A glimpse of Chinese cultural relics in foreign museums

Germany

Head of a stone statue of Buddha exhibited in the Asian Art Museum in Berlin. [File Photo]

Major museums in Germany keep around 300,000 Chinese cultural relics in all. They were acquired by two ways: through looting following the military attack on Beijing with seven other countries in 1900 or by stealing from Xinjiang and surrounding provinces in the name of archaeology..

From 1902 to 1905, German archaeology teams carried back 400 boxes of historical relics to their country, including rare mural paintings and statues of the Buddha from the Bezeklik Buddhism Cave, which was built in the sixth century. However, more than half of the artifacts were destroyed during the Second World War.