The British Museum in London will try to avoid a diplomatic minefield later this month when it lends 272 of its most precious artefacts to the Capital Museum of Beijing in one of the highest level cultural exchanges between the two countries.
None of the items in the "Treasures of the World's Culture" collection will be Chinese because many people in Beijing refuse to recognize British claims to porcelain, statues and books they say were acquired by imperial force.
The exhibition, which will run from March 18 to June 5, has been hailed by both sides as a breakthrough in relations between the world's oldest national museum and one of the newest of a host of giant cultural institutions being built in the Chinese capital.
Ancient Egyptian tablets, Greek busts and the world's oldest tool will be among the items on display in the first major overseas exhibition staged at the new museum in the Chinese capital -- a gleaming structure of glass, steel and stone that opened last December.
But for the visitors, the closest the display will come to home will be a few items of Japanese and Korean art. There are several items in the British Museum collection of Chinese art that curators in Beijing say they would like to have, some of which have been displayed in similar exhibitions in Japan and South Korea, but none will be making the journey to Beijing this time.
"There are political and legal questions about ownership," said Guo Xiaoling (郭小凌), the director, Capital Museum of Beijing. "The British Museum acquired many of its items before other countries had drafted laws to protect their cultural relics. If we exhibited these items it would imply that we recognized their ownership."
British Museum director Neil MacGregor said both governments had endorsed the exchange and the UK had not imposed any restrictions on the choice of objects.
"We would be perfectly happy to lend the items to them, but they did not ask us," he said. "Our understanding was that they have better examples of Chinese art than us. Instead, they wanted items that told a story about the rest of the world. Only the British Museum can do that."
Chinese officials say they are concerned about a diplomatic row similar to the one between Britain and Greece over the Parthenon marbles. Chinese students are taught that their country's treasures were plundered or unfairly acquired by Britain and other imperial nations during and after the Opium War in the 19th century.
According to the UN, 1.64 million Chinese artefacts are scattered in 47 museums around the world. Chinese authorities estimate that 10 times that number are in the hands of private collectors. For many Chinese, foreign ownership is a continued humiliation.
Zhang Yongnian (張永年) is the head of the China Cultural Relics Recovery Program, established in 2002 to reacquire lost items through appeals for donations and purchases at auctions.
"A lot of treasures were stolen after the Opium War, which opened China's gates to the Western world," he said. "Others were looted soon after the Communist Party came to power, when cultural management was weak. The British Museum has declared that it is opposed to restitution of all artefacts to their home countries on the grounds that they can look after them better. But that is an excuse. This is something that should be discussed face to face."
Curators on both sides say they hope for an improved climate for further cultural exchanges. In the next few years Beijing will lend the British Museum a number of items.
But Beijing's Capital Museum has also appealed for British owners, both private individuals and public institutions, to return their treasures.
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