South Korean Museum Returns Two Qing Dynasty Lion Sculptures to China
On July 23, the Kansong Art Museum in Seoul held a ceremony returning two Qing Dynasty stone lion sculptures to China, following an agreement reached in early January. Attendees included Kansong Art Museum director Chun In-keon, National Museum of Korea director You Hong-june, Chinese ambassador Dai Bing, and Rao Quan of China’s National Cultural Heritage Administration. The lions were bought in 1933 at an auction in Osaka by Korean collector Jeon Hyeong-pil (Kansong), who founded the Bohwagak museum in 1938; the institution became the Kansong Art Museum in 1966 after Jeon’s death in 1962. Each sculpture is over 6 feet tall and weighs more than a ton, and China plans to restore them and display them at a national museum within a year; the museum will replace them at its entrance with stone tiger statues shown in a black-and-white photo on its homepage.
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This story was covered in Restitution Reckonings and Museums on the Brink