Looted relic on auction in France

A 300-year-old Chinese imperial seal that was looted from Yuanmingyuan, or the Old Summer Palace, in Beijing in the 19th century will be auctioned on December 17 in France.

Yuan Shankai, former curator of Beijing Imperial City Art, confirmed recently that the imperial seal from the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), will be sold by the Paris-based auctioneer Artcurial.

According to Artcurial's website, an auction of Asian art will be held at 2 pm on December 17.

A "rare" spinach-green jade seal with sculptured Chinese characters indicating it was used exclusively in the imperial study during the rein of Emperor Qianlong (1736-96) was listed as lot 119.

It is expected to sell for between 150,000 euros ($195,990) and 200,000 euros.

The National Treasury Recovery Foundation (NTRF) under the China Foundation for the Development of Social Culture, and the Association for the Protection of Chinese Art in Europe both asked Artcurial to remove the relic from the auction. The results of their negotiations were not promising, reported the Beijing Evening News Tuesday.

NTRF stated that it will not attempt to force Artcurial to return the seal, because it requires a prolonged process with little chance of success.

NTRF is strongly opposed to the auction saying that it will make stolen, looted and smuggled relics legally traded commodities, and encourage negative business practices. Huge potential profits might also trigger the resurrection of another batch of illegally obtained historic treasures.

Zhao Shulin, an expert in culture development strategy, told the Global Times Thursday that tracing missing relics is a complicated undertaking especially for long-lost treasuries.

"Technically, the seal belongs to the imperial family of the Qing Dynasty and their descendants. After all the political changes over the centuries, identifying the responsible party to initiate recovery negotiations is also difficult," said Zhao.

The current international protocol regarding the recovery of looted or stolen relics has limited power as it normally covers those that were taken within 50 years of a claim. Countries with a long history and a great number of relics that have been taken overseas, including China, Egypt and Greece, are all concerned about the time restriction.

In November, a British auctioneer also planned to auction relics that had been looted from Yuanmingyuan, but the family that wanted to sell the relics withdrew them saying they didn't want to hurt the feelings of Chinese people.