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Thursday, 26 February 2009
Auction of Chinese relics ‘shameful’: Jackie Chan
Hong Kong, China: Kung Fu legend Jackie Chan said Thursday the auction of stolen Chinese bronzes was “shameful” and said he was working on a new movie about the theft of cultural relics.
“It was looting yesterday. It is still looting today.”
Hong Kong, China: Kung Fu legend Jackie Chan said Thursday the auction of stolen Chinese bronzes was “shameful” and said he was working on a new movie about the theft of cultural relics.
The Hong Kong actor said the Qing Dynasty bronze fountainheads looted by British and French forces from Beijing’s Summer Palace in the 1860s were China’s national treasures and he demanded that the items be returned.
The items were sold at a Christie’s auction in Paris on Wednesday.
“This behaviour is shameful,” he said.
The star of “Shanghai Knights” and “Rush Hour” accused Western countries of stealing cultural relics from countries such as China, Egypt and Cambodia and yet insisting they were doing so only to preserve them.
“They remain looted items, no matter whom they were sold to. Whoever took it out (of China) is himself a thief,” he fumed to reporters in Hong Kong.
“It was looting yesterday. It is still looting today.”
The action star said he was planning a movie about the search for and return of some of China’s stolen national treasures from the palace. Filming is scheduled to start next year, he added.
“But now we lost two more pieces. This made me really angry,” he said.
The bronzes, part of the personal art collection of late French fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent and his partner Pierre Berge, were sold at the auction for 15.7 million euros ($30.7 million) each to unidentified bidders.
Chan said he would have bid for the artifacts and returned them to China had they not been so expensive.
Beijing Thursday accused the auction house of selling smuggled Chinese relics and demanded they be returned.
But the French government said it received no official request and the sale went ahead after a Paris court threw out a last-ditch bid to remove the bronzes from the auction.
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Auction of Chinese relics ‘shameful’: Jackie Chan
AFP
26 February 2009
Hong Kong, China: Kung Fu legend Jackie Chan said Thursday the auction of stolen Chinese bronzes was “shameful” and said he was working on a new movie about the theft of cultural relics.
The Hong Kong actor said the Qing Dynasty bronze fountainheads looted by British and French forces from Beijing’s Summer Palace in the 1860s were China’s national treasures and he demanded that the items be returned.
The items were sold at a Christie’s auction in Paris on Wednesday.
“This behaviour is shameful,” he said.
The star of “Shanghai Knights” and “Rush Hour” accused Western countries of stealing cultural relics from countries such as China, Egypt and Cambodia and yet insisting they were doing so only to preserve them.
“They remain looted items, no matter whom they were sold to. Whoever took it out (of China) is himself a thief,” he fumed to reporters in Hong Kong.
“It was looting yesterday. It is still looting today.”
The action star said he was planning a movie about the search for and return of some of China’s stolen national treasures from the palace. Filming is scheduled to start next year, he added.
“But now we lost two more pieces. This made me really angry,” he said.
The bronzes, part of the personal art collection of late French fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent and his partner Pierre Berge, were sold at the auction for 15.7 million euros ($30.7 million) each to unidentified bidders.
Chan said he would have bid for the artifacts and returned them to China had they not been so expensive.
Beijing Thursday accused the auction house of selling smuggled Chinese relics and demanded they be returned.
But the French government said it received no official request and the sale went ahead after a Paris court threw out a last-ditch bid to remove the bronzes from the auction.
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