Stolen relics

The Old Summer Palace, known in China as the "Gardens of Perfect Brightness", is, unfortunately, a reminder of an age of darkness in Chinese history. The aggressive troops sent by Britain and France sacked the Old Summer Palace in 1860 and the British and French armies, joined by those of Germany, Japan, the United States, Czarist Russia, Italy and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, plundered through what remained in 1900.

Various relics from these gardens now grace the galleries and storehouses of museums worldwide, when their rightful place is here at home. Yet hardly anything abroad is being done to return them to China, the relics' rightful home.

It took emperors of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) 150 years to build the Old Summer Palace, an extensive collection of royal mansions and gardens and other works of art. When the Chinese people commemorate the destruction of the palace and the humiliation of the nation 150 years ago, it is worth recalling that those countries continue to shamelessly profit from assets and property stolen from the Old Summer Palace.