Further coverage of the planned sale of disputed Chinese artefacts from the collection of Yves Saint Lauren.

From:
The Scotsman

Friday, 13th February 2009
China and France in tug-of-war over Yves St Laurent treasures
By Ethan McNern

CHINA has demanded the return of looted imperial bronzes due to be auctioned in Paris as part of the estate of the late French fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent.
The sculptures of a rat’s head and a rabbit’s head disappeared in 1860, when French and British forces looted and then burned the former summer palace on the outskirts of Beijing at the end of the second Opium War.

Jiang Yu, a spokesman for China’s foreign ministry, said yesterday that the pieces had been “stolen and taken away by intruders,” and “should be returned to China”.
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In Beijing, the Eighth Earl of Elgin has a similar reputation to that which his Father (The Seventh Earl) enjoys in Greece. China is now fighting back, trying to block auctions involving artefacts that were looted by the Eighth Earl.

From:
The Times

January 21, 2009
China tries to halt Yves Saint Laurent art sale
Charles Bremner in Paris and Jane Macartney in Beijing

China is trying to block the sale in Paris of two 18th-century bronze animal heads from the collection of Yves Saint Laurent, the late French couturier, because they were looted from Beijing by a marauding Franco-British army.

A team of Beijing lawyers is to lodge a suit with French courts to prevent the sale during a three-day auction by Christie’s from February 23.
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It seems that other than being returned to their original locations, looted artefacts suffer one of three fates – they are either kept in museums with no chance of return, they are lost forever, or they enter private hands & are exchanged between collections on occasion – a tantalising flash of stolen property in front of the original owners eyes. If it is purchased back by the original owners at this point, then it in some way validates the action of looting – on the other hand, if they do not buy it, then they are no closer to regaining possession & in most cases someone else makes a profit.

This case is of course made more interesting the looting was done by another Lord Elgin – the son of the one who took the Marbles from Athens.

From:
The Guardian

Chinese fury at sale of plundered treasures
* Tania Branigan in Beijing
* The Guardian,
* Monday November 3 2008

The row spans two continents and more than 140 years. But it has boiled up again following the involvement of a fashion legend and an eminent auction house.

Chinese officials are fuming at plans to sell national treasures from an imperial palace sacked and burned by British and French forces during the second opium war. One described the staggering estimated price of the objects – around £9m each – as “robbery”.
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