Passion around the two bronze sculptures from the collection of Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Berger rage. Yesterday at a press conference in Beijing, Chinese collector Cai Minsk (Cai Mingchao) announced that it was he last week offered the highest price for the sculpture of a rat and rabbit at Christie's auction at the Grand Palais, but pay for them will not be . Cai Minsk, which is a non-governmental adviser to the Fund The National Treasure Funds of China, engaged in the repatriation of cultural property, said that «to act in the interests of all Chinese people», and added that thus fulfilled their civic duty. He also said: «A Chinese man in my place would have acted the same».

ballyhoo around these two sculptures that were stolen from the Imperial Summer Palace Yuanminyuan, looted in 1860 by English and French troops, has climbed even well before the auction works from the collection of Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Berger, on 25 February . My disagreement with the upcoming sale, and demand the return of those masterpieces of home express cultural organizations of China and Government , and team of lawyers led by Jan Liu (Liu Yang) tried to sue the owner of the collection and auctioneers .

Representatives of Christie's has argued that the sale of these sculptures entirely legally, and after the Paris court rejected the claim of Chinese lawyers, bidding to take place as scheduled. Both «scandal» Lot won the client had been selling over the phone, the name of which the auction house is not reported. This man named Cai Minsk.

collector, who owns the auction house in the city of Xiamen in the north-east China, can be called real art-patriot with a good reputation among the auctioneers. It often happens at auctions in Hong Kong, and in 2006 he bought out for China on the Sotheby's auction a rare bronze statue of the Buddha nearly 15 million dollars. Perhaps that is why Christie's employees do not doubt that Cai Minsk will be ready to pay for your purchase.

As the chief representative of Christie's in Hong Kong Jing Shan (Shan Jing), in such cases, the issue of non-payment is usually transmitted to the legal department of the company, which experts will decide on further action. It is likely that the auction house will be forced to recover from the purchaser the amount required by the court, but the official comments from the Christie's has not yet received.

material produced Catherine Onuchin

Sources: bloomberg.com , xinhuanet.com , artinvestment.ru