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Moving China’s Terracotta Army

At the end of March 1990, Swiss photographer Daniel Schwartz, together with an assistant and a technician from Hong Kong, travelled to Lintong to photograph an exhibition catalogue on behalf of the Ostwall Museum in Dortmund.

The planned Dortmund exhibition was the most comprehensive presentation to be shown outside of Switzerland. Fifteen warriors and horses, including a quadriga and many other finds, were put on display. Preparations lasted two years and the exhibition was supposed to have been staged in 1989. But then came Tiananmen. The bloody suppression of students in Beijing raised questions about the cultural exchange. The exhibition was postponed until the following year.

(All photos by Daniel Schwartz/Pro Litteris)

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