French collector hands over another 24 gold relics to China

Christian Deydier, a noted French collector and holder of most of the returned gold items, visits the museum. [Photo/Xinhua]

Xia, on behalf of the provincial government, thanked Deydier for his two generous acts. He stressed that the return of Chinese relics shows the remarkable results of Chinese diplomacy. He also confirmed that the special exhibition of the first batch of returned gold relics was highly praised both in the country and abroad.

According to local media in Gansu province, the 24 newly returned relics reveal a "high gold content" (93 percent on average) and are made in a similar artistic style but are different in size. The large ornaments are about 15 centimeters long and the smaller one are only five centiments long. There are also Ruyi (a symbol of good luck in ancient China) patterns carved on their surfaces.

Tombs in Dabuzhishan were badly looted during the 1990s and a large number of relics, including the gold ornaments, were smuggled abroad. The gold ornaments may have been used to decorate coffins or for horse armor.

The relics were in the Guimet Museum in Paris, having been donated by Pinault and Deydier, when China approached France for their return in 2014. French law forbids national museums giving away their collections.

Through careful negotiation, however, the two sides found a way out. The donations were withdrawn and the artifacts were returned to their previous private owners, removing the legal barrier to getting them back to China.

China has been campaigning for the return of a large number of its cultural relics, many of which were looted from tombs or royal palaces and are held by foreign museums and private collectors.

Earlier this year, a 1,000-year-old Buddha statue, with a mummified monk inside, was pulled from a Hungarian exhibition following allegations that it was stolen from a Fujian village. Its Dutch owner said he was willing to give it back to the village if it is proved to have been stolen from there.