My never-ending searches on Baidu have produced some results again. I'll keep posting until the boss catches me...

First up, the Thirteen Emperors Scroll of Yan Liben (閻立本) (c.600-673). More info can be found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yan_Liben. Not much information there, unfortunately...I know that the painting is now in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, USA...how it was stolen (I mean "appropriated") from China I don't know...it shows emperors from the Han through the Sui Dynasties. Here is the link to the paintings: http://hi.baidu.com/%CB%CE%BE%FC%D2%C5%C3%...%F5%CD%BC%BE%ED

More from Yan Liben:

Next up: Court Ladies Preparing Newly-Woven Silk, by Zhang Xuan (張萱) (fl. 713-755). This is a close copy done by Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty. It is also in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. A bit of info about Zhang Xuan can be found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhang_Xuan. Here is the link to the painting: http://www.sh518.cc/bbs/dispbbs.asp?boardid=45&id=9316

More from Zhang Xuan:

Thr rest of the Zhang Xuan painting:

Last (but certainly not least), a scroll painting by the Jin (晉) dynasty master Gu Kaizhi (顧愷之) (c.344-406), entitled Admonitions of the Instructress to the Palace Ladies (女使箴圖), sometimes called the "first masterpiece of Chinese painting". It was looted from the Imperial Palace by the British in 1900, during the bloody aftermath of the Boxer Rebellion. It now resides in the British Museum. Unfortunately, some genius there mounted it incorrectly and now the painting is extremely fragile and cannot be rolled up...info on Gu Kaizhi: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gu_Kaizhi, and the link to the painting: http://hi.baidu.com/%CB%CE%BE%FC%D2%C5%C3%...%CB%E2%FD%D6%AE

The rest of the Gu Kaizhi painting:

Thanks for posting these paintings. They are beautiful!

If these paintings were "stolen" or "looted" by the then European govmts, should they be returned to the original owner, China, today?

I love seeing the extreme close ups of the Court Ladies Preparing Newly-Woven Silk, by Zhang Xuan (張萱).
I never would have guessed the fabric used to paint on was so very course. Concidering the "Canvas" looks more like burlap then what I usually think of as silk, the detail achieved it even more amazing.

The last one was very interesting. Too bad it is in such bad shape. Did you notice the black and red lacquer boxes,cups, bowls, that were in the picture? They remind alot of the lacquer bento and food boxes that the Japanese often use nowadays. I wonder if they are related. I think black and red lacquer was pretty popular during the Han. This painting wasn't done much later.