Stolen relics bought by mysterious bidder

By Venus Lee
After a Paris court rejected requests to block the sale of two bronze animal head sculptures stolen from China’s Imperial Summer Palace, the relics were auctioned of hours later for 284 million yuan at close. The identity of the buyer remains unknown as of press time.

At 8 pm Wednesday in France (3 am in Beijing), Christie’s began its auction of two bronze sculptures from the Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Berge collection, a rat’s head and a rabbit’s head, which started bidding a9 million (78 million yuan) each and closed at 14 million. The winner was an anonymous telephone bidder.

Christie’s said it receied eight phone calls for “inquiries” before the sale. After the auction began, competition continued exclusively between phone bidders. Christie’s refused to reveal information about the bidders after the salThe bronze sculptures were two of the 12 zodiac animal sculptures, once part of a water fountain in Beijing’s ld Summer Palace. The heads were stolen when Anglo-French allied forces sacked the Yuanmingyuan during the Second Opium War in 1860.

“What I am worried most about is that the two relics were purchased by a French public museum instead of a privae collector,” Wu Hao, a Chinese cultural relic’s expert in France, said. “If they were bought by a private collector, they won’t be taken as national possession. Once they are purchased by a public museum, the Frenchl consider them as French property.”

 Liu Yang, the chief lawyer working to recover the lost pieces, said they will follow what happens. “We are not sure whether the transaction was successful or not, but we will take frther legal action as soon as it becomes clear,” he said.

Before the auction, The State Administration of Cultural Heritage  (SACH) has formally informed Christies of China’s strong opposition to the auction, and demanded its ancellation. The Association for the Protection of Chinese Art in Europe, a Paris-based organization, and a team of 81 Chinese lawyers filed a complaint with a Paris court to stop the sale of the two cultural relics. However, the court rejected their demand Tuesday because the association has no right to represent the Chinese government. The auction continued on schedule at 7pm.

Chen Yan, a Christie’s spokeswoman in China, said the aucion house would not be making any comment on the French legal proceedings.

However, a new statement from SACH on Thursday morning said that Christie’s has broken international convetions and seriously hurt the basic cultural rights and interests of the Chinese people, which will also influence the auction house’s development in China.

SACH says it was strongly opposed to the auction and criticized the possession of stolen cultural relics. It warned that Christie’s would bear the consequences of the auction. It also repeated the country’s commitment to retrieve stolen relics by any means, and to abide by related international coentions and Chinese law.

The administration demanded all Entry-Exit departments strictly examine inbound and outbound cultural relics declared by Christie’s and its associated agencies in China. SACH aid if evidence is insufficient to prove the legitimate source of cultural relics, the administration will not handle its declaration files.

Since Christie’s ave announced the auction last July, the two relics attracted a lot of attention. According to an online survey on Sina.com, almost 90 percent of netizens opposed the auction and demand the pieces be returned. Some called on the government to prohibit all Christie’s activities in China, and advocated that Chinese people worldwide boycott future auctions.

However, recovering the lost cultural relics is a global problem. As early as 2002, 18 museums including the Louvre and British Museum issued the “Declaration on the Importance and Value of Universal Museums,” in which they said they would never return stolen rels to home countries because they consider them the heritage of all mankind, not one country.

According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), about 1.67 million Chinese relics are housed in 200 museums in 47 countries. Ten times as many are in the hands of private collectors.