CHINESE ART PACK.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 238, 8 October 1935, Page 9

CHINESE ART PACK.

£10,000,000 WORTH. HOW IT CAME TO LONDON. LLOYD'S REFUSED IT. (Special.—liy Air Mull.) LONDON, September 14. Mr. Niu, Mr. Na, Mr. Sung and Mr. Fu have arrived in London and Royal Academy officials are heaving great sighs of relief. For seven weeks they have never been able to forget that in the Burlington House vaults objects of Chinese art valued at £10,000,000 were lying uninsured, for even Lloyd's would not take oiiXthe risk. The treasures were brought from China in a British cruiser, packed in 03 steel-lined chests, which no one—not even a Customs officer —was allowed to open. Now that the four Chinese museum experts have arrived, the Royal Academy's responsibility for the care of the treasures ends. Mr. Niu. Mr. Na, Mr. Sung and Mr. Fu will begin to unpack the chests this week.

JBr. F. T. Cheng, the special commissioner of the Chinese Republic for the exhibition, said that before the packing cases were passed as shock-proof they were dropped 20 or 30 feet. "Inside was a heavy piece of porcelain," said Dr. Cheng, "wrapped first in cotton wool, then in pasteboard, then wood and finally placed in a steel case. If the porcelain was cracked in any way 'lion the packing was re-done until the case was able to resist the ;:iost considerable shock."

A Soviet warship may bring to England treasures for the International Exhibition of Chinese Art which opens at Burlington House on November 22. Mr. George Eumorfopoulos, the expert and collector, who is a member of the exhibition selection committee, and Mr. Leigh Ash ton, have gone to Russia to tryto persuade the Soviet authorities to lend to the exhibition art treasures in their possession. Among the many valuable Chinese pieces'now in Russia are superb examples of early silken work from Inner Mongolia and Chinese Turkestan. Mr. Eumorfopoulos was one of three experts who spent the first six months of this year in China. They selected treasures from the Imperial Palace at Peking,-which were brought to this country in H.M.S. Suffolk. Should the co-operation of the Russian authorities be secured it will mean a notable addition to the value and interest of the exhibition.

Another valuable collection; entirely of jade, is arriving from China. Altogether, apart from the Peking Palace collection, about 2000 pieces are coming from all over the world, including Honolulu. Although the main Peking collection, roughly valued at over £10,000,000, is uninsured —the British warship in which it travelled being a substitute for insurance—the other loan exhibits are all heavily insured, some of tliem, it is said, for staggering sums.