The BBC, The Times, The Guardian and other media reported on the 13th that the British Museum, which is still embroiled in a 2,000-item theft scandal, announced on the same day that, the Great Vader Foundation will donate about 1700 pieces (sets) of Chinese ceramics to the Museum. The wares, worth up to # 1bn, include the Ming Dynasty Huadou Colored Chicken Cup and the yuan-zheng 11 blue-and-white dragon pattern elephant ear vase.
Museum,
Reported that the artifacts belong to the British Grand Vader Foundation, since 2009 into the British Museum Showroom 95 for a special exhibition, the trustees of the British Museum will officially donate these objects to the British Museum. The Grand Vader Foundation is a small, private museum, founded in 1952 and Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art the name of the museum. The founder Sir Fixivalle da Wei de collected a large number of Chinese treasures, mainly ceramics. The foundation later loaned the collection to the Museum for safekeeping because of its poor management.
Information shows that the Great Vader Foundation and its collection have always attracted much attention. Its rich collection of ceramics, the quality of the fine, world-famous, such as Ru kiln as a rare number of fine ceramics exist only 90 pieces, only the Great Vader Foundation Collection of Ru kiln ceramics on up to 12 pieces, and are a complete, rare type, body glaze top-grade treasures.
It is said that the Museum’s collection spans from the 3rd century to the 20th century, and many of them bear date numbers, which are of great significance to the study of the dating and production of Chinese ceramics, among them, the yuan-to-zheng 11-year-old blue and White Cloud Dragon pattern elephant ear vase, namely“Big Vader Vase”, is called by western scholars“The world’s most famous porcelain”, is the Yuan blue and white dating standard, it is also the earliest one with a detailed year in the global published data so far, which has played an important role in the research of Yuanqinghua. The bottle has also been featured in the Museum’s World History of 100 artefacts exhibition.
The Museum has one of the largest collections of Chinese artefacts lost, dating back to the 1753 period. According to the official website of the Museum, there are more than 23,000 Chinese cultural relics in the museum and 2,000 pieces are on public display for a long time, it includes stone ware from the Neolithic age, painted pottery from the Yangshao culture, bronze ware from the Shang and Zhou dynasties, the spring and Autumn period and the Warring States period, lacquer and jade ware from the Han dynasty, as well as pottery from the Tang and Song dynasties, five famous kilns, Yuan blue and white ware and enamel ware, many are rare treasures. Three of the “Treasures of the 10 most famous pavilions” are from China, namely the Admonitions Scroll, the Dunhuang murals and the “Great Vader Vase”.
File Photo: A Chinese relic, a white jade wine jug and glass, 2024 at the Museum on June 22,2010
Last August, the theft of some 2,000 items from the Museum’s collection became“The biggest scandal in the museum’s history”, with the times describing it as a“National disgrace”. After the incident, the museum director and Deputy Director resigned one after another. Then, on domestic social media, “Please Museum free return of Chinese cultural relics,” the call also once hit the top search.
According to the museum’s latest statement, released in May, 628 items have been recovered, but thousands remain missing. Oseberne, chairman of the museum’s Council, said the recovery of the stolen items was continuing. Marinheiro, CEO of Art Recovery International, has bluntly said it could take decades to recover stolen antiquities, with complex legal and authentication issues.
The theft scandal has raised serious questions about the role of the British Museum’s so-called“Custodians” and led to calls for Britain to return the looted artefacts. Nigeria, Greece, Egypt and other countries have requested its return of national cultural relics.