A seal that belonged to 18th-century Chinese Emperor Qianlong has been sold for 980,000 eurosat an auction in the south-western city of Toulouse.
The successful bidder was Chinese and beat five competitors, three of whom attended the sale at the Primardeco auction house on Saturday. Each participant had to pay a deposit of
45,000 euros.
Nobody was authorised to use the seal except Emperor Qianlong (1711-1799), who, apart from being wealthy and militarily powerful, was a painter and poet.
Chinese emperor's seal sold for 980,000 euros in French auction (via RFI)
目前尚不知道拍走這枚乾隆私章的中國買家是誰，也無從知曉他/她會如何對待這枚珍藏。
近千萬的成交價，還真是咱圍觀群眾所望塵莫及的。
不過，這早已不是中國人第一次買回流落海外的文物了。
就在去年底，同樣是法國，一枚乾隆玉璽同樣被中國收藏家所拍走：
這一回的成交價更驚人，直接破了億……
An 18th-century Chinese imperial seal sold for 21 million euros - more than 20 times its estimated price- at auction in Paris on Wednesday.
The extremely rare seal in red and beige nephrite jade comes from the Qianlong period (1711-1799). It is decoarated with stylised dragons, the symbol of imperial authorituy and Emperor Qianlong's
masculine power, according to the Drouot auction house.
After a bidding battle between would-be buyers by telephone and in the saleroom, it went to an unnamed Chinese collector.
Antique Chinese seal fetches 21 million euros at Paris auction (via RFI)
Macau gambling tycoon Stanley Ho paid a record US$8.9 millionfor a rare bronze horse’s head plundered from Beijing’s Old Summer Palace and is to hand it back to China, Sotheby’s
auction house said on Thursday.
「I feel honoured to play a role in helping save lost (Chinese) cultural relics from overseas,」 said Ho, 85, in a statement from Sotheby『s.
The auction house, which had planned to auction the sculpture in October, said the price was a world record for any Chinese Qing Dynasty sculpture.
Tycoon to hand $8.9 mln horse head back to China (via Reuters)
除了熱心的國內同胞購買文物捐贈祖國外，也有少數海外人士無償歸還了流失的珍寶。
比如，圓明園十二生肖銅像中的「鼠首」和「兔首」，就是法國商人皮諾無償歸還的。
皮諾(François-Henri Pinault)
這枚大叔看著陌生，但他的集團所擁有的品牌你一定聽說過。
Gucci, Alexander McQueen, YSL ……都是人家的。
不僅如此，在歸還了鼠首和兔首後，皮諾又在兩年前把自己收藏的4件東周時期的珍貴文物歸還給了中國：
Ancient relics looted from China are now part of a new exhibition in Gansu Provincial Museum in west China.
The collection of 32 artefacts include the golden heads of birds of prey recently returned in secret by French luxury tycoon François Pinault, who did not know the artefacts were
stolen.
The relics dates back more than 2,000 years and were looted from a Zhou dynasty tomb in Gansu province in 1992.
China hosts new exhibition with 32 relics recovered from foreign soil including a 2,000-year-old stolen artefact returned in secret by French luxury goods tycoon (via Daily Mail)
