Loss of National Treasures Abroad -- Catalog Volume

Author: Chen Wenping (Editor)
Publisher:
Publication Date: 2001-01-01
Features: The lost cultural relics and treasures of old China are countless and innumerable, most of which are now collected by public and private museums as well as private collectors in various countries. Many of them are difficult for domestic readers and researchers to access and see. To prevent these Chinese cultural treasures from being lost forever in foreign lands, Shanghai cultural heritage workers, Chen Wenping, who is currently teaching at Shanghai University, spent ten years searching far and wide, tracing and investigating, and for the first time established an archive containing the names, brief descriptions, and destinations of over 10,000 lost cultural relics. He then selected the most important ones for classification and elaboration, ultimately completing the book Treasures Lost Overseas as an important index of overseas Chinese cultural relics. Treasures Lost Overseas is divided into two parts: the "Illustrated Volume" and the "Text Volume." The artifacts featured range from the Neolithic Age to the Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties, spanning from the Western Zhou and Spring and Autumn periods to the Han, Wei, and Jin dynasties. They are categorized into ten major groups: Yuanmingyuan artifacts, Dunhuang and Western Regions artifacts, bronze ware, ceramics, paintings and calligraphy, jade ware, lacquer ware, Buddhist statues, oracle bones and stone inscriptions, and other artifacts. The collection includes major public and private collecting institutions and collectors from countries such as the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, Turkey, Russia, and Japan.