The British Museum last year announced an agreement to collaborate with China – a move which they suggest is beneficial for both parties.

Following from this, the British Museum is lending artefacts to Shanghai for a major temporary exhibition. It would appear that the British Museum is willing to loan artefacts when it suits their aims – but at the same time have denied any requests in the past for the loan of any of the Parthenon sculptures to Greece.

From:
Shanghai Daily

City museum set to display ancient relics
Wang Jie
2006-06-13

PRECIOUS carvings, utensils, garments and other artifacts from ancient Assyria were uncrated yesterday at Shanghai Museum in preparation for an exhibition that will run from July 1 to October 7.

The 251 relics to be displayed are on loan from the British Museum.

“The collection was exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York a decade ago and has not been outside the British Museum since then,” said Shanghai Museum spokesman Li Feng.

“Due to renovations at the British Museum, we are able to bring these relics to Shanghai.”

Originating 3,000 years ago, the Assyrian Civilization stretched from the Mediterranean Sea across Arabia and Armenia and reached its zenith between the ninth and seventh centuries BC.

“The highlights of this exhibition are 30 stone carvings,” Li said. “The biggest weighs around 4.3 tons.”

In 1999, the Shanghai Museum staged another show drawing on artifacts from the British Museum, an Egyptian relics exhibition that attracted nearly 630,000 visitors.