ABOVE: It’s an inapt analogy, but the People’s Liberation Army of China is spending vast money and manpower on taking back chinese artifacts from Western collectors. Kind of a reverse Tomb Raider thing.

Reason #3968 to be scared shitless of the Chinese army: after centuries of art pillaging—among many other kinds of pillaging—by Western collectors, China is fighting back with some scary secret-agent shenanigans and a big pile of U.S. money. This article from the International Herald Tribune tags along with a Belgian, Giselle Croes, who has been jetting around buying rare pottery and bronzework in shady deals in shady surroundings on behalf of the People’s Liberation Army and its business arm, Poly Group. China is sitting on more than $700 billion in foreign currency and wants to buy its stuff back. As a consequence, the selling price for the type of items it’s interested in have jumped to record levels.

Croes says that Poly’s vaults contain art worth over $100 million, amassed in less than ten years. That buying spree, says the Tribune, has been at least partly funded by $200 million worth of arms sales by Poly Group in the US. The drive to reclaim thousands of pieces of Chinese art, representing pieces from 3,000 BCE to the present day, is being directed with military enthusiasm by the Zong Chan Second Division, a squad of elite officers who are directing the movements of dealers around the world, just like Ms. Croes. They’re ready to make offers you can’t refuse.

LINK: International Herald Tribune > China is racing to get its art treasures back