Thirty-one
terracotta figurines and chimes dating back to
the Western Han Dynasty (206 BC-25 AD) have been returned to the
ancient Chinese capital of Xi'an.
The smuggled items were earlier bought by Chinese American Fan
Shixing and 14 other Chinese mainly in the US and Canada, said Guo
Xianceng, deputy director of the Shaanxi Provincial Bureau of
Cultural Heritage Protection.
Thirteen colored and nine black figurines were 50 to 60 cm high,
said Wang Baoping, deputy chief of the exhibition hall featuring
excavated items from the mausoleum of Liu Qi, an emperor in the
Western Han Dynasty.
"Some of the figurines originally had silk clothes but these
perished over the past 2,000 years," Wang explained. The clothes
represented a development from the pottery clothing on the
terracotta warriors in the previous Qin Dynasty (221 BC-206
BC).
Twelve of the figurines had real coats and pottery skirts which
was very rare in the Western Han Dynasty, Wang added. He said the
relics were gifted to the exhibition hall as they were similar to
the items excavated from the Hanjingdi Mausoleum.
Tomb robbing was very serious in Xi'an and many relics excavated
from mausoleums of ancient emperors had been smuggled out of China.
According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and
Cultural Organization, around 1.67 million relics in 200 museums of
47 countries come from China. Experts suggest most of the relics
were smuggled out of China in the past 150 years.
(Xinhua News Agency December 28, 2006)
