A ceremony was held on February 28 in Indianapolis, Indiana to return to China 361 items or sets of cultural relics, the largest ever return of cultural objects organized between the US and China.
According to the Xinhua News Agency, those smuggled articles were confiscated by the FBI in April 2014. They date from the Neolithic period all the way to the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). Most were burial utensils made of stone, bronze, wood, jade and porcelain.
The return was based on a Sino-US memorandum of understanding on restricting the import of Chinese cultural relics which was first inked in January 2009 and has been renewed twice. The US has already returned more than 4,000 objects.
Old Version
