Our version of the Elgin Marbles

[flemmings]

M was wondering just how the fajita the tomb of a famous Ming general wound up in Toronto. It came via one George Crofts, a fur trader in China, who seems to have bought and shipped just about anything he liked, and sent the tomb along in the early 1920s. It was activities like his that led China to ban the export of antiquities in 1930.

Note that the bulk of the ROM's Chinese collection came from the infamous Bishop White, who knowingly smuggled antiquities out after the ban came into effect. I'd thought it was Currelly, the museum's then director, who characterized White as a pirate, but it seems the two were in cahoots.

Evidently Chinese commentators have demanded the return of the White collection, but I wonder if anyone's said anything about General Zu's tomb, now that it's been established as actually his.

Comments

[paleaswater.livejournal.com]

Howeve they came, I'm glad they're at ROM where I can visit them. though if ROM really want to do them justice they should set them up like a real tomb the way Met did the egyptian temple.

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

They used to have it set up that way, back when it was outside and exposed to car exhaust and weather. Then they built the Excrescence over the side garden where the tomb stood, and they moved it into the (you note) smaller indoor setting where it's kind of piecemeal.