Stanley Ho pays HK$69m for looted treasure
Bronze horse head bound for mainland after tycoon steps in
A bronze horse head that was looted from the Summer Palace in Beijing will be returned to the mainland after tycoon Stanley Ho Hung-sun bought it for HK$69.1 million ahead of an auction due to be held next month.
It was expected to have fetched up to HK$80 million at the Sotheby's sale in Hong Kong, in which 200 Chinese works are going under the hammer.
But after a month of negotiations, the Taiwanese owner agreed to sell it to Mr Ho, given the casino magnate's desire to see it returned to the motherland.
The price set a world record for a Qing dynasty sculpture. The head was part of a series featuring the 12 animals of the Chinese zodiac on a water clock at the Yuanmingyuan royal garden, or old Summer Palace.
Under the deal, Mr Ho agreed to pay HK$68 million, plus HK$1.1 million in administration fees. The Taiwanese collector bought the sculpture for GBP200,000 (HK$3.14 million) at an auction in London in 1989.
Mr Ho said: 'It was in Taiwan for several decades. I am very honoured to bring it back as a participant in the recovery programme of China's cultural relics.'
Mr Ho acquired a pig head in 2003 for more than HK$6 million and donated it to a mainland museum.
He said he might buy and donate other relics in the future.
'It is just very natural for cultural heritage to return to its owner.'
The bronze horse will be exhibited to the public from October 4 to October 8 in the Convention and Exhibition Centre, then displayed in the Hotel Grand Lisboa in Macau from October 9. Mr Ho said it had yet to be decided where the relic would be housed on the mainland.
The State Administration of Cultural Heritage on the mainland thanked Mr Ho for his efforts in bringing back the national treasure, praising it as a patriotic act.
'We are glad to witness the home-coming of the bronze horse head after its expatriation for nearly one and a half centuries,' it said.
'His efforts have made the return possible.'
The mainland authorities have been arguing for the return of looted treasure. Beijing says the heads were stolen by British and French troops during the second Opium war in 1860.
Ox, tiger and monkey heads from the palace were put under the hammer in two auctions held by Sotheby's and Christie's in Hong Kong seven years ago.
They were bought for more than HK$31 million by the Poly Art Museum, a subsidiary of the Poly Group, a state-backed enterprise that has close ties with the People's Liberation Army.
The Chinese Fund for Rescuing Cultural Relics Lost from China, a semi-official group set up in 2002 under the Ministry of Culture, has previously voiced strong opposition to such auctions.
The water clock, outside the baroque Palace of the Haiyantang, or Hall of the Calm Sea, in the Summer Palace, consisted of 12 bronze heads of the zodiac animals. The horse head would have marked the hours between eleven and one. The heads were probably cast in the Imperial workshops in the Forbidden City.
The rabbit and rat heads remain in a private European collection.
