National Gallery of Australia Returns Two Northern Song Tomb Stone Heads: China's Heritage Administration Receives Them in Canberra
The National Gallery of Australia has returned two lost Chinese cultural relics, and China's National Cultural Heritage Administration received them at a ceremony in Canberra on October 29. The two pieces are the head of a military official statue from Yongyu Mausoleum and the head of a civil official statue from Yongchang Mausoleum, both Northern Song imperial tombs in Henan, carved from limestone.
According to Xinhua, Tang Wei, deputy head of the National Cultural Heritage Administration, Chinese Ambassador to Australia Liu Jinsong, and National Gallery of Australia Director Nick Mitzevich attended the handover ceremony and delivered remarks, joined by representatives from Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the federal arts authorities.
The dimensions were released with the handover: the Yongyu military official's head stands 68 centimeters tall and weighs 132 kilograms, while the Yongchang civil official's head is 70 centimeters tall and weighs 223 kilograms. Both mausoleums form part of the Northern Song imperial tomb complex in Henan, whose stone statuary is key physical evidence of Song dynasty imperial burial practice.
The recovery effort began in 2025, when the heritage administration worked with the Ministry of Public Security and Henan cultural relics and public security departments to investigate and compile evidence, then submitted a memorandum to the National Gallery of Australia requesting the return.
The return was achieved under the framework of the 1970 UNESCO Convention, the 2009 China-Australia intergovernmental memorandum of understanding on cultural property protection, and the gallery's 2021 due diligence and provenance research policy, with close cooperation between the heritage administration and the Chinese Embassy in Australia.
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：位于堪培拉的澳大利亚国家美术馆本馆建筑。图片来源：Wikimedia Commons，CC BY-SA。 / Photo: The National Gallery of Australia building in Canberra. Via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA.
