The Chinese potteries of the Neolithic times kept at Stock-holm's Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, for instance, were gifts from the Qing royal court, he says, and an imperial decree announcing the grant is displayed.

Song Xinchao, deputy director of China's State Administration of Cultural Heritage, says museums at home and abroad have agreed to put aside the disputes over Chinese cultural properties and to strengthen mutual academic studies on them.

He says it will enable more people to understand the value of Chinese relics.

V&A director Martin Roth wrote in the preface to the book that it is built upon studies of precedent scholars.

The V&A book marks only the start of a long march. It has set a good example for the current and future cooperation between the Chinese and foreign museums.

The second volume in the series carefully scans Chinese art at Japan's Sumitomo Izumiya Museum and will soon roll off the press.

The Kyoto-based museum boasts more than 3,000 Chinese bronze wares and paintings.