Masterpieces of Chinese SB in the NPM

Dear Tom and Giovanni,
I am vastly improved, after a good night's sleep.
Thank G-D I'm not 'Sleepless in Seattle'!
   The treasures of the Qing Dynasty, and presumably previous dynasties, and not just the treasures of the last Emperor (Tom, where did you get that tidbit of info?), were removed from the Forbidden City by the mid-1930s, to keep them out of the hands of the Japanese, who'd conquered Manchuria and placed Puyi on the throne of 'Manchukuo', their puppet state there. It was obviously only a matter of time before they invaded China, and the leaders of the Republic of China were no idiots.
   The stuff was moved via the Yangtze gorges, and supposedly up to 10% fell down and was lost(I would love to invent a time machine, and save all those treasures; right after we go and bomb the shite out of the nazis, and save the almost 7 million Jews, etc...), and the collection was moved to Nanjing. When the Japanese advanced, it was all moved to Zhongqing in Sechuan , which never fell into the hands of the Imperial Japanese forces.
   After the end of the Japanese occupation, when the 'Chicoms' were beating the Guomintang
(Should say Kuomintang, but I use Pinyin), the treasure was transported downriver to Shanghai, and then to Taipei harbour, where it was kept on the ships which brought it, from 1949 to 1955. The ships were set with explosive charges, and the ROC crowd threatened the PRC crowd in Beijing that if they invaded Taiwan, the ships would be destroyed with their priceless cargo.
   It is interesting that the ROC felt their personal fates were more important than this priceless collection of treasure which is really the birthright of Mankind.
   I have the 1974 book, which I bought in 1978 on my first visit to the ROC. I understood from a curator, who personally showed me around after I brought them a copy of my 1987 catalogue and the 1989 addendum for their library, that some curator without a lot of taste chose those bottles. I have personally seen superb holdings in the storerooms of the museum.

Best,
Joey