After a hundred years of absence, "they" returned to their hometown There is a moving story behind this special exhibition of Shangbo

Oriental Network reporter Wang Jiani reported on December 13: 4 samurai on horseback wearing armor, followed by 3 drummers, followed by 8 sedans carrying high... In the lobby on the first floor of the Shanghai Museum, a set of 66 pieces of Ming Dynasty colored glazed instrument guards is quite eye-catching. Today, they are reunited with two "old friends" who have been separated from China for a hundred years.

The "Ceremony for Ms. Suzanne Fratus to Donate Two Ceramic Figurines to the Shanghai Museum" sponsored by the State Administration of Cultural Heritage was held in Shanghai today. The Oriental Network reporter learned that although the two groups of cultural relics returned to Shangbo for more than a hundred years, there are inextricable links between the two, and they have witnessed the non-governmental exchanges between China and the United States in the past hundred years.

In April, the Chinese Consulate General in San Francisco received a postal courier from Ms. Suzanne containing two colorful figurines and a letter about her family's relationship with the two figurines, and made it clear that she hoped to donate the cultural relics to the Shanghai Museum through the Chinese government and return them to the Chinese.

Why does Ms. Suzanne, who is far away from the ocean, have two clay figurines unearthed in China? Behind this, there is also a moving story.

It turned out that as early as the beginning of the 20th century, Ms. Suzanne's grandfather, Dr. John Herbert Werther, practiced medicine in China, and after a patient was cured, he gave him two clay figurines as a token of gratitude, and Dr. Waite brought the pair of terracotta figurines back to the United States and handed them over to Suzanne to inherit. I didn't expect that many years later, Suzanne would see similar clay figurines in an exhibition of ancient Chinese art in San Francisco.

In 1983, to celebrate the sistership between Shanghai and San Francisco, the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco held the "Shanghai Museum Collection - 6,000 Years of Chinese Art Exhibition", in which a set of honor guard figurines impressed Suzanne.

Nearly 40 years later, Suzanne contacted the Chinese Consulate in San Francisco, hoping that the two figurines would return to her hometown. After learning of this matter, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage attached great importance to it, and immediately organized the Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Cultural Relics and the Shanghai Museum to carry out cultural relics appraisal and other related work, and after a large number of investigations and analysis, it was preliminarily judged that these two pottery figurines were indeed Cultural Relics of China, which was more similar to a set of Ming Dynasty colored glazed pottery figurines collected by the Shanghai Museum.

In September this year, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage respected Ms. Suzanne's wishes and designated the Shanghai Museum as the recipient of the two pottery figurines. In the end, the two cultural relics entered Shanghai on November 26 and returned to the motherland. On December 2, after the appraisal of Shangbo experts, it was determined that the two pottery figurines were third-class cultural relics, and they and a set of 66 Ming Dynasty pottery figurines in Shangbo's collection should be works from the same period and the same region.

"The Chinese nation is a great nation! The two figurines return to their hometown, not because of money or politics, but because of the power of love and respect for the Chinese people. Suzanne said they witnessed two world wars, countless outbreaks, floods and famines. If they can speak, they should be tempted to tell the world a lot of things: be kind to people, respect each other, help each other.

The Oriental Network reporter learned that the Shanghai Museum has more than 140,000 precious cultural relics, of which more than 33,000 are from overseas, accounting for 23.6%. Yang Zhigang, director of the Shanghai Museum, said that after experiencing various obstacles from the epidemic, it is of special significance to welcome the return of these two pottery figurines at the time of retiring the old and welcoming the new. To this end, Shangbo carefully prepared the "Thousands of YiXiang - Special Exhibition of Ming Dynasty Colored Glazed Pottery Figurines", and exhibited the two ceramic figurines together with the 66 Pieces of Ming Dynasty Colored Glazed Ceremony Guards that had been exhibited in San Francisco, and then composed a good story. "I hope that this period of fate, which takes cultural relics as a link and art as a bridge, will once again shorten the vast Pacific Ocean into a stream that can be crossed."

It is reported that the "Thousands of Images - Special Exhibition of Ming Dynasty Colored Glazed Pottery Figurines" will last until January 9.

(Jiani Wang)

Source: Orient Net