NEW YORK: Zhou Dezhao cannot afford to buy back looted artifacts like the Qing Dynasty relics that sold for $40 million at auction in Paris last month.

But the 51-year-old antique dealer has found another way to bring pieces of China's heritage home. Zhou founded the American Chinese Collectors Association (ACCA) nine years ago, and helped organize the first-ever auction in China of relics from overseas.

In December 2004, the ACCA and Shanghai's Guotai auction house teamed up to bring back 300 paintings, porcelains, and jade items. About half of the relics sold at auction and have been returned to China.

"Our Association does not have the resources to donate those looted Chinese relics, but we will try our best to find other ways, like holding auctions in China with reasonable prices, to get them back where they belong," Zhou said.

Zhou has been in the antiques business for more than 25 years. He moved to the US 12 years ago and was surprised at the level of interest in Chinese antiques.

"There are so many people from all walks of life, Chinese, Chinese Americans, and local Americans, who are collectors of Chinese antiques," he said.

But what surprised him most was the number of looted antiques from China that were for sale in the US and around the world.

"It was hard for me, a Chinese, to see those relics from different dynasties of China at auction. I think it would be hard for any Chinese," Zhou said.

"Any Chinese would wonder why these spectacular items are being offered for sale overseas instead of being displayed in a Chinese museum."

The number of Chinese relics that have been removed from China is anyone's guess.

The Chinese Culture Relics Society estimates that more than one million cultural relics have been taken overseas since the Opium Wars (1839-1860).

According to UNESCO (the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation), some 1.67 million pieces of Chinese relics are housed in more than 200 museums in 47 countries abroad. The number of relics in private hands could be much greater, according to professor Li Jianmin of the Institute of Archeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

Under the 1995 United Nations Unidroit Convention, claims to stolen cultural artifacts must be filed within 50 years of their removal.

Recently, the bronze heads of a rat and a rabbit, stolen from the Old Summer Palace in 1860, were put up for sale by Christie's auction house in Paris.

China's State Administration of Cultural Heritage objected strongly, but the auction went on as planned. A Chinese bidder, Cai Mingchao, won the auction with a bid of $40 million, but then refused to pay.

"It (the auction) was such an insult to our country. Those items were removed through pure theft," said Li.

At a subsequent news conference, Cai said his motive was pure patriotism.

"I can understand how Mr. Cai felt, but it probably was not the best way to do it," said Zhao.

(China Daily 04/13/2009 page7)