Visitors wear VR sets for exhibitions at the Wei and Jin Dynasties Ancient Tombs Site Museum in Kuqa City, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, July 15, 2024. An underground museum of the Wei and Jin dynasties 220-420 ancient tombs opened on Monday in Kuqa County, an area that previously belonged to the ancient Qiuci State. The Qiuci State, which commenced in the second century BC and existed for more than 1,000 years, was one of the 36 states in the Western Regions, a term used in the Han Dynasty 206 BC-220 AD for areas west of the Yumen Pass, including present Xinjiang and parts of Central Asia. This in-situ museum with an exhibition space of 5,000 square meters was built to protect 15 brick tomb chambers discovered in 2007 during the construction of the Youyi Road underground pass. The discovery was one of China's top ten new archaeological discoveries that year. The tomb complex was built in consistence with the Han Dynasty style brick-chambered tombs found in the central China region and along the Hexi Corridor, stretching over a distance of nearly 1,000 kilometers in northwest China's Gansu Province, which is home to five UNESCO World Heritage Sites and 53 grottoes. The museum makes full use of the original appearance of the tombs, as well as digital exhibition, VR technology and touch screens to offer the audience an immersive experience of the ancient Qiuci. (Photo by Ding Lei/Xinhua via Getty Images)


On Monday, UNESCO, the cultural arm of the United Nations, launched the world’s first digital museum of stolen cultural objects, which lists 1000’s of artifacts that may be seen in 3D type.  

The initiative was launched at UNESCO’s World Convention on Cultural Insurance policies and Sustainable Improvement in Barcelona. The digital museum was designed by the architect Francis Kéré in collaboration with the Worldwide Legal Police Group (Interpol). Funding for the challenge was offered by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. 

UNESCO mentioned in an announcement that the museum “was developed in response to the decision of [UN] member states for a coordinated technique to boost consciousness on illicit trafficking.” The assertion added that “UNESCO’s 1970 Conference calls on signatory states to fight the illicit commerce in cultural property—a market that Interpol warns is more and more dominated by organized legal networks.” 

The museum is organized by geographic area and divided into sections together with “Auditorium,” which explains the goal of the initiative: “To guard the world’s widespread heritage and struggle in opposition to the looting and illicit trafficking of cultural property.”

Within the “stolen cultural objects gallery,” customers can view objects equivalent to a bronze Buddha statue made throughout China’s Ming Dynasty (1368–1644 CE), and a Syrian gold pendant (120 CE) looted from the Palmyra Museum. The “return and restitution room” offers info on how objects had been recovered. Amongst these objects is a trilobite fossil that was repatriated to Morocco by Chilean customs in 2024. 

Audrey Azoulay, the director basic of UNESCO, mentioned in an announcement: “Behind each stolen work or fragment lies a bit of historical past, id and humanity that has been wrenched from its custodians, rendered inaccessible to analysis, and now dangers falling into oblivion. Our goal with that is to put these works again within the highlight, and to revive the appropriate of societies to entry their heritage, expertise it, and acknowledge themselves in it.” 

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