There are 8 existing ones in China, including cow head, monkey head, tiger head, pig head, horse head, rat head, rabbit head, dragon head, and the remaining snake head, chicken head, dog head and sheep head. Whereabouts unknown.

The bronze statue of the twelve zodiac animal heads in Yuanmingyuan was originally part of the fountain outside Haiyan Hall in Yuanmingyuan. It was a red bronze statue made during the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty. In 1860, the British and French forces invaded China and burned the Old Summer Palace, and the bronze statues of animal heads began to be lost overseas.

As of 2012, the bronze statues of cow heads, monkey heads, tiger heads, pig heads, and horse heads have returned to China and are collected in the Poly Art Museum; on April 26, 2013, the French Pinault family in Beijing Announced that it would donate to China free of charge the bronze rat heads and rabbit heads from the twelve major water paintings of the Yuanmingyuan that were lost overseas.

The rat heads and rabbit heads donated this time are two of the twelve zodiac bronze statues lost in the Old Summer Palace in Beijing. At present, eight of the twelve animal heads of the twelve zodiac animals among the twelve major water paintings in the Old Summer Palace have been returned to China. Among them, the dragon head is currently well preserved in Taiwan, but the whereabouts of the snake, chicken, dog, and sheep heads are unknown.

Extended information:

During the Second Opium War, the British and French forces burned down the Old Summer Palace and took away twelve bronze animal heads. As a result, these national treasures were lost overseas for more than 140 years. At present, five bronze animal heads of ox, tiger, monkey, pig and horse have been rescued and returned to China by patriots in 2000, 2003 and 2007 respectively, and are collected in the Poly Art Museum. 1

In 1860, the British and French forces invaded Beijing, broke into the Old Summer Palace, and looted it. It is still impossible to calculate how many treasures they took away from the Old Summer Palace. Only some of the gifts given to the French emperor by the French invaders after returning home included nearly 10,000 rare antiques. Nowadays, if you want to see the precious cultural relics of the Old Summer Palace, you can only go to Britain and France.

Around May 2000, several Old Summer Palace cultural relics were publicly auctioned at the Hong Kong Cultural Relics Auction. Three of them were the bronze heads of the ox, monkey and tiger zodiac animals on the zodiac fountain in the Haiyan Hall of the Western Building.

The Haiyantang Twelve Zodiac Fountain is a fountain clock designed according to the twelve Chinese zodiac signs. Every hour, the zodiac clock belonging to the quarter hour will automatically spray water. At twelve o'clock at noon, the twelve zodiac signs will The zodiac signs spray water at the same time.

The design is extremely sophisticated. When the British and French joint forces robbed it, they also treated it as the most precious treasure. Those who get it are also people with special status.

At the auction, the bronze tiger head was finally sold for 14 million yuan, the bronze ox head was sold for 7 million yuan, and the bronze monkey head was sold for 7.4 million yuan. What is slightly gratifying is that these three Yuanmingyuan treasures were purchased by two Chinese companies.

The pig head and horse head bronze statues were bought back by Dr. Stanley Ho, a famous patriotic industrialist in the Macau SAR, with more than 6 million and 60 million respectively, and donated them to the Poly Art Museum.

Unfortunately, there are scars on the animal's head. The monkey's head is deflated, and there is a walnut-sized pit on the right side of the head; the mortise and tenon joint that originally connected the water spray pipe inside the tiger's head is broken. , there is only a small piece of tiger whiskers left.

There is also a dent on the top of the pig's head, which is presumed to have been hit by the gun butt; at the same time, there are scratches of varying degrees on the tiger's and ox's heads.

Baidu Encyclopedia - Bronze Statue of the Twelve Zodiac Animal Heads in Yuanmingyuan