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Liu Zhen

South Korea has returned a pair of Qing dynasty (1644-1911) marble sculptures to China, a symbolic gesture as the two nations work to repair bilateral ties through cultural diplomacy.
The male and female lions, each standing 1.9 metres (6ft) tall and weighing 1.25 tonnes, were officially handed over by the Kansong Art Museum at a ceremony in Seoul on Thursday and were set to depart for China on Friday, according to the Chinese embassy.
Senior cultural officials and diplomats from both nations attended the handover of the lions, which have stood at the museum’s entrance for more than eight decades.
The ceremony marked the implementation of an agreement signed in the presence of President Xi Jinping and his South Korean counterpart Lee Jae Myung during the latter’s visit to Beijing in January.
According to local media reports, the museum considered returning the sculptures more than a decade ago. The plan was shelved amid strained bilateral relations after the 2016 deployment of a US THAAD missile defence system in South Korea, viewed by Beijing as a security threat.

Momentum for the return of the sculptures – identified by Chinese and South Korean experts as Qing dynasty artefacts carved from marble quarried in northern China – gathered pace with the noticeably improved bilateral ties since Lee took office in 2025.
Dai Bing, the Chinese ambassador to South Korea, said the return of the lions “vividly demonstrates the friendship between China and South Korea as close neighbours based on mutual respect and trust”.
“It also reflects our shared commitment to remembering and carrying forward our common history of resistance against Japanese aggression,” he told the ceremony on Thursday.
Experts believe the lions’ “high historical, artistic and scientific value” indicates they stood guard at an imperial residence before they were taken to Japan in the early 20th century during the Japanese invasions of China and South Korea, according to South Korean media.
The statues were acquired at an auction in Osaka in 1933 by Korean art collector Jeon Hyeong-pil, founder of the Kansong museum.
China has stepped up efforts in recent years to recover cultural relics that were lost during the invasions and wars of the 19th and early 20th centuries.
For instance, as tensions with Japan remain high, the official People’s Daily has called on Tokyo to return the Tang Honglu Well Stele, a stone monument that was looted from northeast China by the Japanese military in the early 20th century.
The relic, weighing 9.5 tonnes, was erected in Liaoning province in AD714 during the height of the Tang dynasty (618-907). It is currently housed in the Japanese Imperial Palace.


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Experts believe the marble sculptures guarded an imperial residence before they were taken by Japanese invaders in the early 20th century


Experts believe the marble sculptures guarded an imperial residence before they were taken by Japanese invaders in the early 20th century.


South Korea returns looted Qing dynasty lions to China in cultural diplomacy win

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Experts believe the marble sculptures guarded an imperial residence before they were taken by Japanese invaders in the early 20th century

Experts believe the marble sculptures guarded an imperial residence before they were taken by Japanese invaders in the early 20th century