Group of experts calls for return of looted relics to true owners

Cultural relics stolen and lost overseas should be returned to their true owners, the countries of origin, scholars participating in the fourth International Conference of Experts on the Return of Cultural Property agreed.

The three-day conference, which ended on Thursday in Dunhuang, Gansu province, attracted nearly 100 scholars and officials from about 20 countries.

The conference focused on the return of cultural property lost overseas due to clandestine excavations before the items were listed among their home countries' inventories. Attendees passed a recommendation calling for their return - the Dunhuang Recommendation on the Protection and Return of Illicitly Exported Cultural Property.