Ways of healing historic wounds
作者：SUSAN CHYN　时间：2009-03-18  796

THE sale of the bronze rabbit and rat "spouts" at Christie's auction house has led to discussions in the Chinese media. Though the two heads were but a small part of the large collection held by the late Yves Saint Laurent, they attracted considerable attention.

From the outset, Chinese were eager to repatriate the heads. In public and private sectors, diplomatic and legal steps were taken, with a bit of drama. In the end, the French court ruled against a Chinese lawsuit and Christie's said the legal ownership of the heads had been confirmed.

To many Chinese, this is incomprehensible. In the art market, however, one major factor in determining who "owns" an object is its "provenance" or chain of ownership. Most respectable museums, auction houses and private collectors go to great lengths to investigate the trail of an object's ownership throughout history. Most will not handle an item if it is deemed stolen.

The problem, of course, is that, during turbulent times, especially times of war–such as the 1860 British and French burning and looting of Yuanmingyuan, the Old Summer Palace–it is not that easy to track provenance.

Chinese scholar Liu Yang has commented that the heads were not necessarily taken during the burning. Because the fountain had stopped working, the Emperor's mother had commanded it be dismantled and stored in the warehouse. So it is difficult to establish legal ownership–to prove just when the artifacts were removed, and exactly who was involved in the process. On the other hand, it seems obvious to anyone familiar with Chinese history that many objects were stolen in 1860, and that any objects affiliated with the Old Summer Palace are symbols of national pride. So what can be done?

Past groups facing similar legal challenges have found resourceful ways to repatriate lost objects. Many Jewish families have made applications to German and Austrian museums for art confiscated by the Nazis. European countries have published detailed lists of artwork and announced processes for how works can be returned. Especially critical is any information documenting the chain of ownership during 1933-1945.

Even when records are not available, there are ways. One example is the 1999 return of the "Ghost Dance Shirt" to the Sioux (a native American tribe) by Glasgow Museums in Scotland. Like the bronze heads, the Ghost Dance Shirt was a powerful symbol of Native American history. It came from a fallen warrior in the Battle of Wounded Knee in 1890, when many Sioux were massacred by US soldiers. Because the shirt had been legally purchased by the museum, there could be no legal appeal. So the Sioux applied on moral and spiritual grounds. They successfully convinced the museum that the significance of the ghost dance (a religious ceremony) and the battle (a deeply historic event) were powerful reasons warranting the object's return. Incredibly, a tribal elder then created a replica shirt for the museum so visitors could learn more about Sioux culture.

To me, these examples suggest positive and effective ways of repatriating lost artworks and of healing historic wounds.

英语词汇解析
auction 拍卖
confiscate 没收
deem 认为
dignity 尊严
diplomatic 外交的
dismantle 拆除
loot 掠夺
massacre 残杀
repatriate 使归还
spout 喷口
tribe 部落
warrant 使有正当理由

来源：http://www.21stcentury.com.cn