Karin Hindsbo, director of the Kode Art Museum in Bergen, Norway. Provided by China Daily

She added there is also an increasingly large amount of attention in Norway in the museum’s Chinese collections and the collaboration.

The Kode Art Museum has a collection of 4,000 Chinese artifacts, which is considered a large number for a Scandinavian country. To better protect the collection, it is performing repairs on the building where the columns are being shown. Zhongkun Group donated 10 million Norwegian kroner ($1.67 million) to the museum to help with those repairs.

Asked about the future return of other cultural relics to their original countries, which is under heated discussion, Hindsbo said, “It’s important to talk about the issue and keep the discussion going.”

Academic experts from both countries believe the trilateral cooperation could start a new mode for returning items to their original owners. Through the return, the series of cultural exchanges and academic collaborations has also been launched, which is why Hindsbo and her team are in China.