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China announced it arrested 26 suspects and retrieved nearly 650 cultural relics stolen from an ancient burial site in northwestern Qinghai province, the Ministry of Public Security said.
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Chinese experts believe that many of the recovered items are of "tremendous historical value" that demonstrate cultural interactions between the East and the West during the early days of the Tang Dynasty (619-907 A.D.) state media Xinhua stated.
The arrests follow an investigation that began last year. Investigators say they believe that the alleged criminals illegally excavated the items from the Dulan tombs, located along the ancient Silk Road, subsequently selling the cultural artifacts on the black market.
A police official told China's CCTV on Sunday that the criminals, two of whom were on the police's "most wanted" list were asking for 80 million yuan ($11.6 million) for the stolen treasures.
Of the 646 items found, 16 were categorized as first-class cultural relics, according to a government official.
The World Monuments Fund says that ancient silks textiles and clothing have been found within the Dulan tombs. Precious metal artifacts made from gold, silver, and bronze have also been excavated among the 2,000 tombs since 1982.
China has announced it wants to revitalize its portion of the Silk Road was a trade and cultural route that linked civilizations from China, Korea, Japan, India, Iran, Europe, northern Africa and Arabia starting 2,000 years ago until its decline in about 1700.
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