China Gems

With two gala showings (Mrs. Gerald Ford, congressional luminaries) before the opening proper, Washington's National Gallery last week unveiled the celebrated "Exhibition of Archaeological Finds of the People's Republic of China." It had started traveling in Paris (TIME, Aug. 13, 1973) and gone on to Vienna, Stockholm, London and Toronto. In Washington, the Chinese provoked a diplomatic incident: they refused to allow representatives of Taiwan, South Korea, South Africa or Israel to attend the customary press preview. The National Gallery retorted that it was not its policy to exclude anyone. Result: the preview was canceled.

The hassle could not obscure the show's uniqueness. It comprises some 385 objects the Chinese Communists have unearthed since they took over control of China in 1949. It includes magnificent bronze vessels from the 11th century B.C., whose sculptured decorations resemble later Mayan motifs.

There are sculptures of actors from the 14th century A.D., one of them dancing, clappers in hand. And then there are the horses, the parade of horses that romp, stomp or buckle to their work in the reconstructed procession for some forgotten emperor. A magical flying horse from the 2nd century A.D. takes off for an uncertain heaven from the back of a somewhat startled sparrow.

The National Gallery has installed it all magnificently--the staff spent a year at it, studied scale drawings of the objects, and remodeled the whole ground floor of the museum to make a rewarding labyrinth of 34 sections, corresponding to the 34 excavation sites.

Next stop for the exhibition: Kansas City, in April. Then back to Peking.

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