The National Cultural Heritage Administration of China received 41 cultural relics and artworks returned by the Manhattan District Attorney's Office in New York as part of a repatriation deal to help Beijing retrieve looted and smuggled relics, according to China Daily. The returned items, which span from the Neolithic period to the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), represent categories such as pottery, jade, bronze, and Buddhist artifacts, some dating back thousands of years.
CCTV reported that the 41 relics had been "illegally exported from China," and they include a bronze money tree, Li pottery, bronze zun, and pottery figurines, as noted by the South China Morning Post.
"It is the right thing to do to return these antiquities to their homeland," said Matthew Bogdanos, an assistant district attorney with the Manhattan District Attorney's Office, according to the South China Morning Post.
The repatriation of these relics underscores the ongoing efforts between China and the United States to combat the illicit trafficking of cultural artifacts.
The article was written with the assistance of a news analysis system.