Auction of looted relics 'a history lesson for all'

(China Daily)
Updated: 2009-03-03 08:01

The Christie's auction of the two looted Chinese relics last week in Paris serves as a reminder of history to the whole world, including the French people, the spokesman for the country's top advisory body said yesterday.

The auction has caused strong resentment in China and people have started to question the virtues of French culture, said Zhao Qizheng, spokesman for the second session of the 11th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC).

"We have always admired French culture. What happened this time? Has French culture got sick?" Zhao quoted online comments as saying.

However, Zhao said "most French people - especially the brightest minds in France - possess the esteemed values that Chinese admire" and quoted several famous French writers including Victor Hugo.

"In the eyes of history, one of the two outlaws will be called France, the other will be called England. I hope there will come a day when France, liberated and cleaned up, will send back this booty to a plundered China," Zhao quoted Hugo as describing the razing of the Old Summer Palace in 1860 during the Second Opium War.

The spokesman also quoted Bernard Brizay, author of 1860: the Looting of the Old Summer Palace, as saying that for the French, the looting of the Old Summer Palace would be the same as if the Prussians in 1870 had razed Versailles down to the ground, looted the Louvre (museum) and set fire to the national library, as the palace was all of those rolled into one.

"Jacques Chirac, former French president, read the book," Zhao said. "He said he was glad to see the episode of history was recorded in a straightforward way by the French."

Xinhua