Loot from China’s ‘Summer Palace’ in auctions, exhibitions and museums (Louise Tythacott)
(Reproduced by permission of Surrey History Centre; Copyright of Surrey History Centre;http://www.surreycc.gov.uk/surryhistorycentre)
In October 1860, at the culmination of the Second Opium War (1856-60), British and French troops looted, and then burnt, the imperial buildings in the Yuanming Yuan, or Summer Palace, to the north of Beijing. This widespread destruction of China’s most important complex of palaces, and the dispersal of the imperial art collection, is considered one of the worst acts of cultural vandalism in the modern era. Over a million objects are estimated to have been looted from buildings in the Yuanming Yuan, many of these are now scattered around the world, in private collections and public museums.
Louise’s latest research traces the trajectories of particular objects looted from the Yuanming Yuan, exploring the succession of meanings and values attributed to China’s imperial treasures over the past 150 years - their existence as commodities in London auction houses (mainly from 1861-1897); their lives in international exhibitions and public displays; and their status today as ‘trophies of war’ in regimental museums in the UK.