4.The Returned Treasures

Chinese experts estimate that more than 10 million Chinese cultural relics have been lost overseas, the overseas edition of the People's Daily reported.

Most of the cultural relics were robbed and illegally shipped out of China during the wars before the founding of the People's Republic of China, the Chinese Culture Relics Society said.

About 1.67 million pieces of Chinese relics were housed in more than 200 museums in 47 countries, accounting for just 10 percent of all lost Chinese cultural relics.

"But those in the hands of private collectors are ten times higher," the newspaper quoted the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization as saying.

The lost treasures were said to cover wide range of categories, including painting, calligraphy, bronze wares, porcelain, oracle bone inscriptions and ancient books and records.

Most of the relics are currently in museums or private collections in the United States, Europe, Japan and Southeast Asian countries.

There are more than 23,000 pieces of Chinese culture relics in the British Museum, most of which were robbed or purchased for pennies more than 100 years ago.

Experts said that the best way to recover the national treasures is to buy them back. In some cases, private collectors have donated the relics to the government. The government can also resort to official channels to demand the return of relics.

Although purchasing is the most feasible way of recovering the lost treasures, limited funding is always a big headache, the newspaper quoted Zhang Yongnian, director of China's Lost Cultural Relics Recovery Fund, as saying.