China pressures Christie's to hand over sculptures
The Chinese government is increasing pressure on Christie's auction house to withdraw two bronzes from its sale of Yves Saint Laurent's vast collection next week in Paris, saying they were looted from the imperial Summer Palace near Beijing nearly 150 years ago.
The two Qing dynasty bronze animal heads, one depicting a rabbit and the other a rat, are believed to have been part of a set comprising 12 animals from the Chinese zodiac that were created for the imperial gardens during the reign of Emperor Qianlong in the 18th century.
China views the relics as a significant part of its cultural heritage and a symbol of how Western powers encroached on the country during the Opium Wars. The relics were displayed as fountainheads at the Old Summer Palace, or Yuanmingyuan, until it was destroyed and sacked by British and French forces in 1860.
At a news briefing in Beijing last week, a spokeswoman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry said the two bronzes should be returned to China because they had been taken by "invaders." A group of Chinese lawyers says it plans to file a lawsuit this week in Paris seeking to halt or disrupt the sale.
But Christie's says the sale is legal and plans to go ahead with the auction on Monday through Wednesday in Paris, where the two bronze items could fetch as much as $10 million to $13 million apiece.
In recent years it has been using its growing political and economic muscle to push other nations to hand over lost or stolen Chinese treasures, and to help it fight international smugglers who continue to loot historic sites in the country and peddle items on the black market.
After more than three years of diplomacy, the Bush administration reached an agreement with China last month to ban the import of a wide range of Chinese antiquities into the United States, in an effort to discourage illegal trade in artifacts.
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The two Qing dynasty bronze animal heads, one depicting a rabbit and the other a rat, are believed to have been part of a set comprising 12 animals from the Chinese zodiac that were created for the imperial gardens during the reign of Emperor Qianlong in the 18th century.
China views the relics as a significant part of its cultural heritage and a symbol of how Western powers encroached on the country during the Opium Wars. The relics were displayed as fountainheads at the Old Summer Palace, or Yuanmingyuan, until it was destroyed and sacked by British and French forces in 1860.
At a news briefing in Beijing last week, a spokeswoman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry said the two bronzes should be returned to China because they had been taken by "invaders." A group of Chinese lawyers says it plans to file a lawsuit this week in Paris seeking to halt or disrupt the sale.
But Christie's says the sale is legal and plans to go ahead with the auction on Monday through Wednesday in Paris, where the two bronze items could fetch as much as $10 million to $13 million apiece.
In recent years it has been using its growing political and economic muscle to push other nations to hand over lost or stolen Chinese treasures, and to help it fight international smugglers who continue to loot historic sites in the country and peddle items on the black market.
After more than three years of diplomacy, the Bush administration reached an agreement with China last month to ban the import of a wide range of Chinese antiquities into the United States, in an effort to discourage illegal trade in artifacts.