BEIJING, Feb. 20 (Xinhua) -- Chinese lawyers have
filed a motion to a French court seeking an injunction to stop auction house
Christie's putting two bronze relics looted from China under the hammer, lawyers
said Friday.
The application was submitted to a Paris court
Thursday night, four days before the auction scheduled to be held from Feb. 23
to 25 in Paris, said Liu Yang, head of a group of almost 90 lawyers.
Bernard Gomez, president of the Association for the
Protection of Chinese Art in Europe (APACE), has agreed to be the applicant for
property preservation of the two bronze rabbit and rat head sculptures, he said.
The Qing Dynasty (1644-1911)
relics adorned the imperial summer resort Yuanmingyuan. They were looted when the palace was
burnt down by Anglo-French allied forces during the Second Opium War in 1860.
The items currently belong to the Yves Saint Laurent
Foundation and were put up for auction by the late fashion magnate's partner,
Pierre Berge.
"If the court motion for injunction fails, we will
participate in the auction and decide what to do next," Liu said.
The lawyers wrote to Christie's last week to stop the
sale of the two items, saying they would sue Pierre Berge if Christie's puts the
bronzes up for auction. But Christie's said the auction would proceed as
scheduled.
Christie's public relations officer in China, Chen
Yan, said the proceeds from all items in the Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Berge
collection will go to charity.
The owners provided legal documents confirming their
legal possession of all the articles, including the two bronze sculptures, Chen
said.
The items were expected to fetch 8 million to 10
million euros (10.4 million to 13 million U.S. dollars) each.
Liu said the Global Aixinjueluo Family Clan, a civil
society registered in Hong Kong, has agreed to be the plaintiff. Aixinjueluo is
the clan name of the emperors of the Qing Dynasty.
The looted relics should be returned to China. China
has undoubted ownership to these relics, said a statement of the administration
of the old Summer Palace.
Christie's auction controversy reveals
China's dilemma in retrieving lost relics
BEIJING, Feb. 16 (Xinhua) -- Two bronze animal
sculptures, looted from a Chinese royal garden 149 years ago, will be auctioned
in Paris late this month. They symbolize a dilemma China is facing in retrieving
many of its cultural treasures from abroad.
"We wrote to Mr. Pierre Berge in October last year after learning the two
sculptures will be auctioned but did not receive any reply yet," said Niu
Xianfeng, deputy director of the National Treasure Funds of China (NTFC), a
non-governmental organization working since 2002 to return the country's
historical relics. Full
story
