The Yuanmingyuan lost cultural relics and the rabbit donation ceremony may be carried out on the afternoon of the 28th.

Beijing, June 28th, the official website of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage released a message that the Yuanmingyuan lost cultural relics and rabbit heads donated by the French Pino family arrived in Beijing on the 25th. A donation ceremony will be held in the near future. National Museum of Tibet. According to media reports such as Beijing Morning Post and Beijing Evening News, the donation ceremony may be held on the afternoon of the 28th. At this point, the Yuanmingyuan mouse head and rabbit head drifting overseas for more than 150 years officially returned to the motherland.

Drifting overseas for more than 150 years, the road to return

The bronze statue of the animal head of the Yuanmingyuan Zodiac was originally part of the fountain outside the Yuanmingyuan Haitang Hall, designed by the Qing Dynasty court painter Lang Shining. The 12 bronze statues of the beasts are arranged in a figure-eight shape on both sides of the fountain. Each bronze statue is a fountain. At each hour, the corresponding animal mouth will spray water for two hours. At 12 noon, the bronze statue of the animal head of the Zodiac will spray at the same time.

During the Second Opium War, the British and French coalition forces burned the Yuanmingyuan and looted the animal heads of the 12 Zodiac and many other Yuanmingyuan artifacts. Since then, the 12 Zodiac animal heads have embarked on the road of overseas loss.

The mouse head and the rabbit head really caught the attention of the whole world and were auctioned in Paris, France in 2019. At that time, the State Cultural Relics Bureau of China had clearly expressed its objection. However, the auction will be held as scheduled, and the mystery buyer will purchase the cultural relics.

Later, the media reported that Chinese businessman Cai Mingchao admitted that he had taken the following items, but refused to pay, and stopped the beast's first shot in a "special way."

Until the end of April this year, during the French President Hollande's visit to China, the French Pino family said that they had bought the two animal heads from the original holders of the cultural relics and showed the Chinese side the willingness to donate free of charge. The date when the donation was confirmed was the second half of the year.

According to Liu Yang, a member of the Yuanmingyuan Academic Committee, under the Chinese striving, the time for the animal head to "go home" was advanced by at least two months. After the return of the first rabbit, it will enter the National Museum of Tibet.

The value of the animal head of the zodiac is difficult to measure. Some people call it "the faucet"

The bronze statue of the animal head of the zodiac has always been a symbol of the loss of cultural relics overseas. However, the public's value for the animal head is a matter of opinion. Someone has said that it is only 12 faucets.

The late cultural relic expert Luo Zhewen once said that the 12th Zodiac animal is rough in craftsmanship and its artistic value is not high. Its greatest value lies only in the crime of invading China as an imperialist country. Chen Lisheng, deputy director of the National Museum of China, also said that the first auction of the beast was called "national treasure", especially the "faucet made by foreigners" was called "national treasure".

Liu Yang also said that the value of the animal head is difficult to measure. "From the perspective of market value, since the original head of the Rat was destroyed in the Yuanmingyuan, the highest value of the relics returned overseas has been nearly 200 million yuan in 2019; from the perspective of artistic value, it can be said that it is a combination of Chinese and Western. Artwork; from a historical perspective, it is a shameful history of modern Chinese history, which may be the most important aspect."

Liu Yang also said that the return of the mouse head and rabbit head has great influence and popularity, and it is supposed to enter the most powerful national museum. However, he suggested that after the return of the two animal heads, he hopes to return to Yuanmingyuan for a period of time with the four animal heads collected by the Poly Art Museum.

It is understood that counting the "home" mouse head and rabbit head and the previous head of the cattle, monkey head, tiger head, pig head and horse head, a total of 7 animal heads returned to the country, and the dragon head, dog head, The whereabouts of the snake head, the head of the sheep, and the head of the five chickens are unknown.