Beijing accuses Christie’s of regularly selling looted relics
Auction of bronzes sparks tougher checks on ‘illegal trade’
Fiona Tam and Agence France-Presse in Beijing 27 February 2009
In an angry response to the sale of two cultural-heritage items in Paris, Beijing slapped tougher checks on Christie’s yesterday and accused the auction house of repeatedly selling smuggled Chinese relics.
“In recent years, Christie’s has frequently sold cultural-heritage items looted or smuggled from China, and all items involved were illegally taken out of the country,” the State Administration of Cultural Heritage said.
In a statement, the administration announced increased checks of Christie’s operations in China to halt what it said was an “illegal trade”.
All relevant departments, especially entry and exit administrative agencies for cultural heritage, were ordered to check “seriously” all items that the auction house intended to import to or export from China, the administration said.
Certificates of legal ownership would be required for all items, it said. These documents must provide details about the owners and transaction records showing the ownership history of the items.
All Christie’s employees would also face tougher scrutiny, it said, without providing details.
The statements were part of an angry reaction from Beijing to the sale on Wednesday at a Christie’s auction in Paris of two bronze artefacts looted by British and French forces from the Old Summer Palace in Beijing 150 years ago.
The bronzes, part of the personal art collection of late French fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent and his partner, Pierre Berge, sold for a total of more than €31 million (HK$307 million).
Bloomberg said yesterday they were bought by Thomas Seydoux, Christie’s international co-head of Impressionist and modern art on behalf of an unidentified telephone bidder.
Christie’s expressed regret at Beijing taking the unusual step of announcing “reprisal measures” as a consequence of a legal auction.
It said: “Christie’s abides by all international and local laws affecting us in our sale jurisdictions. In this instance, the legal ownership of the fountainheads was clearly confirmed.”
Ye Tingfang, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said Beijing’s anger had helped sensationalise the auction and the prices of the two bronze artefacts far exceeded their value.
“The auction house took advantage of our patriotism and complex feelings [about history] ... They forced up the prices because Chinese people are so obsessed about recovering them and can now actually afford them. Before that, the two bronze artifacts’ price was assessed at merely 8 million yuan [HK$9 million].”
Antiques expert Xie Chensheng said the two bronze fountainheads would not be deemed national treasures in the context of the country’s 5,000 years of history.
“They are absolutely not national treasures, but testament to national humiliation [of being raided by foreigners]. You can’t simply put a price on humiliation,” he said.
Not every netizen backed the administration’s tough stand, with many saying it had overreacted.
“The authorities destroyed so many priceless cultural relics during the 10-year Cultural Revolution and thousands of heritage items are damaged every year because of lack of funding and protection,” one wrote. “The two bronze artefacts looted by British and French forces have been preserved much better overseas.”
The Qing dynasty fountainheads were looted from the palace in October 1860, towards the end of the second opium war, which pitted the British and French against China.
Beijing had demanded the relics’ return, but the French government said it had received no official request and the sale went ahead after a Paris court threw out a last-ditch bid to remove the bronzes from auction.
1 comment:
Beijing accuses Christie’s of regularly selling looted relics
Auction of bronzes sparks tougher checks on ‘illegal trade’
Fiona Tam and Agence France-Presse in Beijing
27 February 2009
In an angry response to the sale of two cultural-heritage items in Paris, Beijing slapped tougher checks on Christie’s yesterday and accused the auction house of repeatedly selling smuggled Chinese relics.
“In recent years, Christie’s has frequently sold cultural-heritage items looted or smuggled from China, and all items involved were illegally taken out of the country,” the State Administration of Cultural Heritage said.
In a statement, the administration announced increased checks of Christie’s operations in China to halt what it said was an “illegal trade”.
All relevant departments, especially entry and exit administrative agencies for cultural heritage, were ordered to check “seriously” all items that the auction house intended to import to or export from China, the administration said.
Certificates of legal ownership would be required for all items, it said. These documents must provide details about the owners and transaction records showing the ownership history of the items.
All Christie’s employees would also face tougher scrutiny, it said, without providing details.
The statements were part of an angry reaction from Beijing to the sale on Wednesday at a Christie’s auction in Paris of two bronze artefacts looted by British and French forces from the Old Summer Palace in Beijing 150 years ago.
The bronzes, part of the personal art collection of late French fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent and his partner, Pierre Berge, sold for a total of more than €31 million (HK$307 million).
Bloomberg said yesterday they were bought by Thomas Seydoux, Christie’s international co-head of Impressionist and modern art on behalf of an unidentified telephone bidder.
Christie’s expressed regret at Beijing taking the unusual step of announcing “reprisal measures” as a consequence of a legal auction.
It said: “Christie’s abides by all international and local laws affecting us in our sale jurisdictions. In this instance, the legal ownership of the fountainheads was clearly confirmed.”
Ye Tingfang, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said Beijing’s anger had helped sensationalise the auction and the prices of the two bronze artefacts far exceeded their value.
“The auction house took advantage of our patriotism and complex feelings [about history] ... They forced up the prices because Chinese people are so obsessed about recovering them and can now actually afford them. Before that, the two bronze artifacts’ price was assessed at merely 8 million yuan [HK$9 million].”
Antiques expert Xie Chensheng said the two bronze fountainheads would not be deemed national treasures in the context of the country’s 5,000 years of history.
“They are absolutely not national treasures, but testament to national humiliation [of being raided by foreigners]. You can’t simply put a price on humiliation,” he said.
Not every netizen backed the administration’s tough stand, with many saying it had overreacted.
“The authorities destroyed so many priceless cultural relics during the 10-year Cultural Revolution and thousands of heritage items are damaged every year because of lack of funding and protection,” one wrote. “The two bronze artefacts looted by British and French forces have been preserved much better overseas.”
The Qing dynasty fountainheads were looted from the palace in October 1860, towards the end of the second opium war, which pitted the British and French against China.
Beijing had demanded the relics’ return, but the French government said it had received no official request and the sale went ahead after a Paris court threw out a last-ditch bid to remove the bronzes from auction.
Post a Comment