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China seeks return of rabbit and rat relics looted from Yuanmingyuan
Source: Xinhua |
February 13, 2009, Friday
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Print Edition
A TEAM of 81 Chinese lawyers has written to auction giant Christie's in an effort to stop the sale of two bronze relics that were looted from an old Beijing palace.
The two artifacts, the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) bronze rabbit and rat head sculptures, will be auctioned by Christie's in Paris from February 23 to 25. They are expected to fetch 8 million to 10 million euros (US$10.4-13 million) each.
The two bronze head sculptures were housed in Yuanmingyuan, Beijing's Imperial Summer Palace. They were stolen when the palace was burned down by Anglo-French allied forces during the Second Opium War in 1860.
The rabbit and rat head sculptures currently belong to the Pierre Berge-Yves Saint Laurent Foundation and were put up for auction by Pierre Berge.
Liu Yang, one of the lawyers working on the case, said his team had also sent a letter to Pierre Berge, asking him not to auction the relics and return them to China.
He said his team would sue Pierre Berge if there were no "positive feedback from them (Pierre Berge and Christie's) within a reasonable period." Christie's would be involved in the lawsuit as the third party.
Christie's Public Relations Officer in China Chen Yan confirmed that the company's Beijing office had received the letter.
Chen said the sale of all the Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Berge collection will go for charity. All the articles, including the two Yuanmingyuan bronze sculptures, have legal documents showing that they are possessed by their keepers legally, she said.
"Therefore, the auction will go on as scheduled," she said in an e-mail to Xinhua.
China and France signed the 1995 Unidroit Convention on Stolen or Illegally Exported Cultural Objects, which stipulated that any cultural object looted or lost because of reasons of war should be returned without any limitation of time span.
The two artifacts, the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) bronze rabbit and rat head sculptures, will be auctioned by Christie's in Paris from February 23 to 25. They are expected to fetch 8 million to 10 million euros (US$10.4-13 million) each.
The two bronze head sculptures were housed in Yuanmingyuan, Beijing's Imperial Summer Palace. They were stolen when the palace was burned down by Anglo-French allied forces during the Second Opium War in 1860.
The rabbit and rat head sculptures currently belong to the Pierre Berge-Yves Saint Laurent Foundation and were put up for auction by Pierre Berge.
Liu Yang, one of the lawyers working on the case, said his team had also sent a letter to Pierre Berge, asking him not to auction the relics and return them to China.
He said his team would sue Pierre Berge if there were no "positive feedback from them (Pierre Berge and Christie's) within a reasonable period." Christie's would be involved in the lawsuit as the third party.
Christie's Public Relations Officer in China Chen Yan confirmed that the company's Beijing office had received the letter.
Chen said the sale of all the Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Berge collection will go for charity. All the articles, including the two Yuanmingyuan bronze sculptures, have legal documents showing that they are possessed by their keepers legally, she said.
"Therefore, the auction will go on as scheduled," she said in an e-mail to Xinhua.
China and France signed the 1995 Unidroit Convention on Stolen or Illegally Exported Cultural Objects, which stipulated that any cultural object looted or lost because of reasons of war should be returned without any limitation of time span.
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