October 21, 2010
Reconstructing China’s treasures
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 2010Almost 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”.
“On a good day, we manage to reconnect about 20 pieces of the porcelain,” says Pan Ting-ting, one of the student volunteers.The team has been working on pieces of vases, bowls and plates depicting twirling dragons and weeping willows. These represent only a small portion of the 30,000 recovered pieces.
The 150th anniversary of the destruction of the Old Summer Palace during the Second Opium War will be marked in October.
The punitive action, ordered by Lord Elgin in retaliation for the torture and execution of 18 foreign emissaries by the Chinese court, still rankles in China. Thousands of imperial treasures looted from the palace still reside in the museums of London and Paris and even the officers’ messes of the British Army.
Last year, China launched a mission to inspect up to 1.5 million artefacts which it believes are in museums and collections across Europe and America, including the British Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.
Pan, like most Chinese, would like to see such items returned, even though she knows this is unlikely. “This is our history, and the foreign museums should give the items back,” she insisted.
- China’s worldwide hunt for artefacts looted from Beijing’s Summer Palace : November 3, 2009
- Looted treasure from Beijing’s Summer Palace up for auction at Christies in Hong Kong : January 14, 2011
- Is China’s quest to recover looted artefacts from the Summer Palace likely to be successful? : November 22, 2010
- Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao expresses support for the return of the Parthenon Marbles to Greece : November 14, 2010
- China’s hunt for their looted treasures : December 7, 2009
- China wants to catalogue its artefacts in Museums abroad : October 29, 2009
- More on the Yves Saint Lauren artefact sale : February 13, 2009
- What remains of China’s Yuanmingyuan 150 years after being looted by the British? : November 18, 2010
David Javid said,
01.05.18 at 12:37 am
I am an owner of an item from Yuanmingyuan palace, and have not found China officials very responsive nor auction houses “experts” very honest about
when I approached them about an auction of the item to Chinese nationals as they had done for a seal of the same period. My item is a dragon throne from same palace as the bronze zodiac heads from the fountain in the Xiyang Lou area of Yuanmingyuan. It was designed also by the Jesuit missionaries under Castiglione, and others. I am on Face Book under Lang Shining with photo of the throne. I have spent over twenty years researching to validate the item with Professors assistance and many other arenas of resources and had a carbon dating done by Dr. Wang at SIU at Carbondale’s Prairie research center.
This item is a difficult item to safeguard & I would only be seeking finders fee and a small amount for all the time spent on the research. Would you have any suggestions to a path or people that could help in it’s return? Thank you kindly for your time.
Sincerely
David javid
Chicago, Illinois, USA
davidjavid@yahoo.com