In June 2006, American Chinese Collector's Association Chairman Zhou Dezhao brought back to China a batch of Chinese cultural relics lost abroad. Pictured is the Qing Dynasty (1616-1911) ivory sculpture of Buddhism treasure named "Three Saints of the West" collected by Zhou. (File Photo) Chinanews, Beijing, Jan.30 - Statistics from the Chinese Culture Relics Society show that more than 10 million Chinese cultural relics have been lost overseas due to wartime robbery or iniquitous trade since 1840.
According to the UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization), about 1.67 million pieces of Chinese relics are housed in more than 200 museums in 47 countries. Nevertheless, those in the hands of private collectors are ten times higher.
The figures above show the huge amount of China's lost treasures, the overseas edition of the People's Daily reported on Monday.
The lost cultural relics cover almost all categories, including painting, calligraphy, bronze wares, porcelain, oracle bone inscriptions and ancient books and records. Most of them are currently owned by museums or private collectors in the UK, France, U.S.,and Japan.
There are more than 23,000 piece of Chinese culture relics in the British Museum. And among the lost 300,000 piece of oracle bone inscriptions, nearly 13,000 are stored in Japan.
Limited funding is an obstacle for China to buy-back, according to expert. In recent years, however, the Chinese government has improved efforts to retrieve the precious cultural relics lost overseas.