Photo: Screenshot from CCTV

Police in Northwest China's Shaanxi Province  have offered a reward of 1 million yuan ($143,000) for information leading to the recovery of two stone lions stolen from a Tang Dynasty (618-907) imperial tomb complex, state broadcaster CCTV reported on Wednesday.

The limestone lions were stolen in 2010 from the Jianling Mausoleum, the tomb of Emperor Suzong of the Tang Dynasty, in Liquan county, Shaanxi Province. The mausoleum is a national-level protected cultural heritage site.

The two lions, which stood at the entrance to the imperial tomb complex, are each about 1.5 meters high and 1.3 meters long, with a chest width of about 0.8 meters. Each weighs about 2 metric tons, according to CCTV.

The Jianling Mausoleum covers about 150,000 square meters and is built along a mountainous and rugged landscape, making routine patrols difficult.

"We have only four staff members, and it takes four hours just to make one round," Zhang Ruifeng, director of the Jianling Cultural Heritage Management Office, told CCTV.

Local villagers have also helped protect the site, allowing other stone statues to remain in place. But the two lions at the eastern gate were located in a relatively remote area and were stolen under the cover of darkness in 2010.

To aid the search, CCTV News worked with Xi'an University of Technology（XUT） to digitally reconstruct the lions and project their images at the original site, creating a virtual return for the sculptures after their disappearance.

"The relationship between the lions and the surrounding mountains reveals the significance of the cultural relics," Zhang Hui, director of the university's Research Center for Digital Preservation and Development of Cultural Heritage at XUT, told CCTV. "It is as if we can see the dignity and vitality that history has bestowed on them over thousands of years."

The digital reconstruction has helped draw more public attention to the search.

Wang Zhuo, head of the criminal investigation squad's visual investigation unit at the Xianyang Public Security Bureau, said that the lions have several identifying features.

One of the lions has a horizontal marking on its chest, while the other bears four Chinese characters on its chest and an inscription on its leg reading "July 11," according to Wang.

The search for the two stone lions is still ongoing, CCTV reported.

Global Times