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Introduction
This
exhibition, different from previous Dunhuang art shows, is the largest
in scale and the highest in standard and is a concentration of the
cream of Dunhuang arts. Many cultural relics are genuine early Dunhuang
works, and some are even unmatched by those in some foreign museums.
A
huge amount of Dunhuang treasures had lost to some overseas areas
since the discovery of the library. For example, the library originally
had about 50,000 ancient documents, Buddhist sutras, arts and crafts,
but later more than 40,000 of them were looted abroad and only about
8,000 remain in the National Library of China.
According
to statistics, and materials published by other countries, of all
Dunhuang artifacts, about 13,300 pieces are in Britain, 6,000 in
France, 20,000 in Russia, 1,000 in Japan, 25 in the United States,
3 in Germany, and 16 in Denmark. Besides, India, Finland, the Republic
of Korea, Sweden and Australia also have had a large collection
of Dunhuang treasures. All these treasures account for two-thirds
the total founded in the Library Cave. Nowadays, when we study the
Dunhuang documents of our own country, we have to buy microfilms
from abroad. It's actually painful for all the Chinese and Dunhuang
as well.
Here we mainly introduce to you some paintings collected in Britain
and France.
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