Digital homecoming for a buried city's lost masterpieces

A remarkable collection of art, lost for centuries in the sands of the Gobi Desert before being taken to Russia, has been digitally reunited and is now on display in China for the first time.

An exhibition at the Inner Mongolia Museum in Hohhot, Inner Mongolia autonomous region, is showcasing high-definition reproductions of 197 paintings from the ancient Heishui City (Black Water City), also known by its Mongolian name, Khara-Khoto, which was once a Silk Road outpost.

The original artworks, discovered by a Russian explorer more than a century ago, have been housed in The State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg ever since.

The exhibition, titled Black Water City Treasures: Russian-collected Paintings from Khara-Khoto, offers a rare glimpse into the rich, blended cultures of the Xixia (1038-1227) and Yuan (1271-1368) dynasties. It is until March 15.

The story begins with Heishui City, once a thriving military and trading center now buried in the deserts of Inner Mongolia. Between 1908 and 1909, Russian adventurer Pyotr Kozlov unearthed a Buddhist shrine outside the city that contained a vast trove of manuscripts, textiles and artworks — a find compared to discovering an entire library.

Among the treasures were over 300 exquisite paintings. They were taken to Russia and entered the collection of The State Hermitage Museum, where they remained, largely unseen by the public in their land of origin.

The 197 reproductions on display were created as part of the book series, A Comprehensive Collection of Ancient Chinese Paintings, which has digitally cataloged Chinese art housed in 263 museums, galleries and cultural institutions both in and outside China.