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.

Most of the antiques were stolen by foreigners in the name of research, or looted by invading troops. Even today, countless Chinese antiques are exhibited in overseas museums. Worse, many foreign collectors are proud that their grandfathers or great-grandfathers looted or stole these pieces of history from China.

The estimated 10 million lost antiques are like 10 million scars on the Chinese people, which will not heal until the last piece is returned.

Since its founding, New China has been requesting foreign countries and collectors to return the antiques. Now China has also gathered enough experience to use multiple channels including diplomacy and legal means to get back the stolen and pillaged antiques.

As the exhibition shows, China has got back antiques from the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Italy and Japan. Also, the Chinese authorities in charge of antiques unearthed an antique smuggling racket in Denmark and got the antiques back through legal means.

But the efforts of the State alone are not enough to recover all the estimated 10 million antiques from abroad. The entire society needs to make efforts for that. For example, there are many things ordinary people can do, including informing the antique authorities about any clue they get regarding antiques in foreign lands or about antique smuggling.