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DR. STANLEY HO DONATES TO CHINA THE BRONZE HORSE HEAD OF THE SUMMER PALACE PURCHASED AT SOTHEBY’S HONG KONG
THE BRONZE WAS PURCHASED FOR HK$69.1 MILLION (£4.42 MILLION, US$8.84 MILLION) – A WORLD RECORD FOR ANY CHINESE QING DYNASTY SCULPTURE
[HONG KONG, September 2007] Sotheby's Hong Kong is pleased to announce that Dr. Stanley Ho, Standing Committee Member of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, has decided to donate the Bronze Horse Head of Haiyantang in the Yuanmingyuan (or Summer Palace) to China upon his purchase of the piece in a sale brokered by Sotheby’s for HK$69.1 million (£4.42 million, US$8.84 million). The Bronze was originally scheduled to be auctioned in Hong Kong in October, but given Dr. Ho’s good intentions to donate this rare and magnificent Chinese imperial piece to China, the Bronze was sold to Dr. Ho under an agreement with the consignor through Sotheby’s Hong Kong. The purchase has set a world record price for any Chinese Qing sculpture.
The State Administration of Cultural Heritage of the People's Republic of China commented, “We are glad to witness the home-coming of the Bronze Horse Head after its expatriation for nearly one and a half centuries. We highly commend and are grateful for Dr. Ho’s patriotic act and appreciate Sotheby's Hong Kong's for its efforts in making this possible.”
Dr. Stanley Ho said, “I am very honoured to be able to participate in the recovery program of China’s lost cultural relics by donating the Bronze Horse Head to China, following my donation of the Boar Head to our country in 2003. I hope this will help encourage more people to join efforts in preserving China’s cultural relics and nurture patriotic feelings.” To fulfill Dr. Ho’s wish of enabling more people to appreciate this national treasure, the Bronze Horse Head will be exhibited to the public from 4 th to 8 th October at the Sotheby's Hong Kong Autumn Sales 2007 Preview held in the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, and be subsequently displayed at Hotel Grand Lisboa in Macau from 9 th October onwards.
Mr. Kevin Ching, Chief Executive Officer of Sotheby's Asia , said, “Sotheby’s Hong Kong is proud to have concluded this sale. The home-coming of the spectacular Bronze Horse Head is most exciting and its patriotic donation by Dr. Ho to China commands great admiration. With our unparalleled expertise and our strong client base, Sotheby’s Hong Kong will continue to be a leading international platform for the collection of pre-eminent works of art.” ### Images available upon request ###
About Dr. Stanley Ho Dr. Stanley Ho, a renowned patriot and Standing Committee member of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, is a devotee to the Chinese culture. Dr. Ho, through sponsorships and organization of art and cultural events, hopes to reveal the well- integrated diversity of the Chinese culture and enforce people’s love for the Country. In 1987, he donated 147 pieces of ancient artifacts to China, and his dedication in protecting cultural heritage was duly recognized by the Ministry of Culture, People’s Republic of China. In 1999, Dr. Ho was amongst the first to donate US$3 million in support of Beijing to construct the China Millennium Monument which signifies the dawn of a new century. In 2003, Dr. Ho donated the Bronze Boar Head of the Summer Palace to China, supporting the cause of saving national treasures from overseas, and he also sponsored the nation-wide touring exhibition of the heads of the Boar, the Monkey, the Tiger and the Ox in cities such as Beijing, Macau, Hong Kong, Guangzhou and Shanghai. In September 2007, on the 10 th anniversary of the return of Hong Kong to China, Dr. Ho donated five pieces of art, namely three oil paintings Treaty of Nanjing , Celebration of the Century , Mao Zedong Meets with Health, as well as two bronze statues of Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping to the National Museum of China. In addition, Dr. Ho often sponsors Mainland art and cultural groups to perform in Hong Kong and Macau in promotion of cultural exchanges between China, Hong Kong and Macau.
About the Bronze Horse Head The Bronze Horse Head is the most significant of a group of bronze cast by Jesuit missionaries in the Qianlong period for the zodiac fountain of the baroque Palace of the Haiyantang (‘Hall of the Calm Sea’) in Yuanmingyuan (or “Summer Palace”).
The Qianlong emperor (r. 1736-1795) was so fascinated with the monumental baroque stone buildings, the fountains and other decorative water works built by his contemporaries in Europe that in 1747 he commissioned the Italian Jesuit artist Giuseppe Castiglione (1688-1766) with designing European palaces and Father Michel Benoist (1715-1774), the court mathematician and astronomer, with designing fountains.
The clepsydra, or water clock, outside the Haiyantang (‘Hall of the Calm Sea’) which is the largest of the European-style palaces, consisted of 12 bronze heads of zodiac animals. The 12 animals, all represented with human bodies, dressed in long robes and seated on square plinths, were placed around a pool in two groups of six, flanking a large shell above rockwork. The fountain is known to have been particularly admired by the emperor.
Representing the twelve double-hours of the day, they were designed to spout water for two hours each at their designated time, all of them spouting in unison at noon. The horse head would have marked the hours between eleven and one. The heads were most likely cast in the Imperial workshops in the Forbidden City.
The whereabouts of only seven heads are known. The tiger, monkey, ox and boar are now on display in the Poly Museum in Beijing, among them the Boar Head was a donation of Dr. Stanley Ho to China. The rabbit and rat remain in a private European collection.