After wandering the world for 143 years, a copper sculpture of a
"swine head" used as an ornament of the Yuanmingyuan (Old Summer
Palace) returned home to Beijing Friday.
Lost when invading British and French troops looted the palace
in 1860, the national treasure was bought back to China Thursday
night by the China Cultural Development Fund through donations from
an entrepreneur. It was brought to Beijing on Friday and given to
the collection of the state-owned Poly Art Museum.
Jiang Yingchun, director of the museum, said that Hong Kong
businessman Stanley Ho donated about "7 million Hong Kong dollars
(US$900,000)" to retrieve the relic from a New York-based
collector.
The "swine head" was part of a series of copper sculptures of
men with animal heads that represent the 12 animals in the Chinese
zodiac. It stood by a fountain built at the palace in 1760.
In 2000, the China Poly Group bought the "heads" of an ox, a
monkey and a tiger for 33 million Hong Kong dollars (US$4.2
million) at auctions in Hong Kong.
Jiang claimed the value of the four "heads" matches the prices
paid for them. However, some Chinese experts say China should stop
buying pilfered cultural relics and simply ask for them to be
returned by using international convention.
China signed the United Nations Educational, Scientific and
Cultural Organization Convention of 1970 and the International
Institute for the Unification of Private Law 1995, said Zhou Lin, a
professor with the Intellectual Property Center at the Chinese
Academy of Social Sciences.
"Under those conventions, stolen or illegally exported cultural
objects can be recovered," Zhou added. "But unfortunately some
countries, including the US and Britain, didn't sign the two
conventions. It's hard to imagine China could ask for the stolen or
illegally exported objects based on these conventions at
present."
The four "heads" are to be displayed at the Poly Art Museum
beginning about October 18, museum officials said.
(China Daily September 20, 2003)