For some time, China has been trying to catalogue the vast numbers of looted Chinese artefacts that have ended up in museums & private collections around the world. Based on data from UNESCO, it appears that of all the Museums holding disputed artefacts, the British Museum has by far the most with twenty three thousand in its collection (only two thousand of which are part of its permanent displays).

From:
People’s Daily

British Museum holds highest number of looted Chinese relics
15:57, October 25, 2010

Data from the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) shows that a total of more than 1.6 million Chinese cultural relics looted in the past are now housed in 47 museums worldwide, and the British Museum collected the largest number of them.

Currently, it has collected a total of 23,000 Chinese relics, and about 2,000 Chinese relics are on long-term display in the museum.
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One hundred and fifty years after the looting & destruction of Beijing’s Summer Palace under the instruction of the Eighth Earl of Elgin (son of the seventh earl who removed the sculptures from the Parthenon), China is still trying to retrieve some of their cultural treasures that were taken following the event.

From:
New York Times

China Remembers a Vast Crime
By SHEILA MELVIN
Published: October 21, 2010

BEIJING — In early October of 1860, the commanders of the British and French forces waging war on Qing Dynasty China held a tense conference outside the gates of the Garden of Perfect Brightness — Yuanmingyuan — on the western outskirts of Beijing.

Victory was at hand, the emperor having fled on an “autumnal hunting tour,” and the meeting concerned its spoils: Each side feared the other would obtain more booty from looting the huge complex.
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During a visit to Athens, China’s Premier, Wen Jiabao toured the New Acropolis Museum & pledged to support Greece in their efforts to secure the return of the Parthenon Marbles that are in the British Museum.

This display of support is not unexpected, considering that China has in recent years been making many efforts to track down artefacts looted from Beijing’s Summer Palace under the instruction of the Eighth Earl of Elgin (son of the Seventh Earl who removed the Parthenon Sculptures).

From:
Athens News Agency

10/21/2010
Chinese support for return of Marbles

(ANA-MPA) — Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, accompanied by Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou, toured the Acropolis in central Athens on Sunday morning, where the return of stolen antiquities and cultural treasures to their country of origin was discussed, amongst others. (ANA-MPA)

Wen Jiabao pledged to support Greece’s standing demand for the repatriation of the Parthenon Marbles, currently displayed at the British Museum in London, to the new Acropolis Museum.

The Chinese premier also recounted the looting and destruction in 1860 of the old summer palace Yuan Ming Yuan, outside Beijing, by British troops. The soldiers were acting on the orders of then British High Commissioner to China Lord Elgin, the son of the notorious Lord Elgin, the diplomat who connived of the operation to slice off and (ANA-MPA) remove the sculptures from the Ottoman-occupied Parthenon less than two decades before the Greek War of Independence.

The looting & destruction of the Summer Palace in Beijing (under the instruction of the Eighth Earl of Elgin – son of Lord Elgin who removed the Marbles from the Parthenon) has had lasting consequences for China – many of the artefacts are still located abroad & many more were destroyed. China is now making efforts to piece together some of the surviving fragments from the building to reconstruct the original artefacts.

From:
Daily Telegraph

Piece by piece, China reconstructs treasures destroyed by British troops
By Peter Foster, Beijing
Published: 6:13PM BST 22 Aug 2010

Almost 150 years after British and French troops looted and destroyed the Old Summer Palace in Beijing, Chinese archaeologists are painstakingly patching together treasured historical artefacts excavated from the ruins.

Archaeology students are piecing together thousands of fragments of Qing Dynasty porcelain that have been excavated over the past 30 years from what is known in China as the “Gardens of Perfect Brightness”.
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Much has been made in the past of the British Museum’s links with other countries such as China (when it suits them). This helps them to backup their Universal Museum argument, implying that through numerous cultural links it is in fact a museum of the world & not a purely British institution.

Collaboration with other countries, to create reciprocal exhibitions is not limited to the British Museum however, as evidenced by previous exhibitions in China sponsored by Greece. Indeed, the two countries have quite a bit in common, as both are trying to recover items from abroad that were looted by different Earls of Elgin.

From:
People’s Daily

Athens history exhibit opens in Shanghai
17:28, June 11, 2010

The Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Tourism will organize a cultural archeological exhibition in the Shanghai Library from June 10 to June 20 with the title “Athens: The Living History.”

The exhibition is a Greek contribution to Expo 2010 closely related to the theme “Better City, Better Life” and the theme of the Greek Pavilion “Polis, The Living City.” It presents the ancient and modern city of Athens including the city’s architecture and urban development as well as the integration of ancient monuments into daily life.
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In recent years, as the buying power of wealthy Chinese has increased, many have been buying back their countries heritage from abroad as it comes up for sale at auctions. This is repatriation in a sense, although in many cases it is likely that it will be heading back to another private collection rather than enriching the public domain. There have also been similar moves to return artefacts on a more organised basis as well however.

From:
Economist

Jade for joy
How to satisfy the insatiable demand from mainland China
Apr 28th 2010 | From The Economist online

AS DEMAND for Chinese works of art continues to rise—with the top of the market nowhere in sight—the supply of top-quality pieces is becoming increasingly rare. Dealers and auction houses in all the major centres, from New York to Hong Kong, all repeat the same refrain: it is getting harder to find stock.

Persuading collectors to part with their treasures takes skill. After first identifying who owns what, dealers or auction houses must then convince these owners that the time is right to sell. Yet if the market is strong, why shouldn’t owners wait? Prices will only rise.
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Egypt is holding a conference on stolen & looted antiquities, bringing together representatives from many of the nations that are requesting returns. Hopefully, many other countries can learn from some of Egypt’s recent successes in this field.

From:
BBC News

Page last updated at 01:23 GMT, Wednesday, 7 April 2010 02:23 UK
Egypt hosts meeting on recovery of ‘stolen treasures’

Global culture officials are to meet to discuss how to recover ancient treasures which they say have been stolen and displayed overseas.

Sixteen countries will be represented at the two-day conference in Cairo.
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Among the vast numbers of disputed artefacts in museums & galleries, some have a high profile, whilst others are barely known. Time Magazine has attempted to draw up a list of what they feel are some of the most currently significant cases.

This article was published a few months ago, but I only recently came across it – explaining the fact that the information on the Louvre’s Egyptian Frescos is already out of date.

From:
Time

Top 10 Plundered Artifacts
History is big business. Plundered art and antiquities trade to the tune of at least $3 billion a year, much to the chagrin of nations struggling to reclaim their lost artifacts. In honor of a recent spat between the Egyptian government and the Louvre museum in Paris over the fate of fresco fragments, TIME examines 10 plundered antiquities and the conflicts they’ve created.

The Louvre’s Egyptian Frescos

A set of ancient fresco fragments is at the center of a nasty feud between Paris’s Louvre Museum and the Egyptian government. Zahi Hawass, head of Egypt’s antiquities department, claims the Louvre bought the fragments last year despite knowing they were taken from a tomb in Egypt’s storied Valley of the Kings in the 1980s, a prime spot for grave-robbers. Egypt, which has made reclaiming ancient art taken from its country a top priority, said they would sever cooperation with the Louvre unless the fragments were returned. A museum representative claimed on Oct. 7 that the Louvre was unaware the fragments were stolen, and said the museum would consider sending the fresco pieces back to Egypt.
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The looting of the Summer Palace in Beijing (an act carried out largely under the instruction of the Eighth Earl of Elgin – Son of the Seventh Earl who took the Parthenon Marbles) continues to cause controversy today, due to the fact that many of the artefacts from the site have ended up in museums around the world – although often they are not even on public display.

Now though, China is making a first step towards resolving the issue, building up a catalogue of the surviving artefacts & where they are located.

From:
Wall Street Journal

China Goes Treasure Hunting
Nationalism, not art history, drives the hunt for Summer Palace artifacts.
OPINION ASIA – NOVEMBER 23, 2009, 1:16 P.M. ET
By PETER NEVILLE-HADLEY

Next year Beijing will mark the 150th anniversary of the burning and looting of the Summer Palace by British and French forces. But the city has hit on an odd way to commemorate these events: In preparation, Palace Director Chen Mingjie recently announced that researchers will attempt to catalogue every item looted from the complex and now in museums overseas.

At first sight this might appear to be a purely academic exercise. Mr. Chen says he wants to identify works of art, not repatriate them, but on closer examination the plan has all the makings of a public-relations effort aimed at the Chinese people themselves.
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With cases involving artefacts with dubious provenance, every case is different & has to be handled differently. In this instance though it seems as though there may well not be a case at all. People do have to acept that like it or not, some artefacts have been acquired legitimately (or in this case, with no evidence to suggest otherwise). In many ways, people demanding that every artefact is returned to its country of origin merely serves to weaken the stronger more valid cases, along with spreading panic amongst museum directors.

Notwithstanding the above though – if auction houses always acted entirely reputably, then perhaps people wouldn’t be so quick to assume that they weren’t.

From:
Daily Telegraph

Chinese anger at sale of Qing Dynasty seal
China has reacted angrily to the sale of an 18th century Qing Dynasty seal by Sotheby’s in London.
By Peter Foster in Beijing
Published: 9:31PM GMT 06 Nov 2009

The green jade seal, belonging to the emperor Qian Long (1736-1795) fetched £3.6 million, six times its estimate, at the auction on Wednesday following frantic bidding by eight competing collectors.

News of the sale was greeted with anger on the Chinese internet, where the country’s growing nationalism frequently finds its voice.
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China is sending teams of experts to catalogue the Chinese artefacts in museums abroad. This raises the question though of why the Museums do not already have such records of their own – or if they do have them, why they are unwilling to share them.

From:
Modern Ghana

CHINESE RESEARCH ARTEFACTS LOOTED IN ANGLO-FRENCH ATTACK ON SUMMER PALACE IN 1860: DO “GREAT MUSEUMS” NOT KEEP RECORDS?
By Kwame Opoku, Dr.

“Two robbers breaking into a museum, devastating, looting and burning, leaving laughing hand-in-hand with their bags full of treasures; one of the robbers is called France and the other Britain.” Victor Hugo. (1)

China has announced its intention of sending groups of researchers to various museums in the West, especially France, Britain and United States, such as the British Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum to draw a list of the artefacts that were looted in 1860 during the Anglo-French invasion of Beijing, (then Peking).(2) Victor Hugo had expressed the wish and the hope that one day France and Britain would return the looted objects taken from an Asian country, thousands of miles away from France and Britain, that had been attacked because of its resistance to European imperialism. (3)
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Further coverage of the decision by China to try & catalogue the artefacts in museum around the world that were looted from the Summer Palace. The British Museum says that they don’t see this as a threat – but then they said in the past that the New Acropolis Museum adds nothing to the argument for the reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures.

From:
The Times

October 20, 2009
China in worldwide treasure hunt for artefacts looted from Yuan Ming Yuan palace

China is to send a team of artefact hunters to nearly 50 countries to track down thousands of treasures looted by foreign armies 150 years ago.

The experts will scour museums, libraries and private collections in Britain, the US, France, Japan and elsewhere to photograph and catalogue what was taken from the Yuan Ming Yuan, popularly known as the Old Summer Palace, after British and French armies sacked it in 1860 then picked through what remained in 1900.
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