Horse-Head Statue of Old Summer Palace Finally Returns to China after 159 Years

Beijing1243Nov 13, 2019

A rare bronze horse head statue from Beijing's Old Summer Palace was finally returned to the State Administration of Cultural Heritage 159 years after it was looted. The statue made a debut with another reclaimed cultural relics from overseas since 1949, at an exhibition held at the National Museum of China in Beijing on Wednesday.

A rare bronze horse head statue from Beijing's Old Summer Palace was finally returned to the State Administration of Cultural Heritage 159 years after it was looted. The statue made a debut with another reclaimed cultural relics from overseas since 1949, at an exhibition held at the National Museum of China in Beijing on Wednesday.

The horse-head statue appeared in Hong Kong for a Sotheby's auction in 2007, and Stanley Ho Hung-sun, a Hong Kong-Macao business magnate cost HK$ 69.1 million ($8.8 million) to obtain the relic. After an exhibition tour in Hong Kong and Macao, Ho finally decided to donate it back to the mainland as a family gift for the 70th anniversary of the founding of New China and 20th anniversary of Macao's return to the motherland.

In 2003, Ho also donated the pig-head statue of the Old Summer Palace to the mainland, which is now displayed at the National Museum of China in Beijing.

The Old Summer Palace, aka Yuanmingyuan, is the former imperial resort during Qing Dynasties (1644-1911), which was destructed and ransacked during the Second Opium War (1856-1860). The newly returned horse-head red bronze statue was one of 12 decorative bronze taps in the form of 12 Chinese Zodiac Signs, which were used at a water clock fountain of Haiyantang in the Old Summer Palace. These animal-head taps took turns to spray water during different hours within a day.

Now the horse-head statue was handed over to the Old Summer Place Administration for preserve and protection. The statues of monkey, ox and tiger are displayed in Beijing Poly Art Museum, while the pig, Rat and Rabbit statues are kept in National Museum. Unfortunately, the whereabouts of the other five bronze heads remains missing and unknown.