China to auction houses: give back stolen treasures

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

New York Times, April 29, 2000

China Asks Auctioners Houses to Withdraw 4 Relics

By MARK LANDLER

HONG KONG, April 28 -- The Chinese government has thrown the art market in
this capitalist outpost into an uproar by asking Sotheby's and Christie's
to withdraw four relics -- which Beijing says were stolen 140 years ago --
at next week's auctions of Chinese antiquities here.

An official at the State Cultural Relics Bureau said that the objects, a
vase and three sculptures, were taken from a Qing dynasty palace when it
was ransacked by British and French troops. The official, Wang Limei, said
that the bureau was asking Sotheby's and Christie's not to sell them in
Hong Kong because "it is insulting and deeply painful to the Chinese people
to have these things sold before their eyes."

Hong Kong, the former British colony that is home to some of the world's
richest Chinese, has long been a fertile market for dealers in rare Chinese
antiques. But Beijing has steadily tightened its grip on Hong Kong since it
reverted to China in 1997. Now it is making its presence felt in the art
market, declaring that the city should no longer be a clearinghouse for
treasures stolen from imperial China.

Sotheby's and Christie's said today that they had not decided how to
respond to Beijing. The Christie's auction is scheduled to begin on Sunday
in the ballroom of an upscale hotel here. Sotheby's will open bidding on
its collection on Tuesday at a deluxe hotel nearby.

"We're doing everything we can to satisfy their concerns about the objects
in question," said Carlton Rochell, the managing director of the China and
Southeast Asia division at Sotheby's.

Victoria Cheung, a spokeswoman for Christie's, declined to comment. "We'll
get back to you when we've made a decision," she said.

The two Sotheby's relics were on view at a preview this evening, while
Christie's moved its pieces out of public view. People familiar with
Sotheby's said that the company was likely to reject China's demands to
withdraw the objects from the auction.

Chinese government officials said they had not demanded that the relics be
returned because, 140 years after the looting of the palace, it would be
difficult to prove that they were taken from the country illegally.

In late March, United States Customs officials seized a 10th-century marble
sculpture that was to have been auctioned at Christie's gallery in New York
City. In that case the Chinese government said it had proof that the
sculpture, a painted relief panel, had been stolen by raiders who had
broken into the Five Dynasties tomb of Wang Chuzhi in Hebei Province in
northeastern China.

Neither Sotheby's nor Christie's disputes that the four relics were taken
from the old summer palace, known as Yuanmingyuan. Indeed, Christie's is
promoting its auction as "The Imperial Sale: Yuanmingyuan," and the
company's Web site promises that the sale will feature "some of the most
sumptuous artworks made for the Manchu emperors of the 18th century."

Beijing objects to the sale of two bronze heads -- those of an ox and a
monkey -- that were part of a set of 12 animals in a zodiac fountain in the
palace garden. Christie's estimates the value of the ox head at $500,000 to
$580,000. It did not value the monkey head or disclose the owners of either
piece.

Sotheby's is auctioning a bronze tiger's head that it says was part of a
water clock commissioned by the emperor and designed by a French astronomer
for the grounds of the Old Summer Palace. The catalog does not estimate the
value of the sculpture or disclose its owner.

The second of its disputed relics, a hexagonal vase, is featured on the
cover of the catalog. Sotheby's speculates that the vase "may have been
brought directly from the Old Summer Palace, Beijing, by Lord Loch of
Drylaw, after it was burned down in 1860."

By playing up the Old Summer Palace, Sotheby's and Christie's have
resurrected one of the most sensitive chapters in Chinese history. The
palace, an 870-acre estate in Beijing designed by European Jesuits, was
sacked and burned by British and French troops during the second Opium War.

Though there are only a few ruins left, the Chinese government has kept the
episode alive in history books and propaganda as an example of the
country's humiliation at the hands of foreigners.

Mr. Rochell said he was mindful of the emotions stirred by artifacts from
the Old Summer Palace. But he noted that the Sotheby's auctions here often
result in relics' being transferred from Western owners to Chinese owners,
whether from Hong Kong, Taiwan or even mainland China.

"I don't want to exaggerate this point," Mr. Rochell said. "But in a sense,
these auctions have been repatriating a great deal of objects back to
China."


Louis Proyect
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