Preparing for his 19th visit to China as a government minister, Australia's energetic journeyman, Tony Burke, concurrently minister for the arts, and minister for sustainability, environment, water, population and communities, has lauded China's growing cultural international engagement while expressing satisfaction at the looming return of two of two iconic bronze heads looted from Beijing's Summer Palace in 1860.

Just last month, Francois-Henri Pinault, CEO of PPR Foundation and the "owner" of two bronze animal head sculptures from China's Yuanmingyuan, or the Old Summer Palace, has indicated the transfer of the sculptures, of a rabbit head and rat head, will be completed by the second half of 2013.

The rat and rabbit heads were auctioned by Christie's in Paris in 2009. Pinault then bought the sculptures from the owner after the auction.

Minister Burke told Xinhua that the Australian government wholeheartedly supports the repatriation of all 12 bronze animal head figures, along with all the other treasures, looted from the Yuanmingyuan when the site was ransacked by French and British troops.

"I think there aren't words that would match it you'd simply have to work in the certain knowledge that these are the things that touch the soul of a nation. These are the things that speak to people in the ways that no economic data never will and that in itself makes it priceless," he said.

Visiting China to seek furthering the already rich cultural ties between Australia and China, Minister Burke said China's stand in seeking the return of its stolen cultural heritage was actually encouraging the exchange of art and history worldwide.

"Because the theft has been restored were actually finding more and more that museums are willing to say to their counterparts around the world we've got something we can lend, we can share.. We're increasingly finding museums around the world are returning objects that never should have never been taken. And that's a really good thing."

To China, the looting of the Summer Palace touches the disgrace suffered at the hands of imperial Western powers during the Second Opium War.

The two bronzes, a rat head and a rabbit head, were among 12 animal heads, replicating the Chinese zodiac, in a central fountain clock at the palace, with a water fountain keeping time.

All disappeared after the palace was destroyed in one of history's most ruthless cultural desecrations by Western soldiers in 1860, something Burke understands as Australia's point man for the return of indigenous - or first nation Australians - bones and artifacts that were returned to Europe and Britain more than a century earlier.

"Because art and culture speak to us differently to how currency speaks to us, there are some things which go beyond a dollar value - that speak to identity - and the only way to show that respect for identity is for the repatriation to occur we're seeing more and more of it and the flipside of it is that those relationships build you then finding more and more touring exhibitions."

"I'm involved in similar relationships with museums where the bones of Australia's first nations peoples (were stolen) and we're now going through a process of identifying and returning them to be properly buried to the country they came from and returning them."

Under Burke's stewardship, Australia is enjoying an art boom with a Monet exhibition in Adelaide soon coming to Canberra Turner exhibition.

"Great works of art being shared around the world because that trust is being rebuilt between cultural establishments."

The Australian Federal Government's support of art and cultural exchanges between the two nations shows the relationship is moving further than the purely economic relationship what internationally respected University of New South Wales Visiting Fellow, economist Tim Harcourt coined "rocks and crops."

The latest example is the Australia China Art Foundation's sponsoring of eight two-month residencies per year at the studio of renowned Chinese Australian artist Shen Shaomin. Located within the Qiao Zi Art Commune in outer Beijing, Shen has built a new art complex providing accommodation for up to eight Chinese and international artists.

Each spring and autumn, two Australian and two Chinese artists will be invited by ACAF to participate in an organized program of lectures, excursions and other activities. The artists will have an opportunity to work on their own projects as well as collaborate and engage with the local community.

Yashian Schauble, founder and executive director of the foundation said the residency was a rare opportunity for both emerging and more established artists from both China and Australia to work in the studios of one of China's most respected and internationally acclaimed artists.

"Mr Shen's generosity is greatly appreciated. And through our network, the foundation will ensure that the artists have opportunities to develop a meaningful dialogue with curators, writers and art institutions," he said.

Burke's key goal is to tighten the ties between film industries of the two countries.

"I want to forge a serious relationship with our industry and the Chinese film industry. there's a number of Australians already working here but a ministerial visit will often can really add an extra layer to that."

A strong lineup of Chinese-language films are among the highlights of next month's 2013 Sydney Film Festival, the director of a documentary on China's booming wine industry told Xinhua.

Red Obsession by Australian documentary filmmaker David Roach combines two modern Australian passions: China and wine.

The documentary looks at the enormous appetite that China's rising middle class have for fine French wine from the Bordeaux region, Roach said,

"It's more than just a comment on wine, its about the shift of economic power from the west to the east."

Burke said that China has already played a role in the evolution of Australian film.

"There's been a big, big Chinese story in Australian film and that story has grown together."

"Chinese stories have been part of the Australian story for roughly 200 years now - whenever its in very, very early settlement; increased numbers during gold rush days right to the most recent times whether it was people taking out joint citizenship at the time that changes happening in Hong Kong; or more recent very high numbers of students coming to Australia many deciding to stay on," he said.

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