Germany: Project to identify looted art from China underway in Berlin museums

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German researchers have begun a project hunting for plundered art from China’s Imperial Palace during the so-called ‘Boxer Rebellion.’

The Central Archives of the State Museums of Berlin began to identify some of the thousands of objects that were looted between 1899 and 1901, in November last year. The research is due to run until 2023 is still in its preliminary phase and until now no objects have been uncovered.

“As a group, we want to examine our Chinese collection holdings for potential loot from the context of the suppression of the so-called Boxer War,” Project manager Christine Howald explained in the Berlin Humbolt Forum, which is part of the investigation of the new project, on Thursday.

“This is a portrait that was one of a series of officer portraits that were painted in the Beijing Winter Palace, an imperial palace used by German troops as a base in Beijing. the portraits hung there until the German troops came and then they just didn’t hang anymore,” she added, referring to the Portrait of the Mongol prince Corgiyamz’an.​

The research concerns seven museums in total, including Hamburg, Leizpig, Frankfurt and partners with the cooperation of the Museum of Shanghai.

The ‘Boxer Rebellion’ began in 1899 as an anti-Christian, anti-colonial uprising in China that spread to Beijing. An eight-nation alliance responded by sending troops into China. Germany was amongst the allies, and took part in robbing and pillaging China, including Beijing, before defeating the insurgents.

SOUNDBITES:

SOT, Christine Howald, Project manager (German): ”As a group, we want to examine our Chinese collection holdings for potential loot from the context of the suppression of the so-called Boxer War.”

SOT, Christine Howald, Project manager (German): ”So to find out if there are pieces from this context in our collections, you can actually answer that with yes and then look further how many objects are there? How did they get into the collection, what paths lie behind them, i.e. which paths did they take, from which contexts do they come from in China and trace the history of the objects as far as possible.”

SOT, Christine Howald, Project manager (German): “At the same time, we also want to raise awareness for this topic, not only in Germany, but also internationally and not only in public collections, but also in private collections in Germany many private individuals are affected by this topic.”

SOT, Christine Howald, Project manager (German): “What we already know is that this issue affects all of our collection and it’s not just one or two objects but more than that actually calculate with several hundred objects that we can identify in the end.”

SOT, Christine Howald, Project manager (German): “This is a portrait that was one of a series of officer portraits that were painted in the Beijing Winter Palace, an imperial palace used by German troops as a base in Beijing. the portraits hung there until the German troops came and then they just didn’t hang anymore.”

SOT, Christine Howald, Project manager (German): “That it is very obvious that in the context of this troop stationing these portraits got away.”

SOT, Christine Howald, Project manager (German): “That’s still open, that’s also something that we want to discuss with our Chinese partner in the course of this project that we do, and that we want to return the collection objects that came into the collection from unjust contexts to the countries of origin.”

Video ID: 20220217-049

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