Art: Lost Throne

Before Peiping fell to the Japanese in 1937, two hallowed objects were smuggled out of its ancient Forbidden City. About as easy to smuggle as a couple of dentists' chairs, they were an eight-foot, ten-inch white jade Buddhist pagoda (largest jade piece in the world), and a gold, lacquer and mother-of-pearl teakwood Dragon Throne on which Manchu emperors had sat from the 17th Century to the close of their reign. In great secrecy the pagoda and throne, (together valued at $3,000,000) were spirited out of China by coolie cart, mule train, river junk and...