Taiwan analyst warns against sending treasures on show in China

Mar 2, 2009, 7:16 GMT

   Taipei - China's effort to secure the return of looted art makes it dangerous for Taiwan to send its treasures for exhibition in China, a Taiwan analyst warned Monday.

   In an article carried by the Apple Daily, political analyst Antonio Chiang said China's seeking the return of a bronze rabbit head and rat head - auctioned in Paris by Christie's Wednesday - has cast a shadow over exchanges between Taiwan's National Palace Museum and the Beijing Palace Museum.

   Chiang said that the two bronzes, allegedly looted from Beijing's Summer Palace by British and French troops in 1860, are nothing compared to the treasures held at the Taipei National Palace Museum.

   The two bronzes ended up in the United States some 20 years ago as decorations in someone's bathroom, and were worth only a few hundred US dollars at that time, he wrote.

   But in recent years, due to the overheating of the market for Chinese art works, the two sculptures could each fetch millions of US dollars on the international market, he said.

   China is seeking the return of these two bronzes - with nearly 100 lawyers planning to file a lawsuit - because of soaring nationalism in China. Many Chinese see the two bronzes being seized by foreigners as a national shame, he wrote.

   Chiang said it is hard for China to recover the rabbit and rat heads because it's hard to prove they were looted from China. International treaties on looted art are non-binding, so the effort to recover looted art is usually futile.

   'Taiwan is worried that China cannot guarantee returning Taiwan's treasures to Taipei after exhibition. China's seeking the return of the two bronzes in Paris has cast a huge shadow on exchanges between the Palace Museums of Taiwan and China,' he warned.

   When the Chinese Nationalist government lost the Chinese Civil War in 1949, it fled to Taiwan to set up its government-in-exile and brought 650,000 pieces of art to Taiwan. The relics were the best pieces from Beijing's Palace Museum.