Portrait of a Thief
Grace D. Li
Top 10 Best Quotes
“Loss was the hesitation in his voice when he spoke his mother tongue, the myths he did not know, a childhood that felt so vast and alien from his parents' that he did not know how to cross it.”
“For all that people in power claim to care about looting, it doesn't seem to matter when it's museums doing it.”
“What's wrong with wanting everything? Nothing, as long as you know how to get it.”
“Art was many things, but in the end it was a question asked: What do you want to be remembered for?”
“How to make this life their own, how to love a country that had never belonged to them.”
“How to be the daughter she was supposed to be, her parents’ American Dream. How to untangle the parts of her that were Chinese and the parts of her that were American, how both so often felt like neither.”
“This was how it always went. Museums overlooked colonialism, conquest, a history of blood, until it was laid in front of them, until violence was met with violence.”
“Careful,” Irene said. “Museums never like to grapple with their history of colonialism. If you remove everything that was looted, then what’s left?”
“Art belongs to the creator,” Will said, his voice soft, “not the conqueror. No matter what the law says, or what treaties are signed. For too long, museums have held on to art that isn’t theirs to keep, bought more because they know they can.”
“I want to think that I'm Chinese and American both, but depending on the country, I feel like I'm not enough of either.”
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Book Keywords:
china, heist, chinese, loss, museums, diaspora, heritage, art
