The reappearance of two lost Chinese ancient treasures, the heads of Buddha and Boahisattva which are being displayed in the art gallery of the Beijing Hotel, have attracted many visitors since Saturday.

The heads, with a history of at least 1,200 years, originally stood in the Longmen Grotto of Central China's Henan Province, which is on the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage List.

The heads, reportedly stolen and transported to foreign countries at the beginning of 1990s, are currently owned by anonymous US and Hong Kong collectors.

Together with the heads, another 14 previously lost treasures are also on display at the exhibition organized by the art gallery of Beijing Hotel and China Foundation for Development of Folklore Culture.

According to Ju Xiaonan, manager of a cultural company under the Beijing Hotel, his company has reached an agreement with collectors that the relics will be sold at lower prices -- compared with the international relics market -- during the exhibition.

"We have done a lot to make the lost relics reappear in Beijing and now, we are in an effort to make the government, organizations or individuals decide to buy them and let them stay in the homeland for ever,'' Ju said.

Yasuyki Aoshima, Beijing UNESCO representative, encouraged the Chinese people to step up their efforts to return the lost relics.

"Today, I've been full of pleasure brought by this old and brilliant Chinese culture,'' said Yasuyki at Saturday's opening ceremony of the exhibition.

There are currently almost 1 million ancient Chinese artifacts on display in more than 200 overseas museums. The Chinese Government has been doing everything it can to retrieve the lost cultural relics over the past few years.

However, some of these museums, including the Louvre Museum, the British Museum and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, issued a joint statement last December, refusing to return such pieces to their original countries. This led to strong protests from many Chinese cultural organizations and experts.

Zhang Yongnian, director of China's lost cultural relics recovery programme, says most of these priceless artifacts now in the possession of overseas museums were plundered during wars.

"We want to retrieve the lost artworks, because they belong to this country and its culture. They originated in China, and China is where they should be, for ever. Their cultural value can be appreciated by the world, but they should be preserved in their home countries,'' said Zhang.

The Chinese Government announced repeatedly that China will never end its search for the lost ancient property. A UNESCO document signed in 1995 says that cultural relics stolen in wars should be returned to their original countries.

Zhang Yongnian says all the relics which were lost through illegal or immoral ways should be returned to their rightful owners, whether they were lost during wartime or not.

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