TAIPEI: The National Palace Museum's (NPM) caution in pursuing two bronze statues taken from Beijing some 150 years ago, has won praise by the International Council of Museums (ICOM). The decision earlier had been harshly condemned by some local lawmakers.

The NPM reportedly declined to purchase, or accept for free, Qing dynasty bronze rat and rabbit heads from a French collector earlier this year. They were once the property of the imperial summer palace in Beijing, and the mainland insists they be treated as stolen property.

NPM Director Chou Kung-shin denied that French businessman Pierre Berge ever offered the works to her museum, but she told legislators the museum would never accept artifacts that are controversial, stolen or of unknown origin, a stance lauded by ICOM.

"The Ethics Committee considers that (Chou) showed her care for museum ethics issues internationally, and demonstrated a positive relation to the position of the National Palace Museum, when it recently refrained from any move to purchase the Qing bronze rat and rabbit head sculptures," Bernice Murphy, chairperson of the ICOM's Ethics Committee, told the Central News Agency in an e-mail Monday.

According to Murphy, the ICOM's Ethics Committee addressed the bronze sculpture matter recently at a meeting in Paris and was well aware of the controversy surrounding the auctioning of the sculptures by Christie's in Paris in February this year.

Chou has reiterated at the Legislative Yuan this year that the NPM, as one of the world's most famous museums, should follow professional ethics and uphold its international image in not pursuing the pieces.

Berge, partner of the late French fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent, said in a radio interview in early October that he would never offer the works to Beijing and had hoped to give them to others.

"I wanted to give them to the Taiwan Museum, which did not want to create a bone of contention of such importance with the mainland. Or to the Musee Guimet, but I don't think that France is any more interested in a quarrel with China," Berge said.

During a legislative session in early October, Chou said that when she met Berge in Paris in June, he told her that he "would neither sell nor donate the two pieces," but even if he had offered to donate the sculptures, the NPM would not accept them based on professional ethics.

Murphy also praised Chou's visit to the Beijing Palace Museum in February and her partnership venture to seek loans and prepare an exhibition in Taiwan that will reunite objects from both museums.

"This is aligned with other progressive projects of much interest and relevance to principles supported by ICOM's Code of Ethics for Museums, and related ICOM policies encouraging greater cooperation throughout the museums sector internationally," Murphy said.

These initiatives signal a greater awareness of shared responsibilities in caring for and interpreting cultural heritage internationally, she contended.

China Daily/CNA

(HK Edition 10/28/2009 page2)