The Nestorian Stele, on its tortoise pedestal, photographed by Frits Holm shortly before it was moved to the Beilin Museum, and out of his reach
Frits Vilhelm Holm[2] (23 July 1881[3] – 9 March 1930) was a Danish artefact trafficker. His books usually gave his name as simply Frits Holm or Frits V. Holm, while US newspapers of the time usually misspelled his name as Fritz von Holm, sometimes claiming that he was a member of the European nobility.[2]
Holm is best known for his attempt, in 1907, to "obtain" the famous Nestorian Stele - an ancient Christian monument of Xi'an, in Northwestern China, and sell it to a Western museum. Alerted to his activities (nicknamed by later writers the "Holm-Nestorian expedition to Xi'an"), the local authorities moved the monument from its outdoor location on the western outskirts of the city, and into the Stele Forest museum. In order not to leave China empty-handed, the disappointed Holm had an exact copy of the stele made for him in Xi'an.[2] He had the replica stele taken by cart to the Yellow River, then by small boat down the not very navigable Yellow River to the nearest train station at Zhengzhou, and then by train to the major Yangtze River port of Hankou (now in Wuhan).[3]
Instead of London's British Museum, as he supposedly originally intended, Holm had the replica stele shipped to New York, planning to sell it to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The museum's director Caspar Purdon Clarke, however, was less than enthusiastic about purchasing "so large a stone ... of no artistic value". Nonetheless, the replica stele was exhibited in the museum "on loan" from Holm for about 10 years.[2]
Eventually, in 1917, Mrs. George Leary, a wealthy New Yorker, purchased the replica stele and sent it to Rome, as a gift to the Pope.[4] Holm claims that he transported the replica himself, harassed by Austrian submarines on the way.[5]
On 9 October 1919, Holm married Marguerite MacDonough Green in New York. She was the only child of the late Warren L. Green, the president of the American Bank Note Company.[6]
