BEIJING (AP) -- Some 140 years after British and French troops looted them from an ornate imperial Chinese palace, three 18th century bronze sculptures went on display Monday in Beijing.
The return of the sculptures, purchased in auctions held by Sotheby's and Christie's in Hong Kong four weeks ago, was heralded by state-run media and by Beijing residents who flocked to the display as a sign of China's growing strength.Hundreds of people -- students, soldiers, the elderly -- lined up early Monday outside the art museum of China Poly Group, a state-owned conglomerate, to see the sculptures displayed on simple pedestals in a foyer just a few feet behind red tape barricades.
Poly Group bought the bronze sculpture of a tiger head for $1.98 million from Sotheby's and monkey and ox heads for $2.05 million from Christie's in auctions that Beijing tried unsuccessfully to stop.
Sotheby's sold a fourth treasure, a hexagonal ceramic vase commissioned in 1743 by Qing Dynasty Emperor Qianlong, to a company under China's Administration of Cultural Relics for $2.69 million.
Beijing contended the items were national treasures that should be returned. Since the auctions, China has announced plans to try to recover more looted relics.
The bronze heads were part of a water clock featuring the 12 animals of the Chinese zodiac. The clock was a highlight of the baroque, European-style palaces that once dotted the opulent gardens of Yuan Ming Yuan, a summer pleasure ground for the imperial court built in the 1740s.
In 1860, during the second Opium War, British and French troops occupied the area, looted its treasures and set fire to the palaces. Today, only ruins remain.
Chinese view the looting of Yuan Ming Yuan as a national humiliation.
Chinese officials and media have portrayed the effort to recover such treasures as a sacred national cause.
"The price may have been a bit high, but the people of Beijing would never have forgiven us if we hadn't bought them," said Li Moli, a staff member of the Poly Group Art Museum.
The statues will tour other Chinese cities for public display before returning to the museum.
Li said Chinese officials also hope to recover another four of the 12 animals originally belonging to the water clock: an ox head said to be in Hong Kong; a boar's head said to be in the United States and the heads of a rat and a rabbit held by a French collector.
The whereabouts of the others was unknown. "They may have been melted down or broken up," she said.