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A document relating to the "Boxer War"
© Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Museum für Asiatische Kunst, Photo: Kerstin Pannhorst
Talk

Following the Traces of the "Boxer War" in Museum Collections

A Guide to Provenance Research


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The history of German museums is a history of colonial ties. This applies not only to the former German colonies in Africa and the Pacific, but also to China. During the so-called “Boxer War” (1900–1901), the German Empire participated in the international military intervention against the anti-imperialist Yihetuan movement and deployed approximately 20,000 soldiers to China. In the course of the war, countless works of art and cultural artifacts from private, public, and imperial collections found their way to Germany—often as a result of violent seizures and looting.

125 years after the signing of the so-called “Boxer Protocol,” which ended the war in 1901 under the terms dictated by foreign powers, this chapter of German-Chinese history is once again coming into focus. Research into the provenance of the objects looted at that time opens up new perspectives on the origins of our collections and reveals how closely museums are linked to global historical developments and colonial power structures.

Provenance research helps to academically examine Germany’s colonial past in China and to trace its effects into the present. It creates transparency regarding the paths objects took into our collections and forms an important foundation for dialogue with Chinese partners.

Since 2022, seven German museums, including the Ethnological Museum and the Museum of Asian Art of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, have been collaborating with the Palace Museum in Beijing to examine their collections for objects related to the “Boxer Rebellion.” The project focused on the question of how to identify cultural property that found its way to Germany during the war and how its history can be addressed today. This collaboration resulted in the research guide “Tracing Loot from the Boxer War in China.” It offers museums and collections a practical introduction to provenance research on collections related to the so-called “Boxer War.”

In conversation with the participating museums, scholars, and the German Center for Lost Cultural Property, this Research Guide will be presented for the first time in Germany on September 25. Provenance researcher and project director Christine Howald will speak with Jan Hüsgen, Thoralf Klein, and curators involved in the project about research approaches, key findings, and the challenges of investigating looted artifacts from the “Boxer Rebellion”—not only in museum collections. After all, the colonial history of the “Boxer Rebellion” is not confined to museums; it is also found in private collections, family estates, and everyday objects—and is thus part of a shared history whose reappraisal concerns us all.

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