China's Lost Cultural Relics Recovery Fund, a non-governmental organization (NGO), will send a team of "treasure hunters" to various parts of the world in a bid to recover Chinese relics and treasures.
   
First stop for the team is Japan. The team will scour flea markets, shops and possibly even private collections between May 3 and 9.
   
Relics experts will accompany the team to provide professional advice on any items found, according to Niu Xianfeng, a member of staff of the Fund.
   
The Fund estimates that 10 million pieces of Chinese curios, relics and treasures have been lost to overseas markets over the decades, and many have found their way into private collections.
   
Set up in October 2002, the Fund collects information, raises funds and buys back relics that it finds overseas.
   
Some of the treasures that the Fund has recovered include a bronze sculpture of a pig's head that was a feature of the imperial Yuanming Yuan, the imperial garden that was destroyed by British and French troops in 1860, and two precious Buddha head sculptures that were pillaged from the Longmen Grottoes.

After Japan, the Fund plans to organize a team to Europe, but no details are as yet available.

(Xinhua News Agency March 13, 2006)