Tiger Ying. Photo: Canterbury Auction Galleries

An extremely rare Chinese bronze tripod water vessel and cover, which was looted by British troops in 1860 from the Summer Palace, will be sold by the Canterbury Auction Galleries on April 11 for an estimated amount between 120,000 and 200,000 pounds ($170,000 - $285,000).

Dating from the late Western Zhou, 1100-771 BC, the cultural relic has been named as “the tiger ying,” a reference to the tiger-shaped spout and cover. The tiger was once considered by ancient Chinese as one of the most powerful animals that could be used in the warding off of evil; the vessel that is going to be auctioned is one of only seven known ying vessels, of which five are kept in museums.

According to the Canterbury Auction Galleries, the vessel was once owned by Royal Marine Capt. Harry Lewis Evans, who was involved in the British troops’ looting of China’s Summer Palace. In a letter he wrote to his mother, Evans noted that “I succeeded in getting several bronze pieces and several enamel vases.”

This is not the first cultural relic of the Summer Palace to be auctioned. Reputed as the Garden of Gardens in its heyday, the Summer Palace was burned down to ash and looted by the British and French troops, who preferred porcelain while neglecting bronze vessels. Their looting acts led to the severe destruction of the bronze relics, making them even more valuable nowadays.

In 2009, Christie's put a bronze rabbit head and a bronze rat head in an auction in Paris. A Chinese collector won the bid for each of the heads at 14 million euros (17.92 million U.S. dollars) but announced his refusal to pay the money at a later press conference. The Pinault family in France purchased the heads and returned them to China in 2013.

Such auctions of the relics overseas have been tugging at the Chinese public’s heartstrings, with many individuals criticizing the public selling of Chinese cultural relics as a “new wound just on top of an old scar.” According to Xinhua News Agency, China’s State Administration of Cultural Heritage in 2016 said the country reserves the right to recover any Chinese cultural relics confirmed to have been illegally looted, though it is a pressing time for authorities they are yet to make any comments regarding the upcoming auction.