The US has returned 41 artefacts and antiques to China as part of a repatriation deal to help Beijing retrieve looted and smuggled relics.
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The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office in New York handed over the items to China’s National Cultural Heritage Administration on Tuesday, according to state-owned broadcaster CCTV.
The oldest artefacts date from the Neolithic period (around 10,000BC – 1700BC) while the newest are from the Qing dynasty (1644-1911). They include pottery, jade, bronzeware, and objects related to Tibetan Buddhism, according to CCTV.
“It is the right thing to do to return these antiquities to their homeland,” said Matthew Bogdanos, an assistant district attorney with the prosecutor’s office, during the handover ceremony.
CCTV said the 41 relics had been “illegally exported from China”.
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The administration was informed through the Chinese consulate in New York that the Manhattan prosecutor’s office had seized the 41 items while handling cases, according to the report.
It added that the administration had worked closely with the consulate to return the items.