Arizona republican., 1914-03-11
OF
 CH|NA'S $ RELICS
Asiatic Institute of New York Calls Attention to Vandal sm w hereby China is Losing Many of Her Antiquities
ASSOCIATED PRESS DIsPATcHl

| II stluction of Antiquities in China, the Asiatic Institute of New York 1 calls attention to the vandalism that has appeared in China by which she ! is being ruthlessly plundered of her antiquities.
 l The statement places the reSponsl- 1 biiitv for this situation on the deVel- opment of the present European mu- scum and collecting system. It con- stitutes an appeal to nations and or 1 ganizations to call a halt in this widespread plunder, often involving bloodshed, in the interests of science end of fair play for China and her coming generations.
 The monograph contains private official and public papers. It voices | China's protests thus:
 The Asiatic Institute has received Chinese protests dating back six years emphasizing Chinese abhor- renee of the European system. whose practices have now invaded China. These practices are widespread pill ! laging of temples and sacred places of the dead and other ancient works ill Africa and throughout Asia. in the name of superior civilization, puni tive warfare, science or other sub terfuge They protest against the introduction into China of a foreign conception of time of science and Of history by newer nations whose sense of antiquity as peculiarly ex- emplified in their museum system enables them to participate in and foster the destruction and rObbry of holy things
 The havoc and destruction referred to is specified as follows:
 Tn the revolutionary interregnum between the winter of 1911-12 and the summer of 1913, sculptures and other antiquities native to China un
 derwent destruction on a large scale by foreign and native vandals in the
 interest of foreign dealers and mu- seums.
 Tn 1913 there was a general div
 ision among museums of the world
 including at least two American
 museums, of several hundred cases of
 sculptural fragments broken from their settings by one and the same body of vandals. This evil has grown up so suddenly-it has come
 about since 190S-that foreign peo-
 pies and foreign governments have not apprehended it. No one is aware
 of it except the museums involved,
 their agents and intermediates and
 the alarmed Chinese
 In q statement made to the Asso-
 Ciated Press. the secretary of the
 Asiatic Institute says:
 "All signs seem to indicate that , Gepredations have commenced upon
 the archaeological and art wealth oi
 China to an extent even greater than
 the vandalism with which Europe , visited the art and beauty of the
 shores of the Mediterranean. The market for Chinese antiquities, par , 1 ticularly sculptures. came with the l close of the Russo-Japanese war l but no nation bears the stigma oi |, being chief vandal in China. The
 market is an intel national one. ant
 has been developed under Japanese land European direction with Paris as
 headquarters. So well has the mar l.et been worked by the dealers tha
 the increase in prices of Chinese I sculpture in the past five or si, p years has been forty or fifty times , For example one piece of sculpture a of North Wei times-9th century A 1 estimated to have cost $400 il f China, after passing through onl!
 two or three hands, is held by o dealer at S15.000 One American mu.
 scum has ten stone heads broker from statues in the interior of China
 All large museums of the world have # or are acquiring. similar fragments VI Collectors and museums in Americ; Q are sending special representatives t, Q China with large sums of money t il buy Similar expeditions are settin: Q forth from Europe.
 . Realizing the menace to tn - sculptures of China, the Asiatic In @ stitute is cooperating with the Chin;
 Monuments Society of Peking, who's . committee is composed of the foreigl L. ministers at Picking of Great Britain a Russia. America. France and Japan n men who see the situation close a @ hand and are aroused by it. d One remedy which the institut 0 proposes in it's appeal is the returl l. to China by all responsible govern " ments and institutions, of stole k Chinese antiquities in accordanc L. with a precedent of the French gov l. ernment and of the Smithsonian in
 stitutiOn, which in past years set a r. example by returning To China arch " eological and historical objects c
 which she had been robbed. an i- (which had come into it's possession. of The institute proposes also. tn
 stepping of further indiscriminat le purchasing. especially of broke d sculptures. In it's appeal for the co s- operation Of libraries, museums in scientific societies and collectors. L. says that the vandalism has reache Id the magnitude of great crime, an
 should arouse international opposi m ton.
 lc ""To plunder ard destroy China's ar
 tiquities.' says the appeal. ''tends
 break down Chinese society It crir CT ples research and education and re
 tards progress American influencC
 have shaped the Chirese revolutio
 and are working for the conservatio E Of life in China. The American 1T 2 stitutions of civilization is given tf E" chief opportunity of combating
 China destructive activities of wes ar own nroit, Iypop tbnca rpStS fl