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Irrational logic on relics

(China Daily)
Updated: 2009-02-25 07:48

A French judge's refusal to halt the sale of bronze heads of a rabbit and rat at an auction today does not mean an end to the Chinese people's efforts to retrieve such relics.

What is hard to understand is the mindset of those who often believe whatever is secured by force from others belongs to them, henceforth.

What is even more ridiculous is the connection Pierre Berge, the former partner of Yves Saint Laurent and now owner of the art collection to be auctioned, has tried to make between the return of the animal heads and human rights.

He said that he would give the cultural relics back to China if the country "gives the Tibetans" back their freedom and agrees to accept the Dalai Lama on their territory. And he accepted that his terms amounted to blackmail.

How much does he know about Tibet? Isn't it just irrational for him to brag about something he knows little about?

That only means he follows what we Chinese call gangster logic - to blackmail someone with something robbed from that person.

It is reasonable for a group of Chinese lawyers and APACE, a Europe-based society that filed the suit, to demand suspension of the sale, and for the heads to be displayed at a museum before their rightful return through diplomatic channels.

The Chinese have all reasons to feel indignant about the auction and the far-fetched connection between the return of their bronze animal heads and ridiculous demands for human rights.

The two pieces are among the bronze sculptures of 12 animal heads originally kept in Yumingyuan, the Old Summer Palace, before it was pillaged and destroyed by British and French forces in 1860. They were made to represent the traditional symbolic animals in the 12-year cycle in the traditional Chinese lunar calendar.

Only five of them - the heads of the ox, monkey, tiger, pig and horse - have been recovered so far.

Most of them were bought back when they were auctioned, except for one that was secured for about $700,000 by Macao entrepreneur Stanley Ho from a US art collector in 2007.

It does make sense for some organizations in the country or elsewhere to pay for their return as the art collectors in possession of them have paid to obtain them and to keep them in good shape.

But no matter how the late fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent acquired the two head sculptures, the fact is they were originally pillaged from China. The barbarous nature of the British and French marauders who destroyed the Old Summer Palace more than 140 years ago is also a historical fact.

Those who took part in the plundering and the very act of setting fire to the "garden of all gardens" owe Chinese people a heavy debt not only in the real value of properties they destroyed or plundered but also in terms of morality and justice.

Pierre Berge has added to that debt by using the stolen cultural relics to make an unreasonable demand on something that he knows little about and is contrary to law and justice.

(China Daily 02/25/2009 page8)