China received 64 cultural relics, artworks and paleontological fossils returned by US authorities at handover ceremonies in Washington and New York on Wednesday and Thursday.
The two batches were returned by US Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and the Manhattan District Attorney's Office, according to China's National Cultural Heritage Administration.
The returned items include the torso of a Bodhisattva statue from the north side of the west wall of Cave 17 at the Tianlongshan Grottoes, as well as statues, pottery figurines, dinosaur skeletal fossils, fish fossils and dinosaur egg fossils.
All the items were seized by US law enforcement authorities, according to the National Cultural Heritage Administration.
Rao Quan, China's vice minister of culture and tourism and head of the National Cultural Heritage Administration, signed handover certificates with US representatives and received the returned items on behalf of China.
Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng and Chinese Consul General in New York Chen Li attended the ceremonies, along with representatives from the U.S. Department of State, HSI and the Manhattan District Attorney's Office.
China and the United States first signed an intergovernmental memorandum of understanding on Jan 14, 2009, imposing US import restrictions on certain categories of Chinese archaeological material and cultural property. The agreement has since been extended three times.
Under the memorandum, government agencies from the two countries have cooperated to curb illicit trafficking in cultural property and facilitate the return of Chinese cultural relics from the United States. Multiple batches have been repatriated under the arrangement.
