Yuanmingyuan launches project to survey lost cultural relics overseas

At the end of October, the Old Summer Palace will send people to foreign countries on a large scale to search for the lost cultural relics from the palace. In about a year, the results of the activity will be released to the society. October 18 is the 149th anniversary of the Old Summer Palace disaster. On that day, the Administrative Office of the Palace declared the launch of the new project to suevey its lost cultural relics in foreign countries.

No catalogue of the cultural relics looted from Old Summer Palace

According to relevant officials of the Old Summer Palace's Administrative Office, since 1860, relics from the Old Summer Palace, except for the relics destroyed during the burning of the Palace, have been continuously lost in various ways, but most of them have been preserved overseas, particularly in European countries such as UK and France. There are also numerous relics in the museums and other institutes in the U.S. and Japan.

The list of artifacts stored in the Old Summer Palace was burned in the fire, so it cannot be precisely determined how many relics the Old Summer Palace once stored. Currently, there is not a complete list in existence recording how many relics from the Old Summer Palace still exist or where they are now being preserved. Therefore, the Administrative Office of Old Summer Palace initiated this activity.

Going to the U.S. to search for looted relics and materials

The search program for the cultural relics will be divided into three parts

Officials from the Old Summer Palace's Administrative Office said that in the end of October, they will send special personnel to the U.S. cities of Washington D.C., New York and Boston to investigate and collect the looted cultural relics, including collecting various documents and pictures related to the Palace and investigating the cultural relics preserved in every large museum. It will be a thorough investigation on the looted cultural relics in foreign countries.

According to the plan, they will carry out their investigation at nine organizations including the University of Washington's School of Medicine, the U.S. Library of Congress and the Harvard University Library, and will also contact some private collectors.

In addition to cultural relics, documents and other materials related to the Palace are also the main targets of this investigation. According to relevant officials of Old Summer Palace's Administrative Office, the U.S. owns over 100 old pictures of the Palace, of which two thirds have never been made public.

To lead the looted cultural relics to appear

According to relevant workers of the Old Summer Palace, the activity will be jointly carried out by the Palace's Administrative Office, Tsinghua University and the CCTV program "National Treasures". Every procedure of the activity will be broadcast back to China. About one year later, the "Exhibition of Results" will be completed and opened to residents. Databanks of the cultural relics, materials and pictures related to the Palace will be built, a large-scale picture album of the Palace's cultural relics preserved in foreign countries will be published, and the office will also conduct exchanges with foreign universities, museums and organizations.

Reporters learned that this activity will enrich the research of the western-style buildings at the Old Summer Palace and hopefully encourage more looted cultural relics to emerge or even be returned to their rightful home.