The Manhattan District Attorney’s office returned two illegally transported Chinese cultural relics to the Consulate General of China in New York on Tuesday. The two stone-carved tomb beds date back about 1,100 to 1,600 years. Photo: Screenshot from CCTV

Min Fanglei, ancient Chinese ritual bronze from the Shang dynasty (1600 to 1046 B.C.), was unearthed in 1919. The body and lid of the vessel were separated for several years. In 2014, Christie’s auction house agreed to sell the body of the vessel to a group of Chinese collectors, who then donated it to the Hunan Museum, facilitating the reunion of the two pieces. Photo: VCG

A visitor views gold ornaments unearthed from the tombs of residents from the Qin Kingdom (770 B.C.-476 B.C.) in 2019 in Lanzhou, Northwest China’s Gansu province. France returned 32 of these displaced gold pieces in 2015. Photo: VCG

In 2017, Beijing’s Palace Museum received a colored map illustrating the Silk Road from Xu Rongmao, founder and chairman of Hong Kong Shimao Group. Xu bought the piece from a Japanese collector for $20 million. The painting measures 30 meters long and dates back to the late Ming dynasty (1368-1644). Photo: VCG

Hu Ying, a 3,000-year-old Chinese bronze vessel that was looted from the Old Summer Palace in Beijing in the 19th century, was returned to China in 2018. Photo: VCG

In January 2019, police officers from North China’s Shanxi province seized Jin Gong Pan, a plate presented by Jin Wengong, a ruler of Jin during the Spring and Autumn period (770-476 B.C.), as part of the dowry for his daughter. The plate was recovered by the authorities after being illegally transported from abroad. Photo: VCG

In May 2019, an exhibition featuring nearly 800 ancient pots and sculptures that were returned to China from Italy opened in Beijing. Photo: VCG

China recovered an 8-piece set of bronze wares from Japan in August 2019. These ancient wares dating back to the Spring and Autumn period feature intricate engravings of hundreds of Chinese characters. Photo: Courtesy of State Administration of Cultural Heritage

A stone Buddha head from the Tianlong Mountain Grottoes made its public debut in Taiyuan, North China’s Shanxi province, in July 2021. This ancient Buddha head, with a history of over 1,400 years, was originally stored in Cave 8 of the Tianlong Mountain. It arrived in Beijing from Japan in December 2020. Photo: VCG

In March 2021, the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office discovered a collection of 12 cultural relics that had been illegally smuggled from China. These valuable artifacts included some of the earliest known pieces, dating back to the Ming dynasty. Photo: Courtesy of State Administration of Cultural Heritage

A visitor views a pottery figurine donated by Suzanne Fratus from the U.S. at the Shanghai Museum in December 2021. The piece was identified by experts as originating from the Ming dynasty. Photo: VCG

Yongle Encyclopedia, the Chinese encyclopedia commissioned by the Yongle Emperor of the Ming dynasty, was largely lost in the 19th century. However, since the 1950s, China has gained more than 50 volumes of the encyclopedia from various sources, including government and private collectors in the Soviet Union, East Germany, and France since the 1950s. Photo: VCG