Looted Chinese art donated
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A Macau casino mogul paid $8.9 million for a bronze horse head, stolen 147 years ago from China’s imperial palace, and plans to donate it to a Chinese museum.
The horse head was originally scheduled for auction Oct. 9 by its previous Taiwanese owner, but Stanley Ho preempted the sale with his offer, Sotheby’s said in a statement Friday.
“With this move, I hope to encourage more people to take part in preserving Chinese artifacts and to promote patriotism and nationalism,” Ho said in the statement.
The piece is one of 12 animal heads from the Chinese zodiac that formed part of an elaborate water clock fountain designed by Jesuit missionaries. The Chinese government says the 12 heads were looted by British and French troops during the second Opium War in 1860 from Beijing’s Yuanmingyuan, also known as the Old Summer Palace.
This piece resurfaced in 1989 when the Taiwanese collector bought it.
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