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The recent theft of some 2,000 Chinese artifacts has sparked calls for the British Museum to return Chinese artifacts to the country’s social media.
The request became the most trending topic on Weibo after an editorial in a state-run nationalist newspaper.
In an article published Sunday evening, the Global Times called on the museum to return all Chinese cultural relics “free of charge.”
The Chinese government has yet to comment on the issue.
The BBC has reached out to the British Museum for comment, but has not yet received a response.
The museum has come under pressure after about 2,000 items were reported “lost, stolen or damaged” two weeks ago.
A staff member was laid off when the news first broke. Last week, board member Hartwig Fischer also announced he was stepping down.
In an article, the Global Times argued that the world-famous museum had failed to adequately manage “foreign cultural relics.”
“The major loopholes in the management and security of the British Museum’s artifacts exposed by this scandal have led to the collapse of the long-held claim that ‘foreign artifacts are better protected at the British Museum’. ‘,’ said the paper. Read editorials.
The British Museum has the largest collection of Chinese antiquities in the West.According to the website, about 23,000 Chinese artifacts from the Neolithic period to the present day.
These include a wide range of valuables such as paintings, prints, jades, bronzes and pottery. One of his most famous is a copy of a scroll called “Instructor’s Advice to Court Ladies”, considered a landmark masterpiece in Chinese art history.
This is not the first time that Chinese netizens have asked the British Museum to return artifacts in the face of rising nationalist sentiment in recent years.
But this time, editorials about the theft sparked even more buzz.
The hashtag “British Museum please return Chinese antiquities” topped Weibo’s search charts by noon local time on Monday. It has been played over 500 million times.
The comment “Please return the item to its original owner” has been liked more than 32,000 times.
Another top comment said, “Now that the country is rich and the people are strong, it’s time to bring our treasure home.”
While tens of thousands supported the Global Times’ request, others were less impressed.
“Would you like to travel to the UK in search of our treasures? Just shouting on Weibo in the country is just pretending to be safe and shameless,” he said with more than 10,000 likes. It is written in the post that was made.
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The Global Times, known for its hawkish views, has been at the forefront of English-language editorials attacking the West, especially in recent years as relations between China and the West have deteriorated.
It is not clear whether the Chinese government will take any action in response to the call.
But calling on museums to return artifacts is not a sentiment unique to China.
In the wake of news of the theft, other countries have also said the British Museum can no longer be trusted with antiquities.
The Greek government, which has been demanding the return of the Parthenon sculptures, also known as the Elgin Marbles, has reiterated its demands this week.
Minister of Culture of Greece, Lina Mendoni was quoted as saying The security question raised by the lost property “reinforces our country’s enduring and justifiable demand for the definitive return” of the Elgin marble, he said.
Nigerian authorities also asked the museum to return Benin bronzes stolen from the Kingdom of Benin, which is now in its territory.
Conservative MP Tim Laughton, chairman of the museum’s all-party parliamentary group, called the demands “opportunistic”.
He told the BBC that other countries should “mobilize to help recover the goods rather than try to take advantage of them”.