LONDON—The Chinese government has asked an international group of museums to open their collections to teams of investigators charged with documenting artifacts looted from China in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

Teams will soon visit the British Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, according to a report in the Telegraph. A spokesperson for the Chinese government stated that their experts believe as many as 1.5 million Chinese relics are stored in 2,000 different museums in 47 different countries.

Though the Chinese maintain that they want only to document the looted works, some scholars believe that it could eventually lead to demands for the return of the objects. Chinese authorities have actively attempted to stop the trade of looted objects in recent years, generating particular controversy over the planned sale of bronzes from the collection of Yves Saint Laurent earlier this year.

While the Chinese government maintained that they are merely organizing a fact-finding project, the spokesperson said, “[W]e do hope some previously unknown relics might surface and some might be returned to our country during our tracing effort."

Read more at the Telegraph.