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South Korea hands Qing dynasty marble lion sculptures back to China
The lions, each about 1.9 meters tall and 1.25 tonnes, were transferred under an agreement reached during Lee Jae Myung’s January visit to Beijing.
South Korea has returned a pair of Qing dynasty marble sculptures, a male and a female lion, to China as part of a cultural diplomacy effort to repair bilateral ties. The handover took place in Seoul on Thursday, with the sculptures to depart for China on Friday, according to the Chinese embassy, following decades on public display at the Kansong Art Museum entrance.
The lions each stand about 1.9 meters tall and weigh 1.25 tonnes, and Chinese and South Korean experts identified them as Qing era artefacts carved from marble quarried in northern China. Senior cultural officials and diplomats from both countries attended the ceremony.
The transfer implements an agreement signed in the presence of President Xi Jinping and South Korean President Lee Jae Myung during Lee’s visit to Beijing in January. A plan to return the sculptures was previously considered more than a decade ago but was shelved amid strained relations after South Korea deployed a US THAAD missile defense system in 2016, which Beijing viewed as a security threat.
Momentum for the handback improved alongside noticeably better ties after Lee took office in 2025, the outlet notes. According to SCMP Economy, the cultural transfer underscores the role of symbolic gestures as diplomacy between the two countries has moved toward stabilization.