A Chinese bronze vessel some 3,000 years old that was stolen and taken to the United Kingdom in the 19th century, has returned to its country of origin, officials said. It was transferred to the National Museum of China on Tuesday.
The vessel, called the Tiger Ying because it looks like the tiger, is from the late period of the Western Zhou Dynasty. Before it was lost, it was in the Old Summer Palace, or Yuanmingyuan, a huge garden of the Qing Dynasty in northwest Beijing, along with many other royal collections of cultural relics. The Old Summer Palace was burned in 1860. The Tiger Ying was stolen by a British military officer, as shown by a letter he wrote. It had been kept by his family ever since.
In April, the Tiger Ying appeared in an auction catalog at the Canterbury Auction Galleries in Kent in southern England, which made Chinese netizens angry. Though the Chinese government strongly protested the auction, the Tiger Ying was sold for 410,000 pounds ($517,000) on April 11 to a buyer whose name remains unknown. The buyer, however, showed a desire to return it to China in communications with the National Cultural Heritage Administration and the Chinese embassy in London, officials said.
The preparations for its return began in June. It was returned to Chinese embassy on Sept 21 and remained there until it was moved to Beijing on Nov 23. “Its journey back home is a milestone in our efforts to get the lost treasures from overseas,” Liu said. “It fully shows our responsibility to protect our country’s cultural heritage.”
Only eight ying artifacts are known to exist, according to Sun Ji, 89, an archaeologist. Sun said it was used for rituals in the Western Zhou period. People burned wine for the gods to “smell”. The ying probably was a holder for spices that were combined with alcohol.
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