The two bronze heads from the Qing dynasty looted in the nineteenth century have become a cause celebre for Chinese nationalists seeking their return from the attempted sale of the YSL collection in France (when the buyer refused to pay for them). On Friday the billionaire owner of Christie’s auction house said he would hand the rat and rabbit heads back.
Scheherazade Daneshkhu, 'Pinault family offers to return bronze heads to China', Financial Times April 26, 2013
This is a great event which should put to shame many who are still holding on to looted cultural artefacts of other peoples. Would this example be followed by others soon? Could the Nigerians expect to receive from Britain, France, Germany and others a few of the hundreds of the Benin bronzes they have been keeping illegally for years? Would everybody now agree that keeping stolen/looted artefacts is as bad as keeping any stolen property?
ReplyDelete