The 2900-year-old Chinese bronze vessel. Image courtesy of the National Cultural Heritage Administration of China and Luo Zheng.
The bronze gui, a type of bowl-shaped ritual vessel, dates to the Western Zhou dynasty (c.1045-771BC).
It had been excavated in 1978 at Qican, Shaanxi, and had been part of the collection of the Fufeng County Museum. However, it was stolen in 1984.
The vessel was later purchased by Yien-Koo King and her son Raymond King in Taiwan in the 1980s, who were unaware of its recent history. It resided in her apartment in New York until consigned for sale at Sotheby’s in 2022.
The base of the vessel contains an 18 character inscription. Image courtesy of the National Cultural Heritage Administration of China and Luo Zheng.
Using the Art Loss Register (ALR) database, the auction house found that it was in fact stolen.
ALR’s cultural specialist Elizabeth Bushell confirmed the gui was from the museum and discussions began about repatriation.
A detail of the ancient Chinese gui.
The vessel was returned to the People’s Republic of China at a ceremony at the Portland Art Museum.
James Ratcliffe, director of recoveries at ALR, said the company and Sotheby’s have maintained a strong relationship for over 30 years. ALR checks everything Sotheby’s is selling against its database to make sure there are no issues.
