U.S. returns 58 smuggled cultural objects to China: Bodhisattva sculptures and a 120-million-year-old dinosaur skeleton

The United States has returned 58 important cultural heritage objects to China, at a ceremony held on September 16, 2026 at the Embassy of China in Washington, as ICE announces. The handover was carried out by the Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) unit of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), in cooperation with nine of its offices, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Department of State and Customs and Border Protection.

Among the returned objects are two Bodhisattva sculptures, one of which comes from the Tianlongshan caves in China’s Shanxi province — an area looted and trafficked abroad more than 100 years ago — terracotta statues of horsemen, as well as the complete skeleton of a Psittacosaurus, a small beaked dinosaur that lived 105–120 million years ago. The group also includes fossilised dinosaur bones and eggs.

The day after the ceremony, six additional bronze objects were returned to China by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, according to the same announcement. The news was also covered in ARTnews’ “Morning Links” column on October 2, 2026.

The return takes place under the bilateral agreement signed between the U.S. and China in 2014 on the protection of Chinese cultural heritage, which is renewed every five years — most recently in 2024. Since 2009, HSI has returned more than 120 cultural heritage objects to China.

According to HSI, investigations into art smuggling aim to stop the illegal trade in antiquities — a market that often finances criminal activity — and to return heritage to its rightful owners. China’s ambassador to the U.S., Xie Feng, called the handover “a new chapter” in relations between the two countries.