 Plaintiff found, so lawyers can sue
By Zhang Lei (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-02-11 07:43
Lawyers have found a legitimate plaintiff to sue Christie's in France over its planned sale of two bronze relics looted from Yuanmingyuan, China's Imperial Summer Palace. Liu Yang, who heads 85 volunteer lawyers, said since October the group has been preparing a lawsuit to stop auction house Christie's from selling bronze rabbit and rat heads from the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) at its Paris auction scheduled for Feb 23-25. The plaintiff will be the Global Aixinjueluo Family Association registered in Hong Kong, and the 400,000 yuan lawsuit is being financed by a Chinese firm, he said. The association has more than 20 descendants of the Qing royal family, and Aixinjueluo Zhoudi, an ancestor of King Ruiqin Duoergun, will work closely with the lawyers' group as the association's chief representative, Liu said. "The ruling Aixinjueluo family owned Yuanmingyuan and all of its contents at the time of the heads being stolen," Wang Daocheng, a historian at Renmin University, said. The two bronzes are part of a collection of 12 heads of zodiacal animals that once decorated the Imperial Summer Palace. They were stolen when the palace was ransacked by Anglo-French troops during the Second Opium War in 1860. Five of the heads have been returned to China, while the whereabouts of five others are unknown. The relics belong to the Yves Saint Laurent Foundation and are expected to raise as much as 30 million euros ($39 million), Christie's said. The lawyers' group said it has reason to believe the current owner Pierre Berge, the partner of Yves Saint Laurent, was aware of the source and significance of the heads at the time of buying, which determines his possession to be illegal. "We sent a letter of attorney to Mr. Berge three days ago and expect a response," Liu said. "We are reluctant to press charges against the owner unless necessary." A bronze horse head was auctioned by Sotheby's in 2007, and bought by Macau billionaire Stanley Ho for $8.9 million who donated it to the Chinese government. In an online poll at Sina.com, Ning Shizhai said: "These items belong to China and should be returned." Liu did not explain why the case would involve 85 lawyers but said they were selected from the country's top firms and all had good experience in such cases.
(China Daily 02/11/2009 page5) |
