The technique of painting in oils was developed in Asia as long as 800 years before it appeared in Europe, according to a new analysis of murals found inside caves at Bamian in Afghanistan.

HONG KONG — A set of 1,400-year-old Buddha statues in southwest China was damaged by villagers who painted them with bright colors to “redeem a wish to the god,” officials said.

In August 2018, Buddha statues in Fengmen Temple in Sichuan were smeared with oil paint and repaired with cement, the state-run newspaper Global Times reported. It added that the Sichuan ...