China’s state-run newspaper The Global Times has appealed for the BM to return all items ‘acquired through improper channels to China free of charge’. Among this is the collection of Chinese relics – the biggest anywhere in the West – at least 23,000 objects – ranging from paintings that date back to the Tang dynasty (618 to 907 AD) to bronze vessels from the dawn of China’s civilisation.
Of these, about 2,000 are currently on display and they include “The Admonitions of the Instructress to the Court Ladies” by Gu Kaizhi, which the museum describes as a “masterpiece” and “a milestone in Chinese painting history” dating from between 400 and 700 AD.
Other items cited include Liao tri-coloured Luohan statues; ritual bronzes from the Shang and Zhou dynasties and stone Buddhist sutra scrolls from the Wei and Jin dynasties.
