Old Summer Palace bronze heads


[Image:Yuanmingyuan haiyan.jpg|thumb|right|250px|The original figures in a drawing before the looting with all 12 head figures]
The Twelve Old Summer Palace bronze heads are a collection of bronze fountainheads in the shape of the Chinese zodiac animals that were part of a water clock fountain in front of the Haiyantang building of the Xiyang Lou area of the Old Summer Palace in Beijing. Believed to have been designed by the Jesuit Giuseppe Castiglione with fountains engineered by Jesuit Michel Benoist for the Qianlong Emperor, the statues would spout out water from their mouths to tell the time.
The bronze-cast heads of the stone statues were among the treasures looted during the destruction of the Old Summer Palace by British and French expeditionary forces in 1860 during the Second Opium War. Since then, they have been among the most visible examples of attempts to repatriate Chinese art and cultural artifacts. Two of the heads, the rat and the rabbit, were formerly held by French fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent and were the subject of an international scandal.
The Poly Museum, a museum in Beijing owned and operated by China Poly Group Corporation, a state-owned Chinese business group enterprise, is filled with repatriated artworks, including several of the animal fountainheads. China Poly bought the tiger, monkey, and ox through auction houses in Hong Kong in 2000, while the pig's head was recovered in New York by Hong Kong casino magnate Stanley Ho, who in turn donated it to the Poly Museum.
The CEO of Poly Culture, Jiang Yingchun, has been quoted as saying: "The heads represent our feelings for the entire nation; we love them and we weep for them. We can try many ways to get the heads back. The auction is just one method. We can't ignore that the art was taken illegally,” even if it was being well cared for, he said. “If you kidnapped my children and then treated them well, the crime is still not forgiven."

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