May 1, 2000
CONTENTS:
- Christie's Defies China, Auctions Treasures
- Sotheby's In Talks With China Over Treasures
- State's missing painting keeps officials guessing
Christie's Defies China, Auctions Treasures
By Dominic Lau
HONG KONG (Reuters) - The auction house Christie's defied Beijing Sunday by selling off two art objects that China believes were looted from an imperial palace 140 years ago. The two sculptures -- a monkey head and an ox head -- fetched HK$15.93 million ($2.04 million), compared with Christie's earlier estimate of between $450,000 and $575,000. Christie's said both pieces had gone to the same buyer. Company officials declined to identify him but Hong Kong media said he was a collector from mainland China. Two more objects -- a hexagonal vase and a bronze tiger head -- are due to go under the hammer at a Sotheby's auction here on Tuesday. China believes all four treasures were looted from the Yuan Ming Yuan, the Manchu emperors' summer palace outside Beijing, when it was ransacked by British and French troops in 1860. The site is a ruin to this day. Within days of the sacking, a humiliated imperial government signed the Treaty of Beijing, by which it ceded to Britain the tip of the Kowloon Peninsula on the Chinese mainland across from the British settlement on Hong Kong island. Today, three years after Britain finally handed back Hong Kong and Kowloon to China, Beijing sees the sale of ``looted'' Chinese art pieces on its soil as an affront to national pride. Chinese authorities had put heavy pressure on Christie's and Sotheby's to withdraw the items from sale. ``The auction houses' transactions in looted relics not only strain their own reputation, but also affront the Chinese people,'' Liu Shuguang, an official of China's State Bureau of Cultural Relics, said Saturday. ``If the auction houses insist on selling these treasures, they will have to pay for their ill-advised choice,'' Liu said. He declined to say what action China might take. Liu insisted that the four items should be returned to China under principles formulated by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in 1995. Several Hong Kong activists demanding that the treasures be handed back tried Sunday to storm into the auction venue at a five-star hotel. There were minor scuffles as police and hotel security staff barred them from entering. Sotheby's said Friday it was talking to the State Bureau of Cultural Relics to find a solution to the matter. ``We have been, and are continuing to be, in discussions with them to try to reach an amicable solution in the near future, and I am sure that we will before the auction,'' said Carlton Rochell, Sotheby's managing director for China and Southeast Asia. Kamuel Chow, who values antiques for Hong Kong customs, expected the hexagonal vase to fetch between HK$8 and 16 million ($1.025-2.05 million), the South China Morning Post said on Saturday. The latest controversy over Chinese treasures comes just weeks after U.S. authorities stopped the New York auction of an ancient Chinese sculpture, shipped from Hong Kong, after Chinese officials had reported it stolen.
Sotheby's In Talks With China Over Treasures
HONG KONG, Apr 29, 2000 -- (Reuters) Sotheby's said it is talking to Chinese officials after Beijing demanded the auction house surrender two art objects it believes were looted from an imperial palace 140 years ago. In an interview with Reuters late on Friday, the company said it was talking to China's State Bureau of Cultural Relics on the two items originally scheduled to be auctioned next Tuesday. "We have been, and are continuing to be, in discussions with them to try to reach an amicable solution in the near future, and I am sure that we will before the auction," said Carlton Rochell, Sotheby's managing director for China and Southeast Asia. The bureau is seeking to block the auction in Hong Kong next week of four art objects which it believes were looted from Yuan Ming Palace when it was ransacked by British and French troops in 1860, the Economic Daily reported this week. The Yuan Ming Palace, the summer residence of the Qing imperial court, is just outside Beijing and is known today as the Summer Palace. The newspaper said the bureau also demanded repatriation of the items. Of the four, a hexagonal vase and a bronze tiger grace the front and back covers of Sotheby's spring sale catalogue. Two sculptures - a monkey head and a boar head - will go under the hammer at a Christie's auction. "It is an issue where I think there is a concern about the patrimony of these items, about their historical place in Chinese history and the fact that during a difficult time in China when there were British and French invasions, that perhaps these pieces left the country during difficult times," Rochell said. "It is a matter of us addressing concerns and making sure that we address them properly and to the satisfaction of the Bureau of Cultural Relics. That is our intention," he added. "We are trying to cooperate as fully as possible," he said. "Cultural heritage is important to every nation in the world and we are very conscious and very careful about the auctions of works of arts that we hold."
HK BEST PLACE FOR AUCTIONS
The Chinese newspaper also said the auctioning of the disputed art objects in Hong Kong, now a part of China, is "absolutely shocking" and a serious affront to Beijing. Rochell said Hong Kong was "absolutely" the best place to auction Chinese works of art despite Beijing's remarks. "It is very exciting that this market is in fact a market that is now selling to Chinese," he said. "There seems to be more and more collectors locally and more and more interest coming from all over China." He said Sotheby's auctions of Chinese works of art helped repatriating them because many of the items came from overseas collectors and sold eventually to Chinese and other Asians. Rochell stressed Sotheby's was not violating any international or Hong Kong laws or any treaties. Reacting to Beijing's remarks, Christie's spokesman Anthony Lin said: "We are aware of these views. But at the present time, we have no comment." The latest controversy over Chinese treasures comes just weeks after the auction of an ancient Chinese sculpture in New York - sent from Hong Kong - was stopped by U.S. authorities after it was reported stolen by Chinese officials.
State's missing painting keeps officials guessing
BY JOHN O'CONNOR ASSOCIATED PRESS
SPRINGFIELD--Illinois has a mystery on its hands. Call it the Case of the Lost Locks. Or maybe that should be Lochs. Only two things are certain: The state paid $1,200 for a painting 50 years ago, and the painting is gone. Everything else--the artist, what the painting looked like, even the name of the painting--is unknown. The mystery arose two weeks ago when an auditor's report listed a painting called "View of the Lockes" by "Sylvester" as missing from the governor's mansion. It was first listed as inventory in 1950. There is no record of it again until it was discovered to be missing in the new audit. The only other clue is a frame tucked away in a mansion work room. With space for a painting 10 inches by 14 inches, it has the same inventory number as that reported for the painting. "It appeared it had been in the same position for a very, very long time. I'm told it was layered in dust," said Nick Palazzolo, spokesman for Gov. Ryan. Given the title--assuming "lockes" refers to the locks that take boats through river dams--and the creator's name, experts assume it's a painting by Frederick Oakes Sylvester, a landscape artist and poet who lived from 1869 to 1915 and is regionally famous for his paintings of the Mississippi River. "This one, at 10-by-14, it could have been an exquisite gem," said Jack Parker, a St. Louis art and antique dealer, who sees Sylvester paintings sell for $5,000 to $20,000. But neither Parker nor other Sylvester enthusiasts have ever heard of "View of the Lockes," whose purchase price is equivalent to $8,455 today. The enigma of the "lockes" deepens when considering the river's history. The earliest modern lock built on the Mississippi went up in 1913, according to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers--just two years before Sylvester's death. So while it might make sense for an Illinois governor to purchase a Mississippi River scene, maybe the painting is of a "loch," the Scottish word for "lake." Ryan spokesman Dave Urbanek said the painting--or a missing tray and rug--have not been reported to the police. "We have no reason to believe they're stolen," he said.