Today, there are more than 200 authorized auction houses across the country, and numerous auctions have been held during the past 16 years.

"Only after the establishment and development of a domestic market were cultural relics lost overseas brought back to China for sale," recalled Zhao Yu, former director of the China National Academy of Painting, an observer of the cultural relics market over the past 16 years.

"And now, more and more antiques from overseas are selling in the Chinese domestic market," he said, mentioning the pile of precious paintings and scrolls sold by Swiss collector Guy Ulens and his wife at this year's spring auction in China. Most of the 18 artworks went to Chinese collectors.

Zhao recalled that in the 1980s and 1990s during implementation of the reform and opening-up policy as well as preliminary adoption of China's market economy, a large number of precious cultural antiques were sold to foreigners at bargain prices.

Lacking any sophisticated knowledge on the value of precious antiques, but enthusiastically in pursuit of money, many family heirlooms were sold o? to foreign buyers, including vases, jade jewelry, valuable porcelain dishware and other items of high cultural value, said Zhao.

"It was another way antiques were lost in addition to the relics that were looted during war time," said Zhao. "But things are getting better now, and it is such a pleasure to see a boom in the domestic market of cultural relics."

Unlike foreign auction houses founded hundreds of years ago, the Chinese auction market is still in its infancy and has problems with fake relics, fi erce competition, and di culties evaluating the worth of "priceless" antiques.

According to Tan, the Chinese government could help regulate the market by enacting laws and regulations for antiques auctioneers, weeding out companies with bad reputations. "It's a long way to go," he said.