Four bronze animal heads looted from Yuanmingyuan Garden and purchased back at auctions are on display in Nanjing in east China's Jiangsu Province. It's been a bumpy and dramatic journey to find their way home. Hopes remain high that their destiny will also be shared by those yet to be recovered from abroad.

This is the Tiger head currently causing an uproar in Nanjing. Along with three other animal bronze heads, the quartet comprises one third of a Zodiac fountain once situated in the Garden of Eternal Spring in Beijing's Yuanmingyuan Garden.

Commissioned by Qing Emperor Qianlong, the statues adorned a clock that used water to report time... that is, until one night in 1860, when invading Anglo-French forces ransacked and burnt the palaces reducing them to rubble. That's when the animal heads were lost.

Four of the heads are now in a historical exhibit in Nanjing. The China Poly Group acquired the heads of ox, tiger, and monkey in April and May of 2000. The pig head was bought and donated to the Mainland by Macao Gaming magnate Stanley Ho in 2003. Ho also bought and donated the fifth piece -- that of a horse head -- for 8.9 million US dollars in 2007.

In 2009 in Paris, in a Christie's sale of the estate of late French Fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent, two bronze heads surfaced, that of the rat and rabbit. The Chinese government condemned the sale of looted relics, and demanded their return.

Jiang Yu, former spokeswoman of Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said, "Chinese claims undoubtable ownership of these relics. They should be returned to China."

This resolute attitude was echoed at the non-governmental level, where China Lost Relics Recovery Fund, headed by lawyer Liu Yang, filed a petition to try to stop the sale, only to be rejected by a Paris tribunal.

The items were sold to a phone-in buyer for 19 million US each. And this is the successful bidder.

Cai Mingchao, Chinese collector, said, "At that moment, every Chinese man will step ahead to stop the sale. I am only doing my obligation. But I need to emphasize, that I will not pay for these items."

Apart from the aforesaid seven bronze figureheads, five are still missing. The heads of Dragon, Snake, Sheep, Rooster, and Dog still need to be recovered. Until then, the zodiac cycle can never be completed.

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