Fifteen Chinese antiques were stolen from The British Museum on
29 October, and this was the second robbery of Chinese antiques in
world famous museum within the month. The Special Fund for Saving
China's Overseas Antiques stated on?November 3 that China
expressed its great concern over the whereabouts of China's
overseas antiques and strongly condemned the illegal robbery of
antiques.
The spokesperson with The British Museum said on?November 1
that the fifteen antique items were missing during its open hours
to the public. On?October 4, thieves stole nine Chinese
objects from the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. The
Associate Press of British Newspapers noted that private
collectors behind the scenes possibly manipulated the two robberies
of Chinese antiques and the investigation is currently
underway.
Being the first non-governmental organization for saving China's
cultural relics, the Special Fund for Saving China's Overseas
Antiques declared in a statement that they attached great concern
to the whereabouts of China's cultural relics and felt rather
disturbed over the lost antique items of historical values.
Meanwhile, they also strongly condemned the illegal robbery of
cultural relics global wide.
According to the principle of "site protection" put forward by
the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organization (UNESCO), they called for the safely return of China's
antique items to China, the original owner. China lost a variety of
cultural relics and the reason for the loss differed in many ways.
It was necessary for China to take back its lost cultural relics
according to their various circumstances through safely return,
purchase and so on.
The statistics released by the UNESCO showed that the total
member of China's antique items lost overseas had exceeded 10
million, among which 1.63 million were housed by museums in
different countries worldwide.
Among the fifteen stolen items, most of them were jewelry and
adornments including jade hairpins and earrings dating back from
the 700 to 1400, said the spokesperson with The British Museum.
?(People's Daily Online November 6, 2004)