[Photo provided to China Daily]

Stone says that Chinese buyers are now well-educated, knowledgeable and sophisticated.

The upcoming sale may be a shopping carnival for deep-pocketed Chinese buyers. But antique experts advise caution.

Yu Chenglong, a bronze specialist at Beijing's National Museum of China, says that Japanese buyers started to accumulate Chinese bronze ware in the 1920s and built up a systematic collection of high-quality bronzes.

"Bronze ware symbolize a nation's etiquette and power. They are top Chinese works of art," says Yu. "It is sad if we should buy back our lost treasures at high prices."

Zhou Ya, a researcher at the Shanghai Museum, told Thepaper.cn that the sale of the Fujita collection reflects a hot market for Chinese antiques, but he hopes that the bronze ware will be sold to people who are truly interested in them, not those who seek only short-term returns.