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July 1st, 2013 
Peter Nolan
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Two rare bronze animal heads looted from China more than 100 years ago have been returned to Beijing.
The heads, one of a rat and one of a rabbit, were among 12 animal heads looted from Beijing’s Summer Place by Anglo-French troops during the Second Opium War in 1860.
The Qing Dynasty relics ended up in the collection of fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent.
After his death in 2009 his partner Pierre Berge put them up for auction at Christie’s.
A Chinese collector topped the bidding with an offer of 14 million euros ($20 million) each, but subsequently refused to pay on the grounds that the artefacts were part of the country’s national heritage and had been removed illegally.
The family that runs French luxury-goods conglomerate PPR decided to return the heads to the National Museum Of China.
That was the last that was heard of them until April this year, when French billionaire Francois-Henri Pinault, who owns Christie’s, revealed that he had acquired the two bronzes.
He has now handed the statues back to China in a ceremony at the National Museum of China in Tiananmen Square.
“The gesture of our family is a demonstration of our friendship and respect towards your country,” Mr Pinault said.
The bronzes date from the 18th century and were originally part of a series of all the animals in the Chinese zodiac, which decorated a water clock in the Imperial Garden.
Five others have been recovered by China, including the horse, which was gifted to the state by Macau gambling tycoon Stanley Ho in 2007.
The whereabouts of the five other bronzes is not known.
AFP
Topics:
art-history,
history,
law-crime-and-justice,
china
Source Article from http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-06-29/looted-chinese-relics-returned-to-beijing-after-100-years/4789258
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