Just a few hours after at auction Christie 's were sold to the bronze heads of rats and rabbits, stolen in the XIX century from China , the Chinese authorities have said that now work the auction house in the Middle Kingdom will be monitored much harder. Shortly before the auction the Chinese Government and an independent group of Chinese lawyers have tried to force the Christie's auction of the sculptures to withdraw and return to their homeland. Representatives of the Association for the Protection of Chinese Art in Europe (Apace) even go to court, but the conquest of the work they did not succeed.

Head of rats and rabbits previously Zodiac fountain adorned with one of the summer palaces of the Qing Dynasty emperors. In 1860, during the Second Opium War, British and French soldiers destroyed the fountain and sculptures stolen. On Wednesday, two pieces brought to the bidding works in the collection of Yves Saint Laurent (Yves Saint-Laurent), and Berger, Pierre (Pierre Bergé) to 15.7 million euros (20.1 million dollars) each.

Representatives of the Chinese government announced that Christie's will now be obliged to provide information about provenanse all the artifacts, which he wants to bring in or take out of it. Subjects without the required documents will not be carried.

The citizens of China will now be harder to bring home artifacts, which they bought at auction Christie's in other countries. It is possible that they will be more convenient to use the services of Sotheby's. According to the dealer Liu Feyfeya (Lu Feifei), legitimate art dealers find it easier to buy antiquities anywhere else than get involved in trouble because of Christie's.

center of Christie's in China - Hong Kong. Last year, the Hong Kong auction yielded more than 1 billion local dollars (129 million U.S. dollars).

Christie's representatives deny that the company has committed something illegal. They said that to buy work at an auction - the best way to get them back to their homeland. The Chinese authorities responded that they would seek the repatriation figures rat and rabbit any statutory means, but at the same time made it clear that any attempt to acquire them at Christie's they do. According to the Beijing Museum of the Old Summer Palace, the bid would shade «legality» everything, while the Chinese Government believes that the auction house had no right to sell the sculptures.

In 2000, the state conglomerate China Poly Group bought at Sotheby's and Christie's the other three bronze heads of zodiac animals, the water fountain. The cost of the work amounted to about 4 million dollars.

Material prepared Yulia Maksimova

Source: artinfo.com , artinvestment.ru