Fragile Cargo: The World War II Race to Save the Treasures of China’s Forbidden City

Journalist Brookes debuts with a novelistic account of Chinese curators’ largely successful efforts to save priceless antiquities first from Japanese bombs during WWII and then from potential looters during Mao Zedong’s Communist takeover. Led by Ma Heng, director of the Palace Museum in Beijing’s (then Peking) Forbidden City, the curators packed and shipped nearly 17,000 cases of objects, including a 10th-century scroll depicting a river in winter and a mid-15th-century red porcelain ewer, deep into China’s hinterlands, where they were stowed in caves, warehouses, and even a Buddhist temple. Many of the most valuable pieces ended up in Taiwan, while others were returned—after nearly 17 years—to the Forbidden City. Along the way, Brookes describes the objects in mesmerizing detail and vividly recounts the human toll of war. The most poignant portrait is of Ma Heng, who came under suspicion and endured a relentless program of “ideological transformation” in the 1950s. The Communist Party, Brookes writes, “took his devotion to the collections and turned it against him, hounding and humiliating him in his final days.” Art lovers and WWII buffs will devour this riveting and bittersweet history. Photos. Agent: Zoë Pagnamenta, Zoë Pagnamenta Agency. (Feb.)