28 Golden plates and 4 bird profile, decorated with ornaments that have been illegally exported from China in the 1990-ies. The French government decided to return them to their homeland despite the fact that the artifacts have long since been donated to the Paris Guimet Museum

last week 32 ancient gold artifact were presented in the Museum of the Chinese province of Gansu. These Golden plates 28 and 4 gold bird profile, covered with ornaments, were returned by the decision of the French government, recognizing that these items were illegally exported from China in the 1990s godi@

a Respected dealer in antique artifacts Christian Dede (Christian Deydier) acquired 28 ornamented plates in the early 1990s, the Taiwanese dealer. Later purchases were added and four bird profile that Dede already purchased the widow of the aforementioned Taiwanese artdealer@

French President Jacques Chirac was fascinated with bird profiles, and wished that they went to the state Museum. But since the state had no sufficient funds for their purchase, as patron, made a friend of Chirac, Francois Pinault, who paid for gold profiles of 1 million euros, and then gave them to the Museum Guimet. At the same time, Dede also decided to donate to the Museum Guimet remaining 28 gold Platin@

According to archaeological research, all of these artifacts date back to 770-476 BC and come from a group of tombs in Gabuzyan, in Gansu province, which had been savagely looted in the 1990s. that in the Paris Museum stolen artifacts, first announced in 2006, the President of the Association for the protection of Chinese art Bernard Gomez. The Chinese government has issued an official statement on this matter only in 2010. several years passed before the theft was confirmed by a joint French-Chinese expert KOMISSIYA@

return the stolen artifacts from France took almost ten years. Greatly complicated the matter what to the moment when it was revealed the illegal origin of the ornaments, they have long been presented to the Paris Museum Guimet (National Museum of Oriental art), and things donated to public museums, under French law become an integral part of the national heritage. Therefore, the fact of the donation had to be cancelled retroactively, as if the artifacts were never owned by the Museum Game@

Pino agreed to this plan and secretly returned four bird profile of the Chinese Embassy in April — without a single public statement. Dealer Dede, in turn, were dissatisfied with the way France had secretly pulling restitution (in his opinion, suffered the French cultural heritage), although eventually also returned all the Golden plates 28 Beijing in may this year. Now all 32 of the artifact presented together in the provincial Museum Gansu@

Material was prepared by Maria Onuchin, AI

Sources: artnet.com, artdaily.com, artinvestment.ru