Yuanmingyuan was founded in 1709, after Yongzheng, Qianlong, Jiaqing and other five emperors for more than 150 years of continuous management, the Yuanmingyuan gathered the blood and sweat of countless working people, collected countless treasures in the world, can be called a treasure on the surface. However, in 1860, the British and French forces attacked the Yuanmingyuan, and they stole countless treasures in the garden, including the most precious bronze statue of the head of the zodiac.
The bronze statue of the beast head of the zodiac was cast before Qianlong and was designed by the court painter Lang Shining, an Italian, who took into account the traditional Chinese folk culture and replaced the female human sculpture commonly used in western fountain design with the zodiac, which can be described as unique ingenuity. In addition, the Qianlong period was at the peak of China's craftsmanship level, and the material for making the bronze statue of the beast head in the Yuanmingyuan was alloy copper specially made for the court, which contained many precious metals, which not only had a deep color and a fine essence, but also would not rust after a hundred years of wind and rain, which was a masterpiece.
However, the bronze statue of the beast head of the zodiac, which symbolizes the cultural heritage of China for thousands of years, disappeared after the Yuanmingyuan was burned down, and it was not until the 1980s that the bronze statue of the beast head lost overseas was first revealed with the rise of the auction industry. However, at that time, the bronze statue of the head of the zodiac has been speculated to a sky-high price, and so far, the most expensive animal head has been auctioned for 15.4447 million Hong Kong dollars. It can be seen that China's road of "return of the beast head" is not so easy to follow.
In 2009, the Rat and Rabbit Head of the Yuanmingyuan at Christie's International Auction House were successfully bid by Chinese Cai Mingchao for a total price of 31.49 million euros (equivalent to 270 million yuan), in a sense, China will return to two bronze statues of the beast head. However, Cai Mingchao refused to pay after taking the head of the beast, why is this? Cai Mingchao, a well-known Chinese collector, once sold a seated statue of Ming Yongle gilded bronze Shakyamuni at sotheby's auction in 2006 for HK$116.6 million. Logically, Cai Mingchao is not short of money, but his behavior is really incomprehensible.
According to a Chinese bronze expert, Cai Mingchao's act of auctioning the two animal heads actually played a delaying role, although he will face the risk of entering the "blacklist" of the auction house, and may also be sued by Christie's auction house, but he still did it without hesitation, Cai Mingchao said bluntly: As a Chinese, I just fulfilled my responsibility, but I can't pay this money. Afterwards, the French side insisted that Cai Mingchao was suspected of disrupting the market and deserved criminal sanctions, and even if it was not good, he would also accept civil punishment, but to this day, Cai Mingchao is still alive and well.
For some reason, cai Mingchao did not pay for the Yuanmingyuan rats and rabbits, but on April 26, 2013, the French Pino family donated back to China free of charge. Although Cai Mingchao withdrew from the auction world because of the refusal to pay, he was still moved to tears. In fact, the reason why Cai Mingchao refused to pay was only to lead by example, rejecting The "second plunder" of France and using the stolen Chinese cultural relics to sell back to China is a very shameful act. Although Cai Mingchao broke the rules, he has safeguarded China's rights and interests and should be respected. What do you think of this?