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Original title: The horse head returned to Yuanmingyuan after 160 years. So far seven animal heads have returned, including the rat head.
Bronze horse head statue (Source: Official Weibo of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage)
The head of the Old Summer Palace was exhibited at the National Exhibition (Photo Source: Official National Museum of Weibo)
□ Dahe Daily · Dahe Client Reporter Zhang Yi
In 1856, the Second Opium War broke out. Four years later, British and French forces invaded Beijing. The Qing Emperor fled to Chengde. British and French forces stormed the Old Summer Palace, looted the treasures and burned them in a fire. The bronze statue of the second zodiac was also cut and removed. 160 years later, on December 1, 2020, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage and the Beijing Municipal People’s Government held the “Transfer Ceremony of the Bronze Horse Head Statue from Yuanmingyuan to Tibet” at Yuanmingyuan Zhengjue Temple . The Yuanmingyuan horse head bronze statue ended a century of scrolling and became the first. Important cultural relics from overseas that have returned to the Old Summer Palace.
At the ceremony, Luo Jing, director of the Department of Museum and Cultural Social Relics of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, handed over the bronze statue of the horse’s head to the Yuanmingyuan Administration Bureau in Haidian District, Beijing, and transferred it to the Tibetan inventory. This means that the right to manage the bronze statue of the horse’s head in the Old Summer Palace is officially transferred to the Management Office of the Old Summer Palace. The bronze statue of the beast head of the twelve Chinese zodiac cast in the Qianlong period is a cast red bronze statue. It is part of the fountain outside the Haiyan Hall of the Changchunyuan Western Building Complex in the Old Summer Palace. The twelve signs of the zodiac represent different times of the day. The water is sprayed in sequence every day. , Also known as “hydraulic clock”.
A journalist from Dahe Daily and Dahe Client learned that the bronze statue of Horse Head appeared on the auction market in 2007. He Hongshen bought it back for HK $ 69.1 million and exhibited it in Hong Kong and Macau for many years. In 2019, as a gift for the 20th anniversary of Macau’s return to the homeland, Stanley Ho decided to officially donate the bronze horsehead statue to the National Cultural Heritage Administration.
The horse head is back, where are the other 11 heads of the zodiac now?
After consulting the information, the journalist discovered that the bronze statues of the bull’s head, tiger’s head and monkey’s head in the Old Summer Palace had returned to China as early as 2000. In 2000, Christie’s and Sotheby’s auctioned bronze statues heads of bulls, monkeys and tigers in Hong Kong, sparking the anger of the Chinese people over the auction of lost cultural relics. In the end, China Poly Group Corporation bought the cultural relics at a high price. Three years later, in 2003, Zhang Yongnian, director of the Special Fund for the Rescue of Lost Foreign Cultural Relics, and other experts learned that the bronze statue of the pig’s head was in the hands of an American collector. They negotiated the details of the transaction with the other party and, to resolve the financing issue, approached Stanley Ho for help. Stanley Ho spent 6 million yuan to buy a bronze statue of a pig’s head and donated it to the Poly Art Museum.
Today, the bronze statues of the bull’s head, tiger’s head, monkey’s head, and pig’s head are all collected by the Poly Art Museum.
In 2009, a bronze statue of a rat head and a bronze statue of a rabbit’s head held two animal head auctions at an overseas auction agency, prompting a strong response from society. Since then, both Chinese and foreign parties have worked hard to get the animal’s head back to China properly. In the end, the two animal heads were bought by the French Pino family and returned to China in the name of their family. The State Administration of Cultural Heritage transferred the two animal heads to the National Museum of China.
As of December 2020, the seven animal heads of rat head, cow head, tiger head, rabbit head, horse head, monkey head, and pig head have returned through auctions, donations, etc. There are still dragon heads, snake heads, sheep heads, and chicken heads. The whereabouts of the five bronze statues, including the head and the dog’s head, are still unknown.
A Dahe News reporter learned from the official Weibo of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage that the “One Hundred Years of Dreams: Return of the Bronze Horse Head Statue in Yuanmingyuan” will be the main line of the return of the head of horse, divided into three units: Yuanming Chongguang, Wanyuan garden and return of the horse head. , Revealing hidden cultural codes, focusing on the story behind the return of cultural relics. The exhibition area is 1,172 square meters, with a total of around 100 components, such as cultural relics and photographs on display. As a basic display of the Zhengjue Temple, it will continue to be displayed and open to the public.
Little knowledge >>
The Animal Head Designer
The twelve beast heads were originally located in the West Building in the Old Summer Palace. The fountain in front of the Haiyan Hall has six beast heads in the north and south.
To the south are Zishu, Yinhu, Chenlong, Wuma, Shenhou and Xugou;
To the north there are ugly cows, rabbits, snakes, sheep, chickens and pigs.
They were designed by missionary Castiglione (1688-1766), designed and supervised by Frenchman Jiang Youren (1715-1744), and produced by artisans of the Qing court.
Initially, Castiglione wanted to put Western nude sculptures here, but Emperor Qianlong did not agree. Later, Castiglione fully considered traditional Chinese culture, so he used the zodiac theme.
