Arms Dealers, Armies, a Fashion Icon, and Gambling Tycoon:
China’s quest to get its (bronze) heads on straight

Arms Dealers, Armies, a Fashion Icon, and Gambling Tycoon: <br>China’s quest to get its (bronze) heads on straight
Feb 24, 2009 By Fred Dintenfass , eChinacities.com

As I write this, a Parisian judge is deliberating whether two bronze heads taken from an Old Summer Palace zodiac fountain can be auctioned this week or whether their sale will be halted. At stake are 26 million dollars and the cultural heritage of a nation, but this sale is just the latest in a series of transactions aimed at reuniting the pieces of a fountain that once graced the sprawling estate where Qing dynasty emperors summered and the finest Chinese architecture stood side by side with marble palaces designed by European Jesuits. The quest to reunite the bronze heads has spanned continents, involved several governments, a former arms dealer, a gambling tycoon, and now, a French fashion magnate.

From Feb 23-25 more than 730 works of art from the collection of late French fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent will be auctioned off in Paris by Hong Kong-based auction house Christie's. Laurent died last June at age 71 and his partner, businessman Pierre Berge, is auctioning off the collection, which includes works by Picasso and Matisse, and using the proceeds fund research against HIV.


Saint Laurent and Berge

The heads, of a mouse and a rabbit, were looted 150 years ago by Anglo-French forces during the second Opium war. Five of the twelve bronze animal heads from the fountain, which may have been designed by Jesuits, have already been recovered by China; the whereabouts of the remaining five are unknown.

The current auction is reminiscent of the 2000 Sotheby's auction where the sale of the fountain's tiger head raised tensions between the Chinese government and Sotheby's. The auction house expressed relief when the China Poly Group Corp. stepped in and bought the head for 2 million dollars. A week later Poly Group bought two more heads from Christie's. Speaking about the purchase of the bronze heads, which are far modern than the Poly's collection of ancient bronzes, Poly curator Jiang Yingchun explained, "''In terms of Chinese national dignity and self-respect, you can't measure the importance of these objects in money alone.''


Dr. Stanley Ho

Macao gambling billionaire and party member Dr. Stanley Ho donated 1 million to buy the boar's head and in 2007 paid US 8.84 million for the horse before returning it to the Chinese government. The hare and mouse heads are priced at 13 million dollars each and Chinese authorities are worried that prices are escalating to take advantage of national pride.

Since they opened shop in Hong Kong in 1973, Sotheby's has been selling relics from the Old Summer Palace however, only since reunification in 1997 have auctions of Chinese relics ignited controversy. The Chinese government won't buy back relics but it's unlikely the Poly Group's actions in 2000 were not without government involvement. Now, the Poly Group runs a museum and theater, and does tourism and high technology work, but until 1999 China Poly Group was owned by the People's Liberation Army and was China's chief global arms seller. The company came out from under military control because of a new policy to end military involvement in business.

Although no protesters have been removed yet, this year's auction is not without its own complications. As a team of 90 Chinese lawyers filed suits trying to stop the sale of the bronzes, Berge who after Tiananmen funded a shelter for Chinese students and dissidents in Paris, fired back, "I do not have the intention of giving these heads to the Chinese government. Rather, I would recommend that the Chinese, instead of getting worked up over the heads, worry about human rights.''

The legal request to halt the sale comes from APACE, a group mandated by the Chinese government to protect Chinese art on the world market. "China does not want to buy them. China wants restitution," said APACE president Bernard Gomez, "If they could be returned to the French government, that would improve relations between China and France."

Zong Tianling spokesman of the Yuangmingyuan (Old Summer Palace) garden administration was more direct, "This is no different from robbery!" he exclaimed, "This kind of craziness does no good to the relics themselves or the culture they bear."

Berge has said that he and Saint Laurent bought the pieces legally from a dealer, "These Chinese bronzes were looted 150 years ago in China in the same way as were the Parthenon frescoes in Athens that are now in the British Museum, along with many other looted pieces in museums worldwide," Berge said. "There is legislation and jurisprudence on this matter." UNESCO and other treaties protecting relics don't reach as far back as 1860.

In the 2000 New York Times article, Erik Eckholm and Mark Lander talked with Sotheby's director Carlton Rochell: "In future cases of relics involving particular historical or emotional significance, he said, Sotheby's will discuss the sale with the Chinese government in advance, although to what end is unclear. ‘If it was from a known place that was sacked, we'd want to be more careful,' Mr. Rochell said. ‘One has to be very sensitive about the objects that are in an auction.'"

If there was any discussion before the sale between Christie's and the Chinese government neither side left satisfied. It does not seem that 9 years after the 2000 auction, the houses and the Chinese government have improved their relationship. It also seems unlikely that should the bronze heads be bought by a non-Chinese bidder that any of the Chinese team's 90 lawyers will be consoled by the fact that the 20 million dollars will be going to a good cause.
 

Related Links
The Shanghai History Museum (Shanghai Li shi Bowuguan)
Should the bronze heads stolen in 1860 from Old Summer Palace be allowed to go on sale in France?

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