Precious best placed into the safest hands

"One example involves two groups of bronze chime bells known as bianzhong. The Met had initially wanted a set that had been on permanent display in a museum in East China but was refused. So we suggested another set unearthed in a major archaeological discovery in southwestern China in 2015. It was accepted. One way we made our contribution was by making suggestions for replacements based on our knowledge about what we had and our understanding of the show's motif. Sometimes what we finally came up with proved a better choice than what was originally asked for."

Since 1980, the year of the Met's first major exhibition with Chinese institutions, the Great Bronze Age of China, the museum has not only mounted 18 exhibitions with works from China but has also taken part in eight exhibitions in China by lending to Chinese museums, Sun says.

"This is undoubtedly a result of China's rapid development as well as the increasing willingness of both sides to work together."

Sun says he believes the Met show is about China and more.

"It helps audiences to compare and understand by placing China's history of civilization in the larger context of the world's history of civilization. The contact between China and the rest of the world, especially the connections and interactions between the Qin and Han dynasties and the Greco-Roman world, helps bring the exhibition close to the audience. China of the Qin and Han times is no longer a remote and unknown land but an integral part of the entire world, and has inextricable ties with the West in many ways."

Echoing Sun, Qian also mentions the "pottery lamp with three tiers and multiple branches".

"A whole team of about 20 people spent an entire morning dismantling and packing this one item after the exhibition ended. If I remember rightly, three of them were responsible for opening the glass cabinet where the lamp had been showing, followed by a few others who did the dismantling. Every single part taken down was quickly handed to another person who put it on a tray that could be wheeled around on the specially designed cart.

"The whole process reminded me of a scene in an operating theater, with the scalpel being passed between doctor and nurse, who have developed a tremendous deal of tacit understanding with one another other.

"In a sense, they were all narrators of a Chinese story."