Royal Ontario Museum - (southernmost) Chinese Lion, Toronto, ON - Lion Statues on Waymarking.com

The Royal Ontario Museum’s Chinese lions (erroneously referred to as “fu dogs” by Westerners in China) first arrived at the museum in 1923 and have a long history of being moved from one location to another.

The history of these two marvelous stone lions goes back to the 1898-1901 Boxer Rebellion in northern China during which time they were appropriated by the Italian contingent, possibly from the palace of Prince Su. But when the Italians tried to drag them away, they found their weight to be too much and the statues were abandoned. The Austrian legation recovered them and installed them at the gate to their building in Beijing.

In 1921, George Crofts, a British fur trader based in Tianjin, China, wrote to Charles Trick Currelly, the first curator of the Royal Ontario Museum of Archaeology, suggesting that they acquire a pair of these stone sculptures. Currelly agreed and the pair that stood in front of the Austro-Hungarian legation was purchased in July 1922.

First displayed in the former Exhibition Hall, they were later moved to an outside garden with the Chinese Tomb, then brought back into the ROM and placed at the entrance to the then new Chinese galleries. Later they were brought back outside to the Bloor Street garden. With the demolition of the Terrace Galleries and construction of the Michael Lee-Chin Crystal, these magnificent statues were once again moved to their present, and hopefully final location on either side of the former “Rotunda” entrance located on Queen’s Park.

More information can be found in the Summer 1992 edition of Rotunda (now called ROM) - the magazine of the Royal Ontario Museum.