Australia returns two Song dynasty statue heads to China

Two stone guardians from imperial tombs

According to Archaeology Magazine, which relays information from China Daily, Australian authorities handed back to China the heads of two statues dating from the Northern Song dynasty. They depict, respectively, a senior civil official and a military officer, two typical figures of the Chinese imperial court, whose image accompanied dignitaries in death.

These sculptures had a funerary role: placed at the entrances of tombs, they watched over the deceased, in a tradition where the afterlife mirrored the administrative and military order of the world of the living. Their presence in mausoleums is a key element for understanding the funerary practices of the period, as well as the hierarchy of the functions they represented.

Looted mausoleums of Kaifeng

According to the reports, the statue of the civil official came from the Yongchang mausoleum, while the statue of the military officer came from the Yongyu mausoleum. These sites lie near Kaifeng, capital of the Northern Song dynasty, a city that was a major political, commercial and cultural centre of medieval China.

The looting of such sites has caused many elements of their funerary decor to disappear, scattering the pieces across the international art market. The heads, detached from their bodies, illustrate the fragmentation typical of stolen objects, which makes their identification and reconstruction particularly difficult.

A 1995 acquisition and a 2025 request

According to the same source, the National Gallery of Australia acquired these sculptures in 1995. It was only thirty years later that Chinese authorities made their request for restitution. The State Administration of Cultural Heritage of China indeed sought their return in 2025, which led to the handover of the pieces in Canberra.

This delay illustrates the difficulty, for countries of origin, of locating and establishing the provenance of objects that left their territory several decades ago. It also shows that Western museums are increasingly called upon to verify the origin of their Asian art collections, acquired at a time when such questions were less scrutinised.

Research, conservation and memory

For the Chinese ambassador to Australia, Liu Jinsong, this return is not an end. "This is not the end of their story," he said, instead pointing to a new beginning for research, conservation and the promotion of cultural heritage.

The returned heads can now be studied in their original context, that of the Kaifeng tombs. This reintegration will help clarify the dating, craftsmanship and place of these figures in Song funerary art, by comparing them with the remains still in situ.

Kaifeng, a capital on the Yellow River

Kaifeng holds an important place in Chinese history. As capital of the Northern Song dynasty, the city was exposed to the floods of the Yellow River, whose waters shaped its fate. Archaeology Magazine refers to its report "Bridge to the Past" on the city's excavations, which explores this relationship between prosperity and calamity.

To go further into this context, readers can consult the Chinese collections of major art and archaeology museums, as well as publications on the imperial necropolises of the Song dynasty, which help place these statues within their historical environment.