By Jiang Zhuqing (China Daily)
Updated: 2005-04-13 05:44
Cultural relic experts and NGOs have set the wheels in motion to begin
reclaiming China's national treasures from abroad.
The China Cultural Relics Recovery Programme, funded by the China Foundation
for the Development of Folklore Culture, announced a large-scale programme on
Monday to claim back Chinese cultural relics scattered around the world.
According to Zhang Yongnian, head of the programme, the group will focus on
items that were stolen, excavated or looted and trafficked abroad between 1840
and 1949, before the founding of New China.
Statistics from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organization suggest about 1.67 million Chinese cultural relics are held by more
than 200 foreign museums in 47 countries.
Some estimates put the number of relics collected by private individuals at
10 times that figure.
"The spiritual wealth can be shared (by the whole world), but not the
ownership, just like the property rights on software," said Xie Chensheng, a
senior cultural heritage preservation expert.
"Ownership of the scattered cultural treasures should lie with the Chinese
people," he said.
But Director-General of the programme Wang Weiming was keen to stress there
would be no indiscriminate witch-hunt. He said: "We don't mean to retrieve all
the Chinese relics stored in foreign museums."
He added that the programme is a civil movement fueled by Chinese NGOs based
on public opinion, historical realities and an international convention to
protect cultural relics at their original sites.
Curbing the export of cultural relics has become a consensus recognized by
many governments, relics experts said.
"Our next step is to compile the list of relics that need to be returned,"
Wang said.
"The first cultural relic that we want to get back will be a recognized
artistic treasure," he said, without elaborating on what the target would
actually be.
(China Daily 04/13/2005 page2)
| |
 |
|
|
|
|
Today's
Top News |
|
|
|
Top China
News |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
