The fate of two bronze statues stolen from China 150 years ago became the subject of discussion yesterday after it was revealed that the National Palace Museum had turned down an offer for the artifacts from their French owner.
Pierre Berge, partner of late French fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent, said he offered the two bronzes in the shape of a rat’s head and a rabbit’s head to a Taiwanese museum, but was rejected because the museum feared triggering Chinese anger.
“I wanted to give them to the Taiwan museum, but they didn’t want to create a bone of contention ... with China,” Berge told French radio station RTL in a program aired on Monday.
Berge did not name the museum, but the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper) yesterday quoted the National Palace Museum as saying it turned down the gift because “the artifacts didn’t fit its collections.”
The museum later said it was never approached by Berge but would turn down the offer for that reason if it ever were, the newspaper said.
National Palace Museum Director Chou Kung-hsin (周功鑫) reiterated that position yesterday on the legislative floor, saying that the museum needed to follow professional ethics and reject any artifacts that were “controversial,” “of unknown origin” or “stolen goods.”
“Once a collector wanted to donate an artifact to the Metropolitan Museum of Arts, but the museum declined the offer in the end because the artifact was of unknown origin,” Chou told Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Huang Wei-cher (黃偉哲) during an interpellation session.
Chou said she met Berge on June 25 in Paris and at that time Berge said he would neither donate the bronzes nor sell them.
The two artifacts, looted from the imperial Summer Palace in Beijing by British and French troops in 1860, became the subject of controversy during the Yves Saint Laurent art auction in Paris in February.
Mystery bidders paid 15.7 million euros (US$20.3 million) for each of the heads on Feb 25, but the bidders were later found to be a Chinese collector, who then refused to pay.
China lambasted auction house Christie’s when the statues were auctioned, saying that the artifacts should be returned to China.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lee Ching-hua (李慶華) said the museum should not reject the bronzes if it had the opportunity to add them to its collection.
Huang also said the museum should accept them.
“If he was willing to give them, why didn’t we accept them?” Huang said.
Facing criticism from lawmakers, Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) said he would ask the museum to review its decision.
Meanwhile, the National Museum of History said it was “very willing to accept” the relics, director Huang Yung-chuan (黃永川) told reporters yesterday.
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