[MSN] How many Chinese cultural treasures "lost" overseas?

[Museum Security Network Mailinglist]

How many Chinese cultural treasures "lost" overseas?
   

The vast amount of priceless Chinese cultural treasures which have been
"lost" overseas is simply amazing due to historic reasons and the temptation
of the reality. With a take-off of Chinese economy in recent years, however,
a growing number of Chinese, both at home and overseas, have followed with
great interest and tracked this phenomenon and retrieved some of the these
treasures.

About 10 million pieces of Chinese cultural relics have been flowing or
"drained" overseas, mainly to the Europe, the United States, Japan, and
Southeast Asian nations

More than 10 million pieces of invaluable and marvolous Chinese historical
and cultural treasures have been "sunk into oblivion" in Europe, the United
States, Japan, and Southeast Asian nations and regions after the Opium War
of 1840, and about 1 million pieces of them are raked as the first and
second class categories of Chinese archeological objects, according to the
Chinese Archeological Society.

Meanwhile, relevant statistics from the United Nations Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) note that more than 200
museums in 47 countries boast a total of 1.64 million Chinese relics and
over 10 times more Chinese antiques are being stored by ordinary people
worldwide today.

The two groups of statistics indicate a figure of proximity, that is, the
number of Chinese cultural relics scattered globally exceeds the 10-million
mark. Of course, all of these relics are not necessarily "vanished". Niu
Xianfeng, deputy secretary general of a special fund to rescue Chinese
cultural relics overseas, acknowledges that "To be specific, these relics
should be termed Chinese treasures kept overseas," adding that during the
period from the Opium War of 1840 to the establishment of New China in 1949,
the number of relics looted in war years and got lost because of theft,
burglary, and trade by dishonest and illegal means, which are now scattered
globally is really too difficult to calculate and reckon.

The 10 million-plus Chinese cultural treasures "stored" overseas comprise
priceless calligraphy and painting works, ancient bronze ware, pottery and
porcelain, sculptures, oracle bone inscriptions and classical works, which
are distributed mainly in Britain, France, the U.S., Japan and other
countries. There are more than 23,000 pieces of Chinese relics in the
British Museum alone, including the national-grade gems and unrivalled art
works and ace ancient bronze ware objects.

The U.S. has kept most of the traditional Chinese paintings. There are over
1,200 Chinese painting pieces in the Freer Gallery of Art in Washington D.C.
alone, and in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, there are close to
500 outstanding Chinese painting works. And the British Museum is famed for
most exquisite Chinese paintings it has kept, with a "picture of lady
officials" by Gu Kaizhi, a top painter of the Eastern Jin Dynasty (317-420
A.D.) most eye-catching, conspicuous and enchanting..

La Bibliotheque Nationale de France, which has long renowned for its stored
art and craft works from Asia, has a wide range of brand-name Chinese
porcelain treasures of various dynasties, from China's earliest primitive
ceramics to the elegant blue-and-white porcelain and the five-color (blue,
yellow, red, white and black) porcelain of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644).

The U.S. currently stores most Chinese local chronicles and typical
classical works, and its Capitol Library in Washington D.C. has kept more
than 4,000 Chinese local chronicles. In the meantime, there are more than
3,000 rare classic works and over 2,000 family tree records around the
country. And Japan keeps most of China's ancient oracle bone inscriptions
and, of approximately 30,000 "lost" oracle inscribed bones scattered far and
wide globally, it has close to 13,000 pieces.

Dunhuang Grottoes in northwestern China's Gansu province, dating back 366
A.D., contains a reservoir of Buddhist statues, frescoes, scriptures as well
as Buddhist sutras and relevant records. To date, China has kept only some
20,000 sutras and related records, or 30 percent of the total housed
previously in the grottoes, whereas the 70 percent have been "drained'
overseas. Among them, 13,700 records in Oriental editions are now kept in
the British Museum, 6,000 sutras in the Bibliotheque Nationale de France;
12,000 sutras in the Asia Ethnic Research Institute in St. Peterberg,
Russia, and close to 2,000 kept in the India affairs section in Britain.
Furthermore, Dunhuang relics are also available in Japan, the U.S. Sweden,
Austria and the Republic of Korea today.

Retrieving these historical relics "lost" overseas hinges chiefly on three
options, namely buying back or counter-purchase, demanding their return, or
the means of donating

A national treasure recovery project, initiated and launched in July 2003,
was aimed to rescue "lost" Chinese cultural relics and protect the country's
national heritages. The cultural relics disappeared in unusual or
extraordinary conditions will be retrieved in three ways, buying back,
demanding their return, or donating.

To date, buying back constitutes a conventional method. The return of
"Pig-head Bronze Statue" from the Yuan Min Yuan (or named the Winter Palace
then) provides a very good, successful example. The Pig-head Bronze Statue
had been vanished in the wreckage of the Yuan Min Yuan Palace by the
Anglo-French troops in 1860 and slipped overseas afterward. Almost one and a
half centuries later, in the spring of 2003, Chinese cultural relics experts
traced it to an American private collector. Through repeated, patient
consultations and negotiations between the two sides, the collector finally
agreed to transfer it back to China. Upon learning the information, Mr.
Stanley Ho, a tycoon from Macao made a donation of 7 million yuan (some
880,000 US dollars) in Sept. 2003 to the Special Fund to Rescue Cultural
Relics Overseas to get it back.

Many problems and difficulties are involved in the buying-back effort,
however, as funds for counterpurchases disproportion the hefty,
sky-rocketing prices of cultural relics and the trying effort often fail
half-way. Moreover, some special funds come mainly from social donations and
donations made by enterprises, which would usually hope to keep the returned
relics to themselves.

The toughest way to recover these relics is to demand their return,
nevertheless, because it involves a host of thorny issues or events left
over by history. For example, the ace painting works of "Forty Sceneries in
the Yuan Min Yuan (or the Winter Palace as previously termed) is cited as an
object of return, but nothing has been done in this regard so far. Painted
by two top court painters during the rein of Emperor Qianlong during the
Imperial Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), it is the sole mastery painting works
with vivid poetry lines to depict a maganificent, panoramic view of the
classic imperial garden of the time. It was snatched and taken away by a
French colonel during the looting of the garden. Till today, it has been
still kept in the Bibliotheque Nationale de France.

With respect to donations, there have also been precedents to go by. But
only a few people of insight are engaged in this kind of charitable
activity. Ten lost classical bronze windows from the Precious Cloud
Pavilion, west of the lofty Tower of Buddhist Incense atop the Longevity
(Wanshou) Hill in the pictureque Summer Palace, in western Beijing, was
returned to China free of charge by a fund initiated by the founder of the
American International Assurance Co. Ltd, (AIA), which bought it from a
French collector in 1993, and it is indeed termed a feat of great service to
the people of China.

By People's Daily Online