Auctioning of treasures lost in a humiliating era hurtful, says Tung adviser

A top adviser to the Chief Executive said the decision by Sotheby's and Christie's to sell two looted Chinese relics in Hong Kong was a 'commercial activity that could not be more stupid'.

Convenor of the Executive Council Leung Chun-ying said antiques were not 'ordinary national treasures' but relics lost during invasions by foreign forces in the most humiliating period in Chinese history.

'When I read statements made by the auction houses that the auctions were commercial activities with no political motives, I personally think these are commercial activities that could not be more stupid. This hurts very much the feelings of Hong Kong and Chinese people.' Mr Leung, however, said there was no need to legislate to ban the auctioning of national treasures. 'I don't expect commercial concerns to repeat their commercial stupidity,' he said.

In an interview with Ta Kung Pao published yesterday, an unnamed spokesman for the State Bureau of Cultural Relics criticised the lack of legislation in Hong Kong to protect national relics. 'It's regrettable it has turned Hong Kong into one of the major places for illegal trading of cultural relics,' he said.

Professor Albert Chen Hung-yee, head of the University of Hong Kong's law faculty, said there was no provision in present laws for the return of seized articles.

There were two relevant international conventions, he said: a 1970 Unesco convention on the ownership of cultural property; and a 1995 Unidroit convention on stolen or illegally exported cultural objects. Unidroit is an international institution for the unification of private law.