When the Allied soldiers broke into Peking's Forbidden City in 1900, they found in that square mile of yellow-tiled palaces the greatest assemblage of treasure in the modern world, collected for over 250 years by the Manchu Emperors. Ever since the fall of the Empire in 1911 bits of that treasure have been dribbling away, though not quite as fast as certain dealers would like collectors to believe. Six months ago when the remnant was moved from Peiping to Shanghai in fear of Japanese invasion, it occupied over 4.000 packing cases, was valued...
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