• The price was 10 times the record price Qi's work fetched in global art circles in 1998.
• "The rise in the price of artwork in its home country, and the forthcoming return of the country's relics from overseas have been a natural result of the economic boom," said Zhang Yongnian, director of the nongovernmental China Cultural Relics Recovery Fund.
More than 30 percent of the art works appearing at the company's autumn auction were collected from overseas. The coming Guardian auction couldn't be taking place at a better time. The Chinese art market showed signs of heating up again a fortnight ago, when an album of flower-and-bird paintings by Chinese artist Qi Baishi (1863-1957) hit a controversially high price of 16.61 million yuan (US$2 million).
"Items housed in Beijing from the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368) to date, from historical files to national treasures, have been swept away," according to official documents from the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). Of the numerous cultural relics that were taken out of the country in the 100 years after the First Opium War (1840-42), a large number are now stored at major public museums in Europe and the United States, said Lin Shuzhong, a professor with the Nanjing Academy of Arts.For instance, relics from the Old Summer Palace have been showcased in the British Museum and the Fontainebleau Art Museum in France.
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Cultural Relics on Their Way Home
Cultural relics as remnants of history, are regarded as records of the rise and fall of a nation. Many Chinese cultural relics, which have been scattered around the world over the last century, have started to return home to the collections of Chinese cultural institutions, enterprises and residents over the past decade.
This wave of returning artifacts has aroused issues concerning the protection of China's cultural heritage and the development of the antique market in the country. "The hot art market has contributed to the current 'tidal wave', among other factors," said Kou Qin, assistant general manager of the Beijing-based China Guardian Auction Co.
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In 1860, invading British and French armies looted and burned down the Old Summer Palace, which was known then as the "garden of gardens."In 1900, the invading British, American, German, French, Russian, Japanese, Italian and Austrian troops sparked looting throughout Beijing, including the Forbidden City, the Summer Palace, temples and mausoleums, government offices and residential houses.
"It occurred in Japan and the Republic of Korea (ROK) when Japanese and Korean art pieces began to return from overseas in the 1980s and 1990s."Like other ancient civilizations, China has seen many cultural relics taken overseas when the country was subjected to wars and international bullying, said Zhang.