by Jenni Horn

Chinese investigators are likely to visit the Royal Engineers Museum in Gillingham to trace lost Imperial treasures taken by British troops 150 years ago.

China is hoping to track down 1.5 million artefacts taken from Beijing’s Old Summer Palace when the building was burned and looted by British and French troops in 1860.

A team of researchers will be sent to museums, libraries and private collections to demand the inspection of the treasures, raising fears Britain could be asked to return some of them.

The Royal Engineers Museum, in Prince Arthur Road, holds a number of items thought to have been taken from the palace by General Charles Gordon, a Royal Engineer who became a national hero for his exploits in China.

The items include a large wooden bench thought to have been made using panels taken from the palace. He presented it to the Royal Engineers Officer’s Mess in the 1860s, where it remained on display until it was loaned to the museum in 1991.

Other artefacts include a silk tapestry embroidered with the Imperial five-clawed dragon, a Chinese matchlock musket and a roof tile from an Imperial building.

Jeremy Kimmel, events and education officer at the museum, said: “The items have always been on public display – we’re not trying to hide anything.

“They are stunning pieces and they add to the story we are trying to tell here. I think the study will highlight the fact there are interesting things in museums outside London.

"We haven’t been contacted by the Chinese investigators yet but they will inevitably look to military museums when trying to trace the items.”

China has moved to reassure countries the intention of its study, which has already begun in America, is to merely catalogue items.

Mr Kimmel added: “China have been quick to stress they are not coming to get the items back – they just want to know where they are.

“Nobody knows for certain how many items were taken, as the inventory for the palace was burned with the building. We expect the study to come to Europe next year. We will welcome the investigators, and we’ll be happy for the items here to be photographed.”

He said that if the Chinese did want the items back he would take advice from national museums and the Museums Association.