Boycott urged over Tiger Ying auction

CHINA yesterday condemned the British auction of a rare bronze water vessel suspected of being stolen from Beijing’s Yuanmingyuan in the 19th Century.

The auction, due to take place today, has been organized by Canterbury Auction Galleries, based in the county of Kent, but China is calling for a boycott.

The elaborately adorned water vessel and cover, referred to as a Tiger Ying because of the tiger decorations, was made between 1100 and 771 BC during the Western Zhou Dynasty with an estimated value of up to 160,000 pounds (US$226,000), the auction house said on its website.

It said the vessel was taken by a British soldier during the “capture” of what is now called the Old Summer Palace in 1860, toward the end of the Second Opium War. The Old Summer Palace was destroyed and looted by British and French troops.

The ruins of the palace lie where they fell today, a popular tourist site.

China’s State Administration of Cultural Heritage denounced the auction and “strongly opposes and condemns Canterbury Auction Galleries’ insistence on auctioning the suspected illegally discharged cultural artefact despite solemn protest from China and conducting commercial hype in the name of cultural relics of wartime looting.”

It said it did not support Chinese individuals or institutions taking part in the auction and called for other possible buyers to boycott the sale.