Chinese lawyers move to block auction of relics

Published: 22/02/2009 05:00

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A group of Chinese lawyers is now at work in Paris, trying to stop the auction house Christie’s from selling two precious relics looted from Beijing’s Old Summer Palace.

A photographer takes a picture of the Chinese bronze rat head and rabbit head sculptures displayed on the preview of the auction of Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Berge’s art collection at the Grand Palais in Paris, France, Feb. 21, 2009. 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 two relics, a bronze rat head and a bronze rabbit head, were looted from China’s imperial summer resort Yuanmingyuan when it was burnt down by Anglo-French allied forces during the Second Opium War in 1860. (Xinhua/Zhang Yuwei)

The auction of the bronze sculptures of a mouse head and a rabbit head is scheduled to take place in the French capital on Wednesday.

The Chinese lawyers have put forward to a local court a motion aimed at blocking this auction. The court is set to handle the case on Monday noon local time.

Displaying age-old Chinese craftmanship, the two bronze sculptures from the Qing Dynasty adorned the Old Summer Palace nearly 150 years ago. They were looted when the palace was burned by French and British forces during the Second Opium War in 1860.

According to the UNESCO Convention on Stolen and Illegally Exported Cultural Objects, any cultural relics looted or lost during wars should be returned without any limitation of time span.

VietNamNet/Xinhuanet

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