Re: China to auction houses: give back stolen treasures

["Henry C.K. Liu" <hliu@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

It is the equivalent of the Drug Lords of Columbia, having suffered a major
setback and having had several billions in street value of illegal cocaine
confiscated by the DEA, sends its navy up to Potomac and captures Washington
and burns the White House and looted everything of value in the city, all in
the name of defending free trade, then demanding and receiving repatriation in
billions in silver and taking Manhattan and part of Westchester and keep it as
a imperialist colony for 150  years in the name of democracy and then selling
off pieces of the loot over a long period under the protection of the law of
private property.  That was the Opium War of 1840.

Now, is it any wonder that China has very little use for Western "democracy"
and its "rule of law"?

Henry C.K. Liu

Louis Proyect wrote:

> 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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