A civilization dating back over five thousand continuous years naturally tends to have a greater awareness of and emotional connection to its history than newer lands. The average American student would be hard pressed to identify the Magna Carta or even the country's fifth president, while his Chinese counterpart can tick off the names, dates, and accomplishments of each dynasty with casual familiarity.

China is a land with a long historical memory, sharpened by the indignation of invasions and occupations over a long, painful century beginning with the British in 1842 and ending with the departure of the Japanese after World War II. The memory of China's past weakness and the desire to now stand up strong in the world accounts for the level of interest in the three bronze animal heads from the Old Summer Place (Yuanmingyuan) in northwestern Beijing, on display this month in Shanghai. The Old Summer Palace, a mish-mash of French Baroque and traditional Chinese styles, was constructed during the Qing Dynasty, with much of the design contributed by Jesuit missionary Giuseppe Castiglione. The three heads, a tiger, a cow, and a monkey, were part of a fountain in front of Haiyantang, a mansion built in 1760. The fountain featured the twelve animals of the Chinese zodiac, their heads attached to robed, cross-legged human bodies, and water would spew out of the mouth of each for two hours daily.

In 1860, as part of reprisals for alleged Chinese treaty violations during the second Opium War, Anglo-French forces sacked Yuanmingyuan, burning to the ground most of what they didn't haul away home or smash outright, and leaving the picturesque ruins that remain today.

Cut forward 140 years to this spring. Three of the bronze heads from the Yuanmingyuan fountain come into the possession of Sotheby's and Christie's auction houses in Hong Kong, which planned to put them up for sale. They little expected the furor that would arise, as protestors stormed the auction houses and Chinese around the world decried the thought of these heads being taken from China once again.

Popular outrage and stern, indignant government pronouncements proving to no avail, a knight in bronze armor galloped up in the form of the Poly Group Co., a state-owned holding company with fingers in such diverse pies as trade, travel, real estate and information technology. The Poly Group also collects and preserves Chinese antiquities, and last December opened a museum in Beijing to showcase their acquisitions. In an ingenious public relations coup, the Poly Group shelled out over HK$30 million (US $3.8 million) to purchase the three heads at auction.