Exhibition a reminder of stolen antiques

AN EXHIBITION OF 600-ODD ANTIQUES RETURNED from overseas since the founding of New China opened at the National Museum of China, Beijing, on Tuesday and will continue until late November. China Daily writer Zhang Zhouxiang comments:

The more than 600 pieces of antiques have been exhibited in the chronological order they were returned.

About 150,000 antiques have returned from overseas since 1949. Yet they comprise just a fraction of the antiques overseas. There are no exact data, but China Antique Society estimates about 10 million pieces of antiques were taken away from China between 1840 and 1949, during which the country suffered one invasion after another.