法國皮諾家族捐贈圓明園流失鼠首兔首 有望下半年回家

Two imperial bronze sculptures that were looted from Beijing's Old Summer Palace will come home later this year, thanks to the donation of the French art-collecting Pinault family, China's top heritage authority announced on Friday afternoon.

The State Administration of Cultural Heritage announced the news on its website after a meeting with the visiting Pinaults on Friday morning.

The sculptures, of a rat and a rabbit head, were made for the zodiac fountain of Emperor Qianlong's Old Summer Palace, and looted when the palace was razed by invading French and British forces in 1860.

The sculptures made news when their auction by French auction house Christie's in February 2009 aroused controversy worldwide.

The statues' winning bid was more than 31 million euros ($40.3 million), but the deal collapsed when Chinese buyer Cai Mingchao refused to pay.

The Pinault family — the majority shareholder of PPR, whose brands include Gucci, Yves Saint Laurent and Puma — bought the two sculptures after that.

Francois-Henri Pinault, CEO of PPR, promised the donation on behalf of the family, which also owns auction house Christie's, during a meeting with SACH officials on Friday.

Earlier this month, Christie's was granted a license that will enable it to become the first international auction house to operate independently in China, which has overtaken the United States as the world's largest art and auction market.

The SACH highly endorsed the donation, saying it was "in accordance with the spirit of international conventions" and "of friendliness to Chinese people", which will help push forward the "common international understanding that cultural relics should be returned to their country of origin".

Song Xinchao, deputy director of SACH who met Pinault at Beijing's Park Hyatt Hotel on Friday morning, said China hopes to see the return of the sculptures by July and add them to the collection at the National Museum of China.

To date, five of the 12 bronze animal fountainheads from the Old Summer Palace have been returned to China through purchases in auctions or donations by overseas Chinese collectors.

Like other ancient civilizations, China saw many cultural relics taken overseas when the country was subjected to wars and occupation.

According to the Chinese Cultural Relics Association, more than 10 million Chinese cultural relics were taken from the country from 1840 to 1949, a large number of which are now stored at major public museums in Europe and the US.

The number of relics plundered from the Old Summer Palace alone is estimated at about 1.5 million, now housed in more than 2,000 museums in 47 countries.

A majority of them are being showcased in the British Museum and the Fontainebleau Art Museum in France, experts said.

China has been actively seeking the return of overseas relics during the past decade through purchases at international auctions, donations by private collectors or overseas Chinese, and increasingly through diplomatic means based on international conventions.

"We're open to any channel for the return of cultural relics," Song said.

【新聞快訊】

昨日，法國皮諾家族在北京宣佈，將向中方無償捐贈流失海外的圓明園銅鼠首和兔首。這是圓明園十二生肖獸首被英法聯軍掠走後，首次由海外無償捐贈的方式重返祖國。

法方表示，將在九十月份完成兩件圓明園獸首的迴歸，不過，中方希望能提前至七月份。算上此次回鄉的鼠首和兔首，以及牛首、猴首、虎首、豬首和馬首，共有7尊獸首回到國內。

皮諾家族，即法國PPR集團是世界第三大奢侈品集團，該集團旗下的品牌更加耳熟能詳，比如古馳（Gucci）、寶緹嘉（Bottega Veneta）等。佳士得拍賣也爲其家族所有。

對於此次捐贈活動，國家文物局給出了明確回覆：中方對此舉予以積極評價，認爲這一意願符合有關文化遺產保護國際公約的原則精神，是對中國人民的友好表示，也有利於更多中國流失境外文物的迴歸。

雙獸首迴歸的具體月份，仍未具體公佈。國家文物局表示，文物迴歸的“所有渠道都是敞開的”。該局負責人表示，鼠首和兔首可能入藏中國國家博物館。也有專家認爲，銅獸首應當回到圓明園裏收藏，但目前該遺址並沒有標準的博物館，不具備展示和保存功能。