澳大利亚将两件流失海外30余年的石雕归还中国。这两尊石像为一文一武官员的头部雕像，由一位私人收藏家捐赠给位于堪培拉的澳大利亚国家美术馆，其年代可追溯至北宋（960—1127年）。
Australia has returned two stone sculptures to China after more than 30 years abroad. The statues, showing the heads of a military official and civil servant, had been given to the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra by a private collector and date back to the Northern Song dynasty (960–1127).
据中国国家电视台央视报道，中国国家文物局于周三接收了这两尊石像首。
China’s National Cultural Heritage Administration received the heads on Wednesday, according to the state broadcaster CCTV.
据澳大利亚国家美术馆介绍，这两尊石像被认为是在20世纪90年代从河南省的两座皇陵中被盗走的。
They are thought to have been removed from two imperial mausoleums in Henan province in the 1990s, according to the Australian gallery.
北宋九位皇帝中有七位葬于该陵区，陵区内设有官员雕像和石兽，象征皇朝的权威。
Seven of the nine emperors from the dynasty are buried at the site, which featured statues of officials and stone animals as a symbol of the imperial court’s authority.
20世纪80年代和90年代，非法贩运古代文物在中国是一个严重问题。
Illegal trafficking of ancient cultural artefacts was a serious problem in China during the 1980s and 1990s.
据布鲁斯·多尔1999年发表在美国考古学会刊物《考古学》杂志上的一篇论文，20世纪90年代中后期，北宋皇陵有九尊石像首被盗。
Nine stone statue heads were stolen from the Northern Song mausoleums in the mid to late Nineties, according to a 1999 paper by Bruce Doar published in Archaeology magazine, a publication of the Archaeological Institute of America.
根据澳大利亚国家美术馆的记录，在经历了一段“其下落、归属和流转方式均不明”的时期后，这两件雕塑于1995年由一位私人收藏家捐赠给该馆。
After a period during which their “location, ownership and method of transfer were unknown”, the two sculptures were donated to the National Gallery of Australia in 1995 by a private collector, according to the gallery’s records.
2024年中国国务院总理李强访问澳大利亚并会见总理安东尼·阿尔巴尼斯时，两国同意加强文化交流——这是自2017年以来中国总理首次访澳。
The two countries agreed to boost cultural exchanges when Chinese Premier Li Qiang visited Australia in 2024 and met Prime Minister Anthony Albanese – the first visit of its kind since 2017.
下个月，一场澳大利亚原住民艺术展将在中国国家博物馆展出；今年12月，中国的兵马俑将在澳大利亚国家美术馆展出。
An exhibition of indigenous Australian artworks will go on display in the National Museum of China next month, while China’s terracotta warriors will go on show in the Australian gallery in December.
中国驻澳大使刘劲松还于9月参观了澳大利亚国家博物馆，使馆称此行体现了刘劲松对此类交流的“浓厚热情”。
Chinese ambassador Liu Jinsong also visited the National Museum of Australia in September, a trip that the embassy said was a mark of “his keen enthusiasm” for such exchanges.