Tomb of Wang Chuzhi

The Tomb of Wang Chuzhi (Chinese 王處直墓 / 王处直墓 Wang Chizhi mu) is the grave of Wang Chuzhi (863–923 CE), a senior military governor of the late period of the Tang dynasty and the Later Liang from the time of the Five Dynasties. It was rediscovered in 1980 in Xiyanchuan village in Quyang district of the Chinese province of Hebei.

The grave was robbed in July 1994 because of the high artistic level of its wall paintings and reliefs which are of great historical value. Thieves used dynamite to blast their way into the tomb before removing several painted marble relief panels. The tomb was subsequently excavated officially in 1995. One of the panels was advertised for sale in a Christie's New York Fine Chinese Ceramics, Paintings and Works of Art auction catalogue in 2000. It was seized by US Customs in response to a request made by the Chinese authorities and the stolen panel was returned to China in 2001, and is now on display at the National Museum of China in Beijing.^[1]