Four pieces from a bronze set of 12 Chinese zodiac signs dating from the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) taken out of the country in 1860 by British and French archaeologists will be on display at the First International Cultural Industry Fair to be held from Nov. 18 through 22.

These are the bronze heads of a tiger, a pig, an ox and a monkey, which will be displayed at a special exhibition hall of the TV center, next to the old China Hi-Tech Fair Exhibition Center, reported Shenzhen Daily.

These pieces are among the 12 sculptures featuring humans with animal heads. The sculptures, representing the Chinese zodiac, originally guarded a building in Yuanmingyuan, the old imperial summer palace in Beijing.

After spending more than 140 years out of China, the bronze pieces were discovered in the United States. Beijing-based Poly Art Museum bought the monkey, ox and tiger heads for HK$8.18 million (US$1.05 million), HK$7.74 million and HK$17.25 million respectively in auctions in 2000.

Macao magnate Stanley Ho purchased the pig head at a price of some US$720,000 last year and returned it to the Chinese mainland in March this year.

Four precious bronze pieces were returned to China, but the others are still missing.

(Shenzhen Daily October 20, 2004)