ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the selection of objects at the Yuanmingyuan, the diverse meanings and values attributed to them in Paris, Empress Eugenie's interests in choosing the display site and style, and the aesthetic interests of Victor Ruprich-James Robert. It analyses the display's material and visual effects to understand the meanings it gave to the Yuanmingyuan, Chinese art, Sino-French relations, and Empress Eugenie herself. Multiple techniques of display and ornamentation evident there are repeated at the Chinese Museum, suggesting a crucial alternative source for Eugenie's innovative display. Guillaume Pauthier's aesthetic assessments were reflected in monetary terms, in an important appraisal of the Chinese Museum dated August 30, 1865. The Chinese Museum, in contrast, was the product of collective thought and action by the Chinese artists and patrons who made each object, the French officers who selected those to give Eugenie, Eugenie herself as patron, her chief designer Victor Ruprich-Robert, and his team of craftsmen.
