The China History Podcast · Laszlo Montgomery

Looted China Treasures, Laszlo chats with Andrew Shaw and his book, "Spoil"

·32 min·2 clips

The British, the French, and eight armies looted Beijing for four or five months in 1900.

1. The China History Podcast episode centers on Andrew Shaw's book Spoil and the history of looted Chinese treasures. 2. Laszlo Montgomery hosts Andrew Shaw, a former BBC journalist and jade carver who wrote Spoil, and Shaw matters because he researched the theft of Chinese cultural property. 3. The episode asks how treasures from China were taken from the Opium Wars through the Boxer Rebellion and why return remains difficult. 4. Shaw links Britain's tea imports to a bad balance of payments and says opium was used to redress it. 5. He says the First Opium War began with Britain invading China in 1839 or 1840 and that the British then began the looting. 6. Shaw says early looting targeted gold and silver, while later looters learned to value jades, ceramics, scrolls, paintings, and porcelain. 7. He gives the Summer Palace sack of 1860 as the moment when looting became systematic and more profitable. 8. Shaw describes an Australian officer nicknamed China Jim, who found a solid gold pagoda and sold it for about a million pounds in today's money. 9. He says a British officer took a dog from the Summer Palace and that the dog was called Looty. 10. Shaw argues that by 1900 the Boxers Rebellion brought eight armies into Beijing for months of systematic looting. 11. He says the Russians and French were especially brutal, while the Japanese were also active and the Germans were systematic plunderers. 12. He names Lady MacDonald, who packed 89 suitcases, and says diplomats, missionaries, and army officers all took part. 13. Shaw points to the Chinese Museum at Fontainebleau as a clear case of 300-plus Summer Palace objects taken by the French. 14. He also cites the National Museum of Scotland, the Chester Beatty Library, and museums in Sweden, Norway, France, and St. Petersburg as holders of Chinese objects. 15. Shaw says provenance research now relies on auction records from the 1860s and 1870s and that many owners are reluctant to come forward. 16. He explains that British and French museum laws make restitution difficult, while political pressure grows as China becomes more powerful. 17. The interview moves in a blunt, argumentative style, with Montgomery pressing Shaw for names, countries, and specific objects. 18. Shaw answers in a documentary tone, using memoirs, auction records, and museum examples as supporting evidence. 19. Listeners interested in looting, restitution, and Qing-era history will get the most from this episode. 20. Listeners seeking a light overview without colonial violence details may skip it.

As heard by us

A jade carver follows looted Chinese treasures through war, museums, private collections, and difficult auction records.

Stolen Chinese jade and the long afterlife of empire sit at the center of this PlayNext review. Laszlo Montgomery speaks with Andrew Shaw, a former BBC journalist who became a master jade carver in China, about Spoil and the trail behind treasures taken during the Boxer…

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

Want to follow a jade trail from wartime looting into auction records, museum shelves, and private hands?

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

Listen to the show on

Apple Podcasts Spotify

Play clips from this episode More from The China History Podcast