Fifteen years ago, a group of treasure hunters uncovered 24 spiralling, solid gold bracelets from the remains of Sarmizegetusa Regia, a site in Romania's central mountainous area that was the capital of Dacia, a once mighty kingdom until it was destroyed by the Romans in about AD 106.

 

The bracelets were traded in Europe and the United States via an international criminal network. It took Romanian authorities almost a decade to find and bring home 11 of the looted items, with the help of museums.

 

The returned heirlooms of Dacian culture are now with Romanian museums, and one of them has just arrived at the National Museum of China, for public viewing.