Should Britain Should Return The Historical Treasure Looted From The Summer Palace?

Persuasive Essay

“History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce,” declared political theorist Karl Marx. A hundred fifty years ago, the ravaging of the Summer Palace by the British army remains a crucial issue in China. The British should return the historical treasures looted from China’s Summer Palace during the Second Opium War because China will then have a complete collection of their meaningful historical collection, auctioneers will stop selling Chinese artifacts back to China at an unreasonably high price, and the society will appreciate Britain’s fairness towards returning stolen historical artifacts.
Britain should return China’s historical treasures from the Summer Palace because they are a great deal towards China’s culture and identity. Constructed during the flourishing Qianlong era, the
The fact that marketers are selling looted Chinese antiques is not acceptable because they are forcing Chinese bidders to buy them back at a huge expense when the treasures were originally China’s. “A month earlier, a gaudy Qing-dynasty porcelain vase from the Summer Palace had been sold by a small English auction house to a Beijing-based bidder for US $85.9 million, including tax and fees – 50 times its estimate.” (Hadley, 2017) Even though the demands for overseas Chinese antiques are so high, Chinese bidders still have to spend unreasonably high prices to retrieve them. The Royal British Museum and merchants who possess Chinese artifacts both give pressure to China in the Chinese artifact trading market. China is continuously putting immense pressure on British Museums because British Museums hold a total of 230,000 pieces of Chinese antiques. If the British Museum could take action and return China’s antiques, foreign merchants will have no reason to keep selling Chinese artifacts. They will be forbidden in auction markets as long as Britain makes a fair decision for