The ox and monkey heads had been auctioned in the 1980s but eventually reemerged at auction at Christie’s in Hong Kong on April 30, 2000.
At the same time, Sotheby’s Hong Kong offered the tiger fountainhead at its auction on May 2.
Although the Chinese government attempted to halt both auctions on legal and ethical grounds, these attempts were unsuccessful and the auctions were allowed to proceed. The state-owned China Poly Group Corp won all three lots for an estimated USD$4 million and returned the tiger, ox and monkey (as well as a vase) to China. All three heads are now displayed in the China Poly Art Museum in Beijing.
Since 2000, several other zodiac heads have been repatriated. In 2003 the pig head was purchased by Chinese collector, Stanley Ho, and eventually joined the monkey, ox, and tiger on display at the Poly Art Museum.
Ho later purchased the horse in 2007 (and donated it to the Chinese government in 2019). And in 2013, the rat and rabbit from the collection of Yves Saint Laurent & Pierre Bergé, were purchased and voluntarily returned by the head of Christie’s after an activist Chinese bidder reneged on the purchase.
