Tax is the main obstacle to reclaiming Chinese cultural relics

A sculpture of a horse's head from Beijing's Yuanmingyuan Garden was reclaimed in 2007. [File photo]

The Chinese auction market also lacks mature control, while artifact insurance system is far from perfect. All these contribute to the difficulty in reclaiming cultural relics.

"The outlook of China's domestic antique market remains murky. It remains unclear whether antique holders are willing to sell; and if they are, whether they can obtain rewarding prices. What's more, a lack of regulation in the Chinese antique market compared to overseas markets could also hurt seller confidence," Ou added.

To solve these problems, China established in early July a special platform to facilitate the reclaiming and trade of cultural relics lost overseas..

The new platform, established at the National Base for International Cultural Trade, will leverage the base's preferential policies to display and trade cultural relics and provide services that include relic identification, preservation, storage and delivery. Chinese museums, state-owned antique shops and private collectors can use the platform to purchase or retrieve lost cultural relics based overseas.

Though the Chinese government turned its attention to boost reclamation of cultural relics, the present situation is still difficult, according to experts and collectors. They suggested that China needs to revise its laws and regulations regarding antique trading as soon as possible.