Buried for almost a millennium, the 35 6th-century Buddhist figures shown in this exhibition reveal the power of Chinese sculpture in stone. They were carved in the local limestone of Qingzhou, Shandong province, between 529 and about 577, under the patronage of the regional rulers of Northern Qi. These were non-Chinese and open to influences ultimately from India, evidenced by the treatment of the body and monastic robes in the statuary: these influences may have come via Southern China as well as along the Silk Road. Some 400 figures seem to have been buried with care and veneration in the 1120s, probably because they had already been damaged and their style was too remote from that current for them to be repaired. Much original painted decoration remains. In 1996 they were found during work on the grounds of a primary school where, fortunately, the teachers were able to prevent them being stolen and smuggled onto the international art market.