Beth McKillop

Maurice Hyams

Editor's Note: The current enthusiasm for buying antiques bought or plundered from China in the past is seen by some as a form of "china patriotism." What does this mean to the international antique market? What role can the Chinese government play? Global Times (GT) special correspondent Zhao Xuemei and reporter Sun Wei, both based in London, interviewed Maurice Hyams (Hyams), director of the Nanking Porcelain Company, a company specializing in marketing the pieces recovered from shipwrecks, and Beth McKillop (McKillop), director of the Collections and Keeper at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, on these issues.

GT: Is repurchase the best option for repatriation?

Hyams: Out of this business, 60 to 70 percent is with China and prices are getting very high. They've gone up by five to eight times in the last decade. One of the best commodity investments is good pieces of Chinese porcelain with a history. New record prices are set all the time. Last week a vase went in Hong Kong for $32 million.

GT: Last year, the auction in Paris of two bronzes, in the shape of a rabbit and a rat, looted from the Old Summer Palace caused a big furore in China. The winning bidder Cai Mingchao refused to pay. Did he violate international law? What do you think of the role of nationalism or patriotism in the repatriation of looted relics?

Hyams: He didn't break the law. National pride is not really nationalism. Patriotism is probably a better term.

I love and admire the Chinese works of art, many of them have never been equaled and never will be equaled, especially the lost arts that can never be recreated, because the skills are lost.

The porcelain, bronzes, and fabrics, they were working with such basic tools. Kilns were fired with packed wood, not electric kilns. The fact that in the imperial kilns in Jingdezhen, they made these pieces and they would break four out of five to make sure they were good enough.