Art sale strains ties between France and China
Updated
China has demanded the cancellation of an auction of two historic bronze sculptures, which are set to go under the hammer at Christie's auction house in Paris as part of a sale by the estate of the late French fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent. Yves Saint Laurent bought the two bronze sculptures legally. But they were originally stolen from Beijing's Summer Palace by invading French and British forces in 1860. And China wants them back.
Presenter: Joanna McCarthy
Speakers: Pierre Berge, partner of the late French fashion designer, Yves Saint Laurent; Professor Geremie Barme, Chinese history department, Australian National University; Professor Emeritus Colin MacKerras, Asian Studies, Griffith University
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MCCARTHY: The sculptures of a rat and a rabbit head are one of 12 bronze heads that were plundered by French and British forces as they razed Beijing's Summer Palace in 1860 during the Second Opium War.
The looting and destruction of the Summer Palace, also known as the Garden of Perfect Brightness, has been seared into the Chinese consciousness:
BARME: There's been contention over it, but it's only really in the last 20 years or so that the Garden of Perfect Brightness has become an official state icon of humiliation, of the punishment visited on China because of its weak and supine rulers and its incompetent and decaying political rule.
MCCARTHY: Geremie Barme is a professor of Chinese history at the Australian National University.
BARME: The government has made the iconic elements of the Garden of Perfect Brightness, broken pillars and buildings, to be the visual symbols of Chinese humiliation and also of Chinese national pride.
MCCARTHY: And now two of those visual symbols have landed on Christie's auction block in Paris, as part of the art collection of the late French fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent.
Christie's values the sculptures at up to 10 million euro each and says there are no legal grounds to bar the sale.
Yves Saint Laurent's partner, Pierre Berge, is willing to hand the sculptures over to Beijing but his offer comes at a price.
BERGE: The only thing I ask the Chinese people and the Chinese government is to address the human rights, to give liberty Tibetan people and to welcome the Dalai Lama, that's all.
MCCARTHY: It's an offer that was dismissed by China's foreign ministry as ridiculous; a response that came as no surprise to Geremie Barme.
BARME: I'm afraid it was a very, one might sympathise with this type of request of the Chinese authorities, but one could only say in this case it would compound without doubt the humiliation and ire of the Chinese authorities. That would mean that the Chinese government today would react vociferously to any suggestion that these looted goods could be returned in trade for some deal related to Chinese human rights or to the Dalai Lama situation. No matter how one personally may view such things the Chinese authorities not surprisingly are infuriated by such a suggestion.
MCCARTHY: The dispute also takes place against a backdrop of strained diplomatic ties between China and France.
Many Chinese remain deeply angry over the treatment of a disabled Chinese torch bearer during the Olympic relay last year and French president Nicholas Sarkozy's meeting with the Dalai Lama just a few months ago.
MACKERRAS: Whether it's going to lead to another diplomatic crisis I mean we'll have to wait and see.
MCCARTHY: Colin Mackerras is Professor Emeritus in Asian Studies at Griffith University.
He says most Chinese would see little distinction between the French government and the French court that rejected an appeal to ban the auction.
For many in China, it's another wound inflicted by the West and another reason for the government's defiant stance.
MACKERRAS: China as a rising power, you might think well let's get over those humiliations. But then as a rising power you can also think well we're not going to take this anymore you know, we've had the west looking down on us all the time and saying you're doing the wrong thing and get over it and that sort of thing, and we're not going to take it any more.
