Warriors a worry, says China

SUPPOSEDLY ancient Chinese terracotta warriors on show at a German museum are fakes, China confirmed yesterday, condemning the organizers for cheating the public.

The Hamburg Museum of Ethnology has offered refunds to about 10,000 visitors who have already viewed the "Power in Death" exhibition since it opened on November 25 as police probe the authenticity of the warriors, Reuters reported yesterday.

The display of eight clay warrior figures, two horses and 60 smaller objects has remained open but with a sign stating that its authenticity was in dispute.

The Shaanxi Province Cultural Heritage Bureau in Xi'an, home of the 2,200-year-old terracotta army, said it was "outraged" because it had not sent any original terracotta warriors to Germany recently.

"All the items on show in Hamburg are reproductions," the bureau said in a strongly worded statement on its Website (www.wenwu.gov.cn).

"We were completely unaware of the exhibition. It is a very serious act cheating the media and the public," the statement said, dismissing reports that the administration had been one of the sponsors.

The show should be closed immediately and the public told the truth to eliminate the "extremely negative impact" caused, it added.

"We will pursue legal action against anyone who uses reproductions as exhibits of Chinese artifacts."

Unearthed in 1974 by farmers digging a well, the Terracotta Army guarded the tomb of Qin Shihuang, China's first emperor who unified the country in 221 BC.

A Hamburg museum spokeswoman said on Tuesday that the museum believed the figures were real because they had asked their partner in the exhibition to provide artifacts reconstructed from pieces found at the site near Xi'an.

According to Reuters, a spokesman for the museum's partner, the Center of Chinese Art and Culture in Markkleeberg, said the figures had been obtained from public authorities, institutes and businesses in China. Their Chinese partners did not say the figures were real, he said.

The biggest current overseas loan of Chinese terracotta figures is on display at the British Museum in London. Its "First Emperor" exhibition contains 120 artifacts.

The terracotta army buried around the mausoleum of Qin Shihuang was one of the greatest archaeological finds of modern times.