Another sale stirs anger over stolen relics
- Source: Global Times
- [02:00 November 06 2009]
- Comments
"Before we understand how the seal was stolen and sold abroad, we should not criticize it blindly," he said.
He said emotional over-reaction to the auction would jack up the price of the seal, as happened during the fountainheads dispute earlier this year.
The price of each of the 12 fountainhead ornaments in the shape of China's zodiac, stolen from the Old Summer Palace, was boosted from 10,000 yuan ($1,500) in the 1980s to hundreds of millions of yuan, because Western auctions took advantage of the Chinese people's patriotic passion to return a stolen art treasure, a commentator told Guangzhou Daily.
Tian Yuan, an antique expert, echoed that view, telling the Global Times that the London auction was "price hype."
"It must have been purchased by an amateur, because insiders won't go for the high selling price," he said.
He said green jade is not as valuable as white jade; only the imperial tag boosted the price.
The seal is among 261 pieces presented for auction in the "Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art" session. But only 153 pieces were sold, with total sales of 8.3 million pounds ($13.7 million), China National Radio reported Thursday.
Newly wealthy Chinese have flocked to London to acquire high quality objects from their heritage, especially when associated with emperors from the Ming and Qing dynasties, Bloomberg quoted dealers as saying Thursday.
The Old Summer Palace dispatched a panel last month to travel around the world within a year to trace over 1.5 million art treasures looted by British and French invaders in 1860.
