Apparently, having copies damages the value of the originals

Jun 16, 2014 11:55 GMT  ·  By

The Chinese are among the most reclusive people in the world, and the most possessive, when it comes to natural monuments, artifacts and lore. Even when you factor in that all eastern countries tend to be a bit overprotective of their culture, or tried to be for a large part of human history.

So we suppose that we shouldn't be too surprised that 3D printing technology would manage to step on a fair few toes when it comes to that particular nation.

Not that it's a totally accurate thing to say. China doesn't have anything against 3D printing tech itself, that would be way too random and unjustifiable.

However, it seems that Oliver Laric managed to draw the ire of China, by making 3D printed replicas of some Chinese artifacts, specifically columns from the Old Summer Palace in Beijing. You see, the man has made 3D scans of seven of those columns.

The fact that said columns are currently on display in Norway, and have been there since the 1860s, does not seem to figure into the thoughts of the harmed party. We suppose that sympathy can go to everyone involved really.

An argument can be made for this being just another shape for the very old resentment that China, and other eastern nations really, hold towards Westerners.

Western civilizations essentially removed many valuable artifacts during past wars, and uncovered much eastern lore. At this point in time, whether or not the artifacts should be returned to the countries of origin is still a muddled controversy.

The ones whose cultural elements were appropriated definitely have arguments ready to show why they feel that just having had the columns stolen was already bad enough.

Now, the 3D scans, and future 3D prints, will cheapen the previously priceless artifacts. That's the main issue that Laric is being pitted against.

In fact, he already has replicas on display at the KODE Art Museum of Bergen, and he's even published the scans themselves for free.

In theory, none of this should harm the value of the originals. However, the fact that a Western artist just up and made the copies, instead of the Chinese people, rankles with the latter a fair bit, since other, previous-generation Westerners are the ones that took said originals away in the first place. Under questionable circumstances to boot.

For better or ill, this issue probably won't escalate beyond this level of grumbling, but it doesn't really help differentiate between culture theft and innocent, harmless cultural dissemination either.