Funnily enough, the reports are right, but I think they could have done with some clarification.
I read about this exhibition in the Daily Telegraph on Thursday last week. It seems that the dozen warriors being sent to the British Museum is "the largest group of the reign of Qin Shihuangdi ever lent abroad". It also seems that amongst the warriors, there are figures of musicians, acrobats and bureacrats that were discovered "more recently".
I can't say I've seen anyone claiming that this is the first time they've left China not even the Daily Telegraph. On the contrary, the paper says they have been seen in other countries before, so I can't quite understand why the rest of the media would think otherwise.
However, the signicance of this news story revolves around the fact that this number of warriors being sent here has never been lent abroad previously. This is why the media have made such a big story out of it.
Incidentally, it seems that China are also lending us two-half sized bronze chariots, a suit of armour made from stone and a number of bronze birds found in an underground river.
Can you remember how many warriors you saw in 87/88 Cathyhuns? Was it less than a dozen?