In October 1860, British and French soldiers burnt and looted Beijing's Summer Palace, forcing the Qing dynasty to sign the Convention of Peking. The treaty ceded Hong Kong and Kowloon to Britain - among other things - and formally ended the Second Opium War.
One and a half centuries on, Kowloon is once again part of China. But most of the relics looted in the British-French action are still far from home.
Hence the drama surrounding the Christie's auction of two Qing dynasty bronzes. Owned by the late French designer Yves Saint Laurent, the bronze rat and rabbit heads - from a 12-signs-of-the-zodiac set that once graced the Summer Palace - are considered national property by the central government. When they were put up for auction in Paris, the government and Chinese media launched a war of words.
A team of Chinese lawyers attempted legal action to stop the auction. They were unsuccessful. Yves Saint Laurent's partner, Pierre Berg?, further fanned the flames by saying he would give the bronzes back if China freed Tibet.
Amid all the controversy, Christie's went ahead and sold the bronzes for a staggering Euro14 million (HK$ 136.5 million) each. The punchline? The winning bidder was a Chinese collector who announced he had no intention of paying.
China is not alone in the fight to retrieve a looted cultural heritage. Egypt has been campaigning to retrieve the 2,000-year-old Rosetta Stone, which was the breakthrough in decoding hieroglyphics. The Greeks want the Elgin Marbles back - the British, who give both the stone and marbles pride of place in the British Museum, tried to placate them with a replica.
Those who argue for the return of looted treasures say 'theft is theft' and not returning them is immoral. The argument goes that, by law, any stolen object should be returned to its original owner, and cultural artefacts should be no exception, even if hundreds of years have elapsed.
