Peter Kammerer

No excuse for ancient Chinese treasures to be hoarded in Western museums any longer

China’s scientific advances mean the claim that ancient artefacts are best preserved in the West no longer holds water

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Collector Liu Yiqian shows the Meiyintang “chicken cup” from the Ming dynasty that he bought at a Sotheby's action in July 2014. Photo: AP

Peter Kammerer

Published: 9:00am, 21 May 2019Updated: 9:37am, 21 May 2019

Britain and other nations holding looted Chinese relics and artworks in their museums have no excuse not to hand them back. The days when Beijing could not be counted on to properly preserve and display them have long passed.

Inexpensive flights and the internet negate claims that London and New York are the best places in the world to permanently put artefacts on show. To insist otherwise is to support cultural imperialism.

These are strong words, but China is no longer a scientific slouch. It has scared the United States into a new space race and is a world leader in supercomputing, robotics, artificial intelligence and quantum research, among a growing list. Is it able to house artefacts and artworks to the highest standards? Of that there is no doubt, as the impressive infrastructure, skylines and science parks of major cities attest.

The China Cultural Relics Academy has put the number of Chinese treasures overseas in museums and private hands at 10 million. A large chunk was taken between 1840 and 1945, when the nation was at the mercy of foreign colonial powers.

The incident that most – and still – rankles is the looting and burning of the old Summer Palace in Beijing in 1860 by British and French soldiers, with at least 1.5 million items estimated to have been plundered.

The Tiger Ying, a bronze water vessel dating back to the Western Zhou period (1046BC-771BC), is displayed at the National Museum of China in Beijing in January 2019. The vessel, which was looted by a British military officer from the old Summer Palace in 1860, was auctioned by Sotheby’s, fetching £410,000 (US$522,000) despite protests from China in April 2018. However, the anonymous buyer then donated the item to the Chinese government. Photo: Simon Song