The twelve bronze zodiac animal heads cast by Jesuits for the emperor Qianlong have become a potent symbol of China’s humiliation by predatory Western imperialists during the 19th Century. The heads are widely held to have been looted during the sacking of the Old Summer Palace by British and French troops in 1860, at the end of the Second Opium War. But with two of the sculptures soon to return to China, Ilaria Maria Sala questions the usual account of their journey to the West. From The Wall Street Journal:
They are most unlikely symbols of Chinese national pride, made by foreigners as part of a Western-style fountain, for the amusement of an emperor belonging to a dynasty overthrown in 1911 for being corrupt and “foreign.” Yet over the last decade, 12 bronze animal heads have become a sore spot for the entire nation. Now, after a high-profile donation, the whole sorry saga might finally be over.
[…] This outcome may be seen as a victory by China’s most rabid nationalists, or by the tourists who go to international museums to see their country’s relics, and decry their presence outside of the country. Often they assume that they are all stolen, but it is worth remembering that the art market, black or otherwise, has existed for a long time. Not everything that is abroad got there by being looted.
Take the bronze heads, which were already in storage when the Yuanmingyuan was sacked. We know that the clock mechanism soon broke down, and it was up to the eunuchs to pump water manually every time the emperor was passing in front of the statues. Shortly after the death of Qianlong, during the reign of his son Jiaqing, the Empress Xiaoshurui asked for the heads to be removed—she found them hideous. They lay in storage for a long time. By some accounts that is when they disappeared, probably sold off by eunuchs.
