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Horse-head statue of Old Summer Palace
comes home
A red bronze horse-head statue was brought back by Macao-based tycoon and collector Stanley Ho Hung-Sun and handed over to the National Cultural Heritage Administration in Beijing on Wednesday.
The statue appeared in the National Museum of China on Wednesday afternoon and joined a temporary exhibition on cultural
relics that have been returned from overseas since 1949.
First built in 1707,the Old Summer Palace, or Yuan ming yuan , the former imperial resort of the Qing Dynasty.
It covered a 350-hectare area, about five times that of the forbidden city.
However, the invading Anglo- French Alliance Forces rampaged through the
compound and set it on fire in 1860.
Numerous national treasures, including the 12 animal –head statues, were taken abroad in the havoc.
The Old Summer Palace gradually became ruins later, which is commonly seen as a national stigma and pain for Chinese people.
The newly returned horse-head red bronze statue was one of 12 decorative taps-in the form of 12 Chinese Zodiac Signs-which were set for a foundation in Xi yang Lou area,a group of Baroque architecture in the Old summer Palace.