US returns latest group of cultural relics to China

The United States returned 58 Chinese cultural relics, artworks and paleontological fossils on Wednesday, including a Bodhisattva statue from the Tianlongshan Grottoes in North China's Shanxi province that was looted and lost overseas over a century ago.

A handover ceremony was held for the returned items on Wednesday at the Chinese embassy in Washington, DC. According to the embassy, the returned relics were delivered through the Cultural Property, Art and Antiquities Program of US Homeland Security Investigations.

Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng said at the ceremony that the return represents years of close collaboration between Chinese and US heritage authorities. Other returned items, including pottery figurines, stone sculptures and fossils, have significant historical, cultural and scientific value.

Xie said that the handover was both a major outcome of win-win cooperation between China and the US and a milestone in cultural heritage protection.

"The return of these relics reflects both sides' responsibility to history, respect for civilization and commitment to justice, setting a positive example for global cooperation in tracing and repatriating lost cultural property," Xie said.

Xie expressed gratitude to Homeland Security Investigations, particularly its CPAA Program, for its sustained efforts, and extended respect to all Chinese and US institutions and individuals devoted to this cause.

He noted that cultural relic repatriation has become a high-yield area of China-US cooperation.

Since the two countries signed an intergovernmental memorandum of understanding on preventing the illegal import of Chinese cultural relics into the US 17 years ago, they have carried out pragmatic cooperation in preventing illicit trafficking, combating transnational cultural property crime and promoting the return of cultural relics, he said.

The memorandum of understanding was first signed in 2009, and has since been renewed in 2014,2019 and 2024.

Rao Quan, vice-minister of culture and tourism and head of the National Cultural Heritage Administration of China, said the repatriation was the latest outcome of implementing the consensus reached by the two leaders, according to a news release from the Chinese embassy in the US.

According to Xinhua News Agency, between the signing of the memorandum in 2009 and March 2025, a total of 594 items or sets of Chinese cultural relics and artworks had been repatriated to China by the US.

Citing last year's return of the Zidanku Silk Manuscripts dating back to the Warring States Period (475-221 BC), Xie said the fragments had been reunited with other items held in China and subjected to multidisciplinary study.

Cultural protection cooperation has also deepened. In 2014, the University of Chicago, the Tianlongshan Grottoes Museum and Taiyuan University of Technology launched a digital restoration project for the Tianlongshan Grottoes.

Xie said that 2026 is a major year for China-US relations, with the two presidents holding a meeting in Beijing in May, at which they reached a consensus on the new positioning of bilateral ties based on constructive strategic stability. The return of the relics is an outcome of that meeting, he said.

"The fruitful cooperation between China and the US on cultural relic repatriation once again proves that as long as both sides meet each other halfway in the spirit of equality, respect and mutual benefit and cooperate actively, they can accomplish major, practical and good things that benefit both countries and the world," Xie said.

houchenchen@chinadaily.com.cn