If genuine, vessel up for auction in UK ought to be returned to China

A RARE Chinese bronze water vessel, believed to have been taken during the looting of Beijing's Summer Palace by the British and French forces in 1860, is to be auctioned at the Canterbury Auction Galleries in April. This has aroused outrage in China. Zhou Ya, a bronze expert with Shanghai Museum, was interviewed by Thepaper.cn:

Currently the photos of the relic, together with letters of its previous holder, UK Captain Harry Lewis Evans in the 1860s, have been published online as evidence of its authenticity, so our analysis should be based on these materials.

First, some media outlets quoted Canterbury Auction Galleries as saying the relic is a "Tiger Ying", with Ying referring to a kind of Chinese water vessel that dates back to the Western Zhou Dynasty (1027-771 BC), and saying there are only six like it in the world.