A two-day major international symposium was launched at Renmin University of China on Thursday in Beijing to explore frontier issues in international cultural heritage law.

The 60-odd scholars from universities, government officials, and museum operators from China, France, the United Kingdom, Australia and other nations gathered for the occasion.

Based on cases in these countries, they exchanged ideas on laws and policies for the return of cultural property taken during colonial control or foreign invasions from the 19th to mid-20th century.

A focus at the symposium is how to handle the return of cultural properties taken abroad during World War II and relevant legal disputes. The attendees at the symposium have called for the adoption of diverse channels in the recovery of lost cultural objects to solve the problems left by history.

This marks the inaugural symposium under the cooperative framework of Renmin University, University of Toulouse, University of Kent, and University of Technology Sydney. Follow-up symposiums further exploring issues in this field will be held in rotation among the four universities to better provide references for China's legislature on related issues in a global context.

Since 2011, Renmin University of China and University of Auvergne in France have also taken turns to host symposiums on new development trends of cultural heritage laws in the two countries. A section on the current symposium in Beijing was also set to be the sixth edition of the meeting, focusing on the balance between the protection of cultural heritage and urban development and financing systems supporting the protection.