China was alleged looting of Tibet by Congressman Dana Rohrabacher, a conservative Republican and a long-standing critic of China's human rights record. The Congressman has announced he will lead an investigation into what he suspects was the systematic looting of Tibetan art and objects by Chinese authorities since the 1949 Communist revolution. The inquiry coincided with a high profile auction in Beijing of artefacts that previously belonged to Tibetan monasteries bought by leading Taiwan-based collector Wang Du. The auctioneers, Chengming, claim that the 32 items sold on 17 September left China before 1949.
The Congressman will investigate alleged Chinese looting with the help of an exiled senior Tibetan monk, Rinbur Tulku, who has written in his biography about the destruction of Lhasa's Johkang temple and Ganden monastery during the Cultural Revolution and who helped retrieve some Tibetan religious treasures in China in 1982. (Source: James MacDonald, The Art Newspaper, Nov. 2, 2005).
Some experts consider Congressman's intended investigation paranoid and discriminatory. They point out: First, the auctioned items were taken before 1949, the founding year of the People's Republic of China. Second, there is no evidence that Chinese government has looted Tibetan religious treasurers. Third, he is silent on the looting of Chinese treasures by eight foreign nations that invaded Beijing in the late eighteen century.