国产热热热精品,亚洲视频久久】日韩,三级婷婷在线久久,99人妻精品视频,精品九热人人肉肉在线,AV东京热一区二区,91po在线视频观看,久久激情宗合,青青草黄色手机视频

WORLD> Europe
China not to buy stolen relics at Paris auction
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-01-23 19:27

BEIJING -- China's State Administration of Cultural Heritage (SACH) said Friday that it would not try to buy back two looted bronze relics that are being auctioned in February by Christie's.

The bronzes of Rat (L) and Hare, shown in this combined photo, are planed for auction in Paris February. China's State Administration of Cultural Heritage (SACH) said Friday that it would not try to buy back two looted bronze relics that are being auctioned in February by Christie's. The two bronzes were stolen when the palace was burnt down by Anglo-French allied forces during the Second Opium War in 1860.

The Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) bronze rabbit and rat heads once decorated Yuanmingyuan, Beijing's Imperial Summer Palace. They were stolen when the palace was burnt down by Anglo-French allied forces during the Second Opium War in 1860.

Related readings:
 Daylight-robbery relic auction
 US$860B needed to renovate relic sites after quake
 Police on alert for relic hunters
 China sets up database to reclaim lost cultural relic treasures

The relics, which will be auctioned in Paris, currently belong to the Yves Saint Laurent Foundation and were put up for auction by the late fashion magnate's partner, Pierre Berge.

"It is not acceptable that a foreign company would put the looted relics for auction, and we will not try to buy them back," said Song Xinchao, director of the museum department with the SACH.

He said that the best way to deal with the issue was to ignore it, because some business people might use the patriotism of the Chinese people to raise bidding prices for monetary gain.

The bronzes were once part of a fountain that displayed the 12 animals of the Chinese zodiac. Five of the bronze animal heads have already been returned to China, while the whereabouts of five others is unknown, according to the Beijing times.

The American auction house Sotheby tried to put bronze horse head for auction in 2007. But Macau billionaire Stanley Ho bought the relic at a price of 69.1 million Hong Kong dollars (about US$9 million) before the auction and donated it to the Chinese government.

A team of 69 Chinese lawyers volunteered last month to sue Christie's over the sale of relics. But the company said they had not received any lawsuit notice from the court.

"The lawsuit will be placed before a French court in accordance with international law," said Liu Yang, one of the lawyers working on the case.

He said that they would demand that the auction house stop the sale and persuade the owner of the stolen artifacts to return them to China.

The two artifacts will be auctioned in Paris in February 23-25. They are expected to fetch 8 to 10 million euros (about US$10.4 -13 million) each, said China's Special Fund for Rescuing Lost Cultural Relics from overseas.

The fund had negotiated with the keeper of the two relics in 2003 and 2004, but were taken deterred by an asking price of US$10 million for each artifact.

Chinese netizens are furious about the auction. A netizen from Shanxi pasted an entry on the forum of sina.com, saying that "looted relics must be returned to China for free."

台北县| 托里县| 鹰潭市| 镇平县| 浠水县| 宜昌市| 辰溪县| 万载县| 即墨市| 磴口县| 鄂托克旗| 龙胜| 酒泉市| 江永县| 阜南县| 静乐县| 宜川县| 隆回县| 阿尔山市| 天津市| 腾冲县| 渑池县| 抚顺县| 大荔县| 封丘县| 敖汉旗| 石阡县| 五大连池市| 天长市| 太保市| 宁化县| 永登县| 明溪县| 若羌县| 当涂县| 桑日县| 伊春市| 宜阳县| 麻栗坡县| 交口县| 莱州市|