The German Museum investigates Chinese artifacts looted by the Eight-Nation Alliance

Aoki, a special correspondent of this newspaper in Germany

According to a recent report by the Berlin-Brandenburg Broadcasting Company in Germany, a number of German museums have carried out traceability actions for Chinese cultural relics collections in the past three years. A special investigation by a special correspondent of the Global Times found that previously, the focus of public debate in Germany on the return of cultural relics was mainly in Africa, but now, German museums are beginning to pay attention to those looted Chinese cultural relics. There are reports that "there has been a beginning" in the discussion about when Germany will officially return Chinese antiquities.

"Entire ships of looted art went to Europe"

Recently, the Humboldt Forum, a major museum project in Berlin, Germany, exhibited a collection of Asian collections. In the long rows of glass cases in the hall, there are various ceramics, Maitreya Buddha, bronzes, picture scrolls, etc., from the collection of the Berlin Museum of Ethnology. It is reported that "this includes many items from China that have entered Europe without legal means".

Christina Howard, deputy director of the Central Archives of the Berlin State Museum, told the media that "most of the collection came to Berlin at the turn of the century in 1900. She tells the story of German soldiers and officers in the Eight-Nation Alliance's war of aggression against China, who plundered Chinese cultural relics in the frenzy of victory in the war, which lasted for a whole year. According to eyewitnesses, entire boatloads of looted art went to Europe.

Since 2019, Howard has been researching the context of Chinese collections. Previously, many Chinese collections often lacked exact provenance information and had to be placed on a "lost" list. There are also Chinese collections that come from donations from private collectors, whose roots are not always traceable precisely. But now, as his research progresses, Howard has been able to identify the specific sources of some of the Chinese collections.

Brandis, press officer of the Humboldt Forum, told the Global Times that the Humboldt Forum often hosts African, American and Asian collections on the second and third floors, especially Chinese cultural relics, which are very popular with the audience. The "Wang Shu Room" on the third floor of the Humboldt Forum will also display Chinese court art from time to time that China and Germany have exchanged for centuries. For example, the brass teapot given to Berlin by the Empress Dowager Cixi in 1902, and the silk painting "Buddhist Sutra" from the Qing Dynasty created in 1770. Nowadays, there are many cultural relics that clearly state, "illegally transferred from Beijing and brought to Berlin", etc.

"There are 7 musical instruments in total, and the rest are made into firewood."

Many public museums and private collections in Germany contain objects looted in China during the Eight-Nation Alliance's war of aggression against China, but the provenance of these collections has been seldom studied. As one of the largest ethnological museums in the world, the Hamburg Museum of Ethnology in Germany houses around 40,000 East and South Asian collections, including porcelain from China, lyres and more. A few years ago, Susan Knedel, a researcher at the museum, reportedly discovered that a Chinese lyre from 1789 had been placed in a much larger case, some 50 years older than the guqin. Knedel became suspicious of the mismatch between the guqin and the case, and later learned from museum records that the guqin arrived in 1904 after the Eight-Nation Alliance's war of aggression against China. An old catalogue card mentions that a German soldier may have obtained the instrument and the case that did not match it in the winter of 1900-1901. The catalogue card also reads: "There are seven musical instruments, and the rest are made into firewood." ”

Knedel used this as an opportunity to begin researching other suspicious items in the collection, but the museum director at the time was not keen and was told that "no one is interested in this history." She began secretly compiling a list of objects of dubious origin, including paintings, bronze Buddha statues, and court documents appointing individuals to official positions. "The list is getting longer and longer," she said.

In 2017, commissioned by the new director, Barbara Plankensteiner, Knedel began investigating the provenance of the museum's Chinese artifacts. Subsequently, she contacted Howard, who was also researching the provenance of the Chinese collection at the time. The two then contacted other museums in Germany and offered to collaborate on this. At the end of 2021, seven museums in Germany officially launched the "Tracing the Boxer Cultural Relics" traceability project, which aims to trace the whereabouts of the looted Chinese cultural relics after the Eight-Nation Alliance's war of aggression against China. Howard said it marked "the first systematic study of its kind."

There will be more traceability projects in the future

Today, in addition to the study of the origins of cultural objects, German museums also hold various seminars. For example, some museums have recently held seminars on the origins of Chinese cultural relics at the Humboldt Forum. Many audience members at the seminar told the Global Times that they were embarrassed by the looting of Chinese cultural relics. Bart, a teacher at the Berlin Middle School, said that at that time, more than 10,000 German troops participated in the war of aggression against China, including military personnel, diplomats, missionaries and merchants, who looted Chinese imperial palaces, temples, shops and private residences, and brought a large number of imperial porcelain, religious objects, paintings, weapons, books and daily necessities to Germany. Many objects found their way into public and private collections through the international art trade. She feels that the origin-tracing research of these museums is very meaningful and should be supported by the government and the public.

In addition to the seven museums, more than 100 other museums and institutions across Germany are also assisting, according to the German newspaper "Daily". And just a few years ago, German museums claimed that their Chinese collections were relatively unquestionable, that they were not illegally acquired, as African collections were, but they hardly dare to say that anymore.

The Berlin-Brandenburg Broadcasting Corporation reports that many museums in Europe are now saying they want to search their collections for looted art. At a conference in Munich at the end of February, the Chinese delegation also met with experts in the field of provenance studies of German museums, and for the first time eight German museums discussed how to better identify looted works of art and how to deal with them. Weisberg, a public relations officer at the Berlin Staatsmuseum, told the Global Times that the Prussian Heritage Foundation and the Smithsonian Institution are currently establishing an international network of researchers focusing on the provenance of Asian art, which will include expert exchanges, networking activities and public projects.

Source: Global Times

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