This morning, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage hosted a ceremony to donate cultural relics into tibet, and Ms. Suzanne Fratus of California, USA, donated two Ming Dynasty pottery figurines in China to be officially entered into the Shanghai Museum.
According to reports, in April this year, the Chinese Consulate General in San Francisco received a postal courier from Ms. Suzanne, which contained two colorful photos of the figurines and a letter, which described the origin of her family and the two figurines, and clearly expressed the hope that the cultural relics would be donated to the Shanghai Museum through the Chinese government and returned to the Chinese. The State Administration of Cultural Heritage immediately organized and carried out relevant work such as picture identification, and after a large number of investigations and analysis, it was preliminarily judged that these two clay figurines were indeed Cultural Relics in China, which was more similar to a set of Ming Dynasty color glazed pottery figurines collected by the Shanghai Museum, and then asked the Shanghai Cultural Relics Bureau and the Shanghai Museum to study and judge the relevant situation of the pottery figurines themselves and the next step of placement. In August, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage approved the Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Cultural Relics, designating the Shanghai Museum as the recipient of the two pottery figurines, and requiring the return, delivery and transportation of cultural relics. In the following three months, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage repeatedly communicated and coordinated with the Chinese Consulate General in San Francisco, Ms. Suzanne, the Shanghai Cultural Relics Bureau, the Shanghai Museum and other parties, especially with the strong support of our Consulate General in San Francisco, and finally on November 26, the return of cultural relics was completed, and the pottery figurines officially returned to the motherland.
On December 2, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage guided the Shanghai Museum, organized experts to carry out physical appraisal, and confirmed that the two clay figurines were historically used for funeral utensils, which were the same as the tire quality and low-temperature lead glaze applied on the surface of a set of 66 Ming Dynasty pottery figurines in the Shanghai Museum, and the shape and production style were very similar, especially consistent with the 7 pointed hat figurines, but there were slight differences in details, not a set, should be works from the same period and the same region; the two pottery figurines have important collection value. It is a precious physical material for the study of the ancient Chinese tomb system and the history of pottery making, and has been designated as a national third-class cultural relic.
Ms. Suzanne's grandfather, John Herbert Waiter, was a professor at Harvard Medical School and an ophthalmologist who was funded by the Rockefeller Foundation in the early 20th century to practice medicine in China and other Asian countries, and was given these two clay figurines as a token of appreciation after curing an eye disease for the children of a wealthy Chinese family. One of the terracotta figurines was damaged and was initially repaired by Suzanne's grandmother and handed over to Ms. Suzanne to inherit. In 1983, in order to celebrate the sister cities between Shanghai and San Francisco, the Shanghai Museum went to the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco to hold "Shanghai Museum Collection - 6,000 Years of Chinese Art Exhibition". Ms. Suzanne found that a set of honor guard figurines exhibited on the exhibition was very similar to the pottery figurines in her collection. After the relevant person in charge of the Shanghai Museum identified the pottery figurines, it was judged that the cultural relics were likely to come from the tombs of nobles stolen in Chinese history. For nearly 40 years, Ms. Suzanne has been looking forward to returning the artifacts to Chinese people in a suitable manner.
The two pottery figurines will be exhibited in the "Thousands of Rituals - Ming Dynasty Colored Glazed Pottery Figurines Special Exhibition" held at the Shanghai Museum, and on the same stage is a set of 66 pieces of Ming Dynasty colored glazed ceremonial guard figurine pottery, including various people needed for figure figurines, equestrian figurines and honor guard figurines, as well as some ceremonial and daily necessities, lined up in a line, which is spectacular.
Author: Li Ting
Editor: Wang Xiaoli
Editor-in-Charge: Huang Qizhe
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