Empires like to collect booty. The Romans scoured their realm for strange beasts and other exotica, parading them through their capital. The British helped themselves to the Elgin Marbles, taken from the Acropolis.
But as the economic power of once looted regions grows, treasure can start flowing the other way. In Macao Stanley Ho, the Eurasian gaming tycoon and Chinese chauvinist, has “returned” artefacts to his motherland.
A bronze horse head, stolen in 1860 after British and French troops sacked the Summer Palace in Beijing, is displayed in the tacky foyer of Ho’s flagship casino and guarded by security staff in bright orange blazers and grey ties. Next to the horse head, and apparently without any intentional irony, is a slightly cross-eyed bust of the great tycoon himself.