In the early 1900s, as chaos reigned in China, life-size glazed terracotta Buddhist monks started appearing on the antiques market and caused a sensation in the West, being both exquisite and completely unlike anything else ever seen in Chinese art. Museums and collectors around the world competed for them, but who made them and when? And where had they been hidden before they suddenly emerged into the light? The Missing Buddhas tells the story of the statues and unravels the question of their origins. For the past century, scholars, curators and connoisseurs have been mesmerized by a myth created by a German dealer that the monks were hidden in inaccessible caves southwest of Beijing to save them from barbarian invaders. But Tony Miller takes a scalpel to this tall tale and both debunks it and discovers the true history of the statues. In doing so, he opens a window on a fascinating period in Chinese history and introduces an extraordinary cast of characters as he leads the reader clue by clue to the real origins of these beautiful enigmas.

The Missing Buddhas: The Mystery of the Chinese Buddhist Statues that Stunned the Western Art World, Tony Miller, Earnshaw Books, Paperback, 308 pp, $19.99

Tony Miller is a long-time resident of Hong Kong with a keen interest in Chinese painting, porcelain, jade and the conversations across borders that have influenced art and style through the ages. He is a former President of Hong Kong's Oriental Ceramic Society and a member of the Min Chiu Society, and has published a variety of papers on previously unresearched aspects of Chinese antiquities. Since 1979, he and his wife Nga-ching have wandered all over China, exploring its historic sites and natural wonders.