Chinese scroll painting that was mutilated will be shown whole for the first time since being cut up

The 20-metre long scroll number six is one of 12 scroll paintings that are collectively named The Kangxi Emperor’s Southern Inspection Tour

Cut into seven pieces on the orders of its French owner, the fragments were bought by two collectors at auctions since 2010 and have been reassembled

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A fragmented scroll depicting some of the travels of Emperor Kangxi across the country during his reign will be displayed in its entirety next month for the first time since being cut into seven pieces in France last century. Photo: Nora Tam

Published: 7:15pm, 23 Sep 2020Updated: 3:48pm, 27 Jan 2021

A mutilated, painted Chinese scroll from the 17th century will be shown in full in Hong Kong for the first time next month, bringing to life a depiction of one of the most fabled surveys of the country undertaken by a Chinese ruler.

The upcoming reassembly of all seven fragments of scroll number six depicting The Kangxi Emperor’s Southern Inspection Tour (1689-1695) is also a reminder of the sheer number of once-looted imperial Chinese art that is now in the hands of the city’s private collectors.

The scroll had been cut into seven pieces in the 20th century in France.

Experts think that a French general probably took it from the Forbidden City in 1900, when Beijing was invaded by the Eight-Nation Alliance of troops from Germany, Japan, Russia, Britain, France, the United States, Italy and Austria-Hungary.

The scroll will be displayed at the Hong Kong Exhibition and Convention Centre in October. Photo: Nora Tam

In 1689, Emperor Kangxi commissioned artist Wang Hui to record his inspection tours of the Jiangnan area in eastern China. The region, in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, was referred to as “The South” in relation to the palace in Beijing and the land of Kangxi’s ancestors, Manchuria.

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