Displaying items by tag: statues

Francois-Henri Pinault, a French billionaire and CEO of the luxury-goods brand, Kering (formerly PPR), has announced that he will return a pair of Qing dynasty bronze statues to China. The looted bronzes were part of a 2009 auction at Christie’s in Paris that sparked a campaign in China aimed at putting an end to intimidation by foreign powers. Officials from Beijing have applauded Pinault’s efforts to create a more camaraderie-focused dynamic between France and China. Pinault is the owner of the Artemis Group, Christie’s holding company.

The works to be returned to China are the bronze heads of a rat and a rabbit, which were part of a group of 12 animal heads that were looted from Beijing’s Summer Palace by French and British troops in 1860 during the Second Opium War. Since emerging as a powerful international force in recent years, China has been campaigning for the return of the works. Five of the bronzes have been given back to China and one is in Taiwan while the whereabouts of the remaining four pieces remain a mystery.

The bronzes being returned to China by Pinault were previously owned by French fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent and were put up for auction in 2009 following his death. Chinese officials voiced opposition at the time of the sale and an advisor to a Chinese government fund placed the winning bid on the bronzes but never ended up paying for them. The works were returned to Pierre Berge, Saint Laurent’s former partner.

Pinault is working with the Cultural Heritage Administration to get the bronzes back to China as quickly as possible. The decision is a clever move on Pinault’s part as his businesses, which include Gucci and Puma, have been thriving in China’s growing consumer economy.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) returned more than 4,000 pieces of looted cultural artifacts to the Mexican government. A repatriation ceremony was held on October 25 at the Consulate of Mexico in El Paso, Texas. The items were recovered in El Paso, Phoenix, Chicago, Denver, San Diego, San Antonio, Fort Stockton, Texas, and Kalispell, Montana. Many of the artifacts that were found in Texas traced to a 2008 theft from a museum in Mexico. Five pre-Columbian statues, over 4,000 pre-Columbian artifacts, and 26 pieces of pre-Columbian pottery were returned to the people of Mexico.

The repatriation that took place on Thursday is one of the largest that has taken place between the two countries. Many of the items returned date from before European explorers landed in North America. The items will be taken to the National Institute of Anthropology and History in Mexico City where they will be studied, cataloged, and distributed to museums across Mexico.

There was plenty of excitement when the San Antonio Museum of Art’s exhibition, Aphrodite and the Gods of Love, opened on September 15. Since then, the show has turned into a source of controversy. Organized by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the exhibition features 125 statues, vases, terracotta and bronze figures, mirrors and jewelry from the MFA and seven works from the Museo Archeologico Nazionale in Naples, Italy. Aphrodite is the first exhibition to focus on the art of ancient Greece in the San Antonio Museum of Art’s history.

A 2,000-year-old statuette of Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty, has been used in promotional material to spread the word about the rare exhibit and has left some people in shock. The San Antonio Current, San Antonio Magazine, San Antonio Jewish Journal, and San Antonio Business Journal all ran the advertisement without question. Three other publications as well as the San Antonio International Airport refused to promote the exhibition as long as a nude Aphrodite was featured in the ad.

While the controversy has some people flustered, it has brought a good amount of attention to the San Antonio Museum and the exhibition. Aphrodite will be on view through February 17, 2013.