fluktor -|||- study - office - newsletter August 07, 2005

Terracotta warriors safe from weathering: experts
www.chinaview.cn 2005-07-08 14:01:09

XI'AN, July 8 (Xinhuanet) -- Claims that the priceless 2,000-year-old terracotta army in the ancient city of Xi'an, northwestern China, is in danger of disintegrating due to weathering have been denied by experts and management of the site.

In an interview with Xinhua Thursday, Wu Yongqi, director of the Qin Dynasty Terracotta Warriors and Horses Museum, denied recent media reports which allege that these warriors would vanish within a century because of air pollution.

"The terracotta warriors and horses are perfectly safe and so they will remain in 100 years," said Wu, based in Xi'an, capital of northwest China's Shaanxi Province.

In fact, the museum has carried out a 240,000-US-dollar research project on air pollution and its damage to the relics.

"We're carrying out the research project for precautionary protection, not for measures to deal with existing problems," saidZhao Kun, director of the museum's protection department.

He said the preservation work in the museum is done "in a proper way" and its preservation hall, where humidity and temperature can be adjusted, protects the heritage pieces from wind, rain and the scorching sun.

The museum set up in 2001 China's first anti-mould laboratory for heritage protection and has worked out state-of-the-art anti-mould technologies, acknowledged Zhao.

In 2002, the museum's technological research results for preserving the colors on the army passed the approval by experts from the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, solving the most knotty problem.

The Qin Dynasty (221-206 BC) warriors, popularly known as the world's Eighth Wonder, were discovered in 1974 in Lintong, an eastern district of Xi'an. They were created to guard the tomb of Qin Emperor Shihuang.

Located one kilometer east of the emperor's tomb, more than 7,000 clay warriors and 500 clay horses were found in three burial pits, which are now all enclosed and protected in steel-framed, concrete halls.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-07/08/content_3192712.htm

********************************

Master calligrapher Qi Gong cremated
www.chinaview.cn 2005-07-07 22:58:27

BEIJING, July 7 (Xinhuanet) -- The remains of China's master calligrapher Qi Gong was cremated here Thursday.

Qi, a professor of Beijing Normal University, well-known for his calligraphy, painting and Chinese culture studies, passed away on June 30 in Beijing at the age of 93.

Senior Chinese leaders, including Jia Qinglin, Li Changchun and Liu Yunshan, expressed their condolences to Qi's families at the funeral service before Qi's body was cremated.

Top Chinese leaders, including Hu Jintao, Jiang Zemin and Wu Bangguo, also expressed their condolences and comfort in various forms when Qi was seriously ill and after he died.

Honorary president of Chinese Calligraphers' Association. Qi wrote a large number of calligraphic pieces which can be seen on a host of landmark buildings, scenic spots around China and with many book titles.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-07/07/content_3190107.htm

*********************************

Experts warn of art market overheating
www.chinaview.cn 2005-07-07 10:15:48

BEIJING, July 7 -- Shortly after the death of famous calligrapher and painter Qi Gong on June 30, one of his paintings created in 1942 was sold at an auction for 660,000 yuan (US$80,000), setting a record for his works.

The fact that prices for Qi's works have risen after his death is in line with popular expectations, with many having already predicted that his calligraphy and paintings would double in value, or even that prices would surpass 20,000 yuan per square foot.

But experts in the art industry are warning people of an overheated market.

The same thing happened to the paintings of Chen Yifei, a prominent Chinese artist-entrepreneur who died of gastric hemorrhage in Shanghai on April 10. Prices for his work have now shot up, setting record after record, and in turn this has pushed up prices for works by Chinese artists throughout the world.

On June 29, Chen’s painting “A Girl With a Cello” was sold at an auction for 5.5 million yuan in his home city Shanghai, with another of his pieces “Sunny Days” having already achieved 4.4 million yuan in a previous auction. In Beijing, Chen's two other paintings went for 2.255 million yuan and 1.925 million yuan.

Investors are excited about escalating prices for the works of famous late artists, which are seen as good speculation targets, beacause they are thought of as limited resources.

Some experts are worried however. Zhao Yu, a former head of the Chinese Paintings Academy, pointed out that prices for works by modern masters such as Van Gogh and Picasso only rose many years after their deaths — indicating China's current arts market is overheated.

An observer surnamed Sun drew a parallel between China's art market today and 20 years ago, when Japanese businessmen stormed into the international art market to bring home famous paintings at astronomical prices, only to then see prices slump drastically — a cautionary warning to today's art collectors in China.

(Source: Shenzhen Daily)

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-07/07/content_3186374.htm

**************************

Search for missing Peking Man skulls continues
www.chinaview.cn 2005-07-06 20:37:24

BEIJING, July 6 (Xinhuanet) -- "Mankind can give up many things, but there is one thing that we can never abandon -- that is our ancestors, "said Gao Xing, an expert of ancient vertebrates, with the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS).

"The secret of the missing Peking Man skulls and other relics remains a trans-century secret that embodies creation and destruction,and civilization and barbarism," Gao said when talking about the resumption of the work to search for the Peking Man skulls and other relics that went missing during the World War II.

A special committee for searching for the missing relics, led by local government and consisting of non-governmental organizations, was established in Beijing's Fangshan District, home to the Peking Man skulls, on Saturday.

Nie Yuzao, secretary of the Fangshan District Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), and Qi Hong, acting director of the Fangshan District government, will take charge of the Work Committee for Searching for Missing Peking Man Skulls.

Experts and advisors for the committee include Wu Xinzhi, an academician with the CAS and a Paleoanthropologist, Zhou Guoxing,professor of anthropology and prehistorical archaeology and Jia Yuzhong, son and former secretary of Jia Lanpo, one of the finders of the Peking Man skulls.

The first intact fossilized Peking Man skull was found by Chinese paleoanthropologist Pei Wenzhong at Zhoukoudian, 48 kilometers southwest to Beijing proper, on Dec. 2, 1929. It is dated as 400,000 to 500,000 years old.

The skull fossil and other relics discovered at the site, such as stoneware and fire ashes, prove that homo erectus was living in the slopes of the Zhoukoudian site.

After Pei, Jia Lanpo and others found another five intact fossilized skulls of Peking Man in the 1930s. In 1941, attempts were made to send the five skullcaps and other precious fossils tothe United States when the Japanese troops occupied Beijing after the "July 7 Lugou Bridge Incident" in 1937 which marked the comprehensive invasion of Japan against China.

But the five intact skulls, together with 147 teeth, broken skulls, thighbone, lower jaw bone, collarbone, disappeared after leaving the Peking Union Medical College, which was holding the fossils at the time.

After the end of the World War II, China, the United States andJapan all conducted a search for the missing Peking Man skulls andother relics, but to date, none of them have been found.

The missing relics remained a great regret to Pei, finder of the first Peking Man skull, until the last minute of his life, GaoXing, the expert with the CAS told Xinhua.

Gao said, there are many guesses about the whereabouts of the missing relics. Some say they were destroyed by Japanese invaders,some say the relics were transported to Japan, and some others saythe have been sent to the United States. Some think that the relics sunk into the sea.

Calls and efforts for searching for the missing relics have continued in China since 1998, but with little progress being made. The newly-established committee, the first of its kind led by the government, is expected to push forward the work in this regard, said a source close to the committee.

The Zhoukoudian Peking Man Ruins Management Office and the Zhoukoudian Palaeoanthropology Research Center under the CAS will be jointly responsible for seeking clues about the missing relics and searching for them.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-07/06/content_3184050.htm

****************************

Digging emperors' tombs under discussion
www.chinaview.cn 2005-07-05 21:39:16

BEIJING, July 5 (Xinhuanet) -- Chinese experts are studying the proposals to excavate the tombs of Emperor Qin Shihuang and Empress Wu Zetian, said Zhang Bai, vice director of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage (SACH) here Tuesday at a press conference.

"The tombs of Emperor Qin Shihuang and Empress Wu Zetian are preserved well and no illegal excavation and transport has been found so far," said Zhang, "We decided not to dig them right now because the technology is not mature enough," Zhang said.

Emperor Qin Shihuang, who unified ancient China in 221 B.C. and established the Great Wall, died in 210 B.C. and the imperial system he built set a pattern that was developed over the next two millennia in China.

Empress Wu Zetian assumed power from 684 to 690. Though her reign was brief, she was the only female Emperor in Chinese history.

Having never been unearthed, the two tombs hold many mysteries.

"They rank at the world's leading position in terms of scale and construction delicacy," said Sun Qingyun, the Mayor of Xi'an City in northwest China's Shanxi Province, where the two tombs are located.

"Their excavation requires thorough preparation, which includesa responsible attitude toward history and cultural heritage," Sun said.

"China's cultural property protection technology is still lagging behind, and we cannot ensure the safety of these relics if we dig them out," Zhang said, citing the example of ivory discovered in southern China that turned from pure white to black within two hours after being unearthed.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-07/05/content_3179441.htm

__________________

with kind regards,

Matthias Arnold
(Art-Eastasia list)

http://www.chinaresource.org
http://www.fluktor.de

__________________________________________

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http://listserv.uni-heidelberg.de/archives/art-eastasia.html
For postings earlier than 2005-02-23 please go to:
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	August 07, 2005: [achtung! kunst] Xinhua news II : Weathering Terracotta Warriors? - Qi Gong and the market - Search for Peking Man skulls - Digging emperors' tombs under discussion

	Terracotta warriors safe from weathering: experts www.chinaview.cn 2005-07-08 14:01:09 XI'AN, July 8 (Xinhuanet) -- Claims that the priceless 2,000-year-old terracotta army in the ancient city of Xi'an, northwestern China, is in danger of disintegrating due to weathering have been denied by experts and management of the site. In an interview with Xinhua Thursday, Wu Yongqi, director of the Qin Dynasty Terracotta Warriors and Horses Museum, denied recent media reports which allege that these warriors would vanish within a century because of air pollution. "The terracotta warriors and horses are perfectly safe and so they will remain in 100 years," said Wu, based in Xi'an, capital of northwest China's Shaanxi Province. In fact, the museum has carried out a 240,000-US-dollar research project on air pollution and its damage to the relics. "We're carrying out the research project for precautionary protection, not for measures to deal with existing problems," saidZhao Kun, director of the museum's protection department. He said the preservation work in the museum is done "in a proper way" and its preservation hall, where humidity and temperature can be adjusted, protects the heritage pieces from wind, rain and the scorching sun. The museum set up in 2001 China's first anti-mould laboratory for heritage protection and has worked out state-of-the-art anti-mould technologies, acknowledged Zhao. In 2002, the museum's technological research results for preserving the colors on the army passed the approval by experts from the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, solving the most knotty problem. The Qin Dynasty (221-206 BC) warriors, popularly known as the world's Eighth Wonder, were discovered in 1974 in Lintong, an eastern district of Xi'an. They were created to guard the tomb of Qin Emperor Shihuang. Located one kilometer east of the emperor's tomb, more than 7,000 clay warriors and 500 clay horses were found in three burial pits, which are now all enclosed and protected in steel-framed, concrete halls. http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-07/08/content_3192712.htm ****************************** Master calligrapher Qi Gong cremated www.chinaview.cn 2005-07-07 22:58:27 BEIJING, July 7 (Xinhuanet) -- The remains of China's master calligrapher Qi Gong was cremated here Thursday. Qi, a professor of Beijing Normal University, well-known for his calligraphy, painting and Chinese culture studies, passed away on June 30 in Beijing at the age of 93. Senior Chinese leaders, including Jia Qinglin, Li Changchun and Liu Yunshan, expressed their condolences to Qi's families at the funeral service before Qi's body was cremated. Top Chinese leaders, including Hu Jintao, Jiang Zemin and Wu Bangguo, also expressed their condolences and comfort in various forms when Qi was seriously ill and after he died. Honorary president of Chinese Calligraphers' Association. Qi wrote a large number of calligraphic pieces which can be seen on a host of landmark buildings, scenic spots around China and with many book titles. http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-07/07/content_3190107.htm ***************************** Experts warn of art market overheating www.chinaview.cn 2005-07-07 10:15:48 BEIJING, July 7 -- Shortly after the death of famous calligrapher and painter Qi Gong on June 30, one of his paintings created in 1942 was sold at an auction for 660,000 yuan (US$80,000), setting a record for his works. The fact that prices for Qi's works have risen after his death is in line with popular expectations, with many having already predicted that his calligraphy and paintings would double in value, or even that prices would surpass 20,000 yuan per square foot. But experts in the art industry are warning people of an overheated market. The same thing happened to the paintings of Chen Yifei, a prominent Chinese artist-entrepreneur who died of gastric hemorrhage in Shanghai on April 10. Prices for his work have now shot up, setting record after record, and in turn this has pushed up prices for works by Chinese artists throughout the world. On June 29, Chen’s painting “A Girl With a Cello” was sold at an auction for 5.5 million yuan in his home city Shanghai, with another of his pieces “Sunny Days” having already achieved 4.4 million yuan in a previous auction. In Beijing, Chen's two other paintings went for 2.255 million yuan and 1.925 million yuan. Investors are excited about escalating prices for the works of famous late artists, which are seen as good speculation targets, beacause they are thought of as limited resources. Some experts are worried however. Zhao Yu, a former head of the Chinese Paintings Academy, pointed out that prices for works by modern masters such as Van Gogh and Picasso only rose many years after their deaths — indicating China's current arts market is overheated. An observer surnamed Sun drew a parallel between China's art market today and 20 years ago, when Japanese businessmen stormed into the international art market to bring home famous paintings at astronomical prices, only to then see prices slump drastically — a cautionary warning to today's art collectors in China. (Source: Shenzhen Daily) http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-07/07/content_3186374.htm ********************** Search for missing Peking Man skulls continues www.chinaview.cn 2005-07-06 20:37:24 BEIJING, July 6 (Xinhuanet) -- "Mankind can give up many things, but there is one thing that we can never abandon -- that is our ancestors, "said Gao Xing, an expert of ancient vertebrates, with the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). "The secret of the missing Peking Man skulls and other relics remains a trans-century secret that embodies creation and destruction,and civilization and barbarism," Gao said when talking about the resumption of the work to search for the Peking Man skulls and other relics that went missing during the World War II. A special committee for searching for the missing relics, led by local government and consisting of non-governmental organizations, was established in Beijing's Fangshan District, home to the Peking Man skulls, on Saturday. Nie Yuzao, secretary of the Fangshan District Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), and Qi Hong, acting director of the Fangshan District government, will take charge of the Work Committee for Searching for Missing Peking Man Skulls. Experts and advisors for the committee include Wu Xinzhi, an academician with the CAS and a Paleoanthropologist, Zhou Guoxing,professor of anthropology and prehistorical archaeology and Jia Yuzhong, son and former secretary of Jia Lanpo, one of the finders of the Peking Man skulls. The first intact fossilized Peking Man skull was found by Chinese paleoanthropologist Pei Wenzhong at Zhoukoudian, 48 kilometers southwest to Beijing proper, on Dec. 2, 1929. It is dated as 400,000 to 500,000 years old. The skull fossil and other relics discovered at the site, such as stoneware and fire ashes, prove that homo erectus was living in the slopes of the Zhoukoudian site. After Pei, Jia Lanpo and others found another five intact fossilized skulls of Peking Man in the 1930s. In 1941, attempts were made to send the five skullcaps and other precious fossils tothe United States when the Japanese troops occupied Beijing after the "July 7 Lugou Bridge Incident" in 1937 which marked the comprehensive invasion of Japan against China. But the five intact skulls, together with 147 teeth, broken skulls, thighbone, lower jaw bone, collarbone, disappeared after leaving the Peking Union Medical College, which was holding the fossils at the time. After the end of the World War II, China, the United States andJapan all conducted a search for the missing Peking Man skulls andother relics, but to date, none of them have been found. The missing relics remained a great regret to Pei, finder of the first Peking Man skull, until the last minute of his life, GaoXing, the expert with the CAS told Xinhua. Gao said, there are many guesses about the whereabouts of the missing relics. Some say they were destroyed by Japanese invaders,some say the relics were transported to Japan, and some others saythe have been sent to the United States. Some think that the relics sunk into the sea. Calls and efforts for searching for the missing relics have continued in China since 1998, but with little progress being made. The newly-established committee, the first of its kind led by the government, is expected to push forward the work in this regard, said a source close to the committee. The Zhoukoudian Peking Man Ruins Management Office and the Zhoukoudian Palaeoanthropology Research Center under the CAS will be jointly responsible for seeking clues about the missing relics and searching for them. http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-07/06/content_3184050.htm ************************** Digging emperors' tombs under discussion www.chinaview.cn 2005-07-05 21:39:16 BEIJING, July 5 (Xinhuanet) -- Chinese experts are studying the proposals to excavate the tombs of Emperor Qin Shihuang and Empress Wu Zetian, said Zhang Bai, vice director of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage (SACH) here Tuesday at a press conference. "The tombs of Emperor Qin Shihuang and Empress Wu Zetian are preserved well and no illegal excavation and transport has been found so far," said Zhang, "We decided not to dig them right now because the technology is not mature enough," Zhang said. Emperor Qin Shihuang, who unified ancient China in 221 B.C. and established the Great Wall, died in 210 B.C. and the imperial system he built set a pattern that was developed over the next two millennia in China. Empress Wu Zetian assumed power from 684 to 690. Though her reign was brief, she was the only female Emperor in Chinese history. Having never been unearthed, the two tombs hold many mysteries. "They rank at the world's leading position in terms of scale and construction delicacy," said Sun Qingyun, the Mayor of Xi'an City in northwest China's Shanxi Province, where the two tombs are located. "Their excavation requires thorough preparation, which includesa responsible attitude toward history and cultural heritage," Sun said. "China's cultural property protection technology is still lagging behind, and we cannot ensure the safety of these relics if we dig them out," Zhang said, citing the example of ivory discovered in southern China that turned from pure white to black within two hours after being unearthed. http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-07/05/content_3179441.htm __________________ with kind regards, Matthias Arnold (Art-Eastasia list) http://www.chinaresource.org http://www.fluktor.de __________________________________________ An archive of this list as well as an subscribe/unsubscribe facility is available at: http://listserv.uni-heidelberg.de/archives/art-eastasia.html For postings earlier than 2005-02-23 please go to: http://www.fluktor.de/study/office/newsletter.htm