‘Becoming ‘Nestorian Crosses’: A Study of the Collecting of the Bronze Ordos Crosses, Their Iconography and Materiality’ is a new analysis of the bronzes commonly known as ‘Nestorian Crosses’ as coined by Anglican missionary P. M. Scott in 1930. This analysis builds upon recent criticism of Scott and other early scholars and collectors’ identification of the bronzes discovered in the region of Baotou, Inner Mongolia with the Yuan-dynasty yelikewen Christians. By examining the process of how the ‘Nestorian crosses’ became ‘Nestorian’, this thesis recontextualises them within the framework of Chinese art collecting in the twentieth century. In particular, it discusses this process in relation to the creation of the concept, ‘Chinese art’ as argued by Craig Clunas, contextualising the ‘Nestorian crosses’ within the imperialistic and colonial art collecting practices of European and North American art collectors in China. An analysis of early scholarship and correspondence on the crosses reveals that this process was informed by the particular cultural perspectives and biases of scholars and amateur collectors. Drawing on this critique, the thesis presents alternative iconographic readings of the bronzes, highlighting possible, Chinese, Mongolian, and Buddhist sources for their symbolism. Finally, the thesis proposes a greater focus on the materiality of the ‘Nestorian crosses’, by utilising Arjun Appadurai’s ‘social life of things’ in a shift away from purely symbolic analysis. Finally, a spectroscopic analysis of a ‘Nestorian cross’ from the Rewi Alley Collection highlights new avenues for this topic from a material culture studies perspective.