Yet while the question of returning the Dunhuang treasures has arisen several times - the Chinese Worker's Daily carried a campaign for their return several years ago - Chinese authorities have never formally brought up the issue of the Dunhuang treasures.
"Unfortunately, my opinion is that they happen so often, almost on a daily basis, that they have lost their meaning, " private sector worker Dmitris Papastathis told the Associated Press news agency in central Athens.