Looted seal fetches $2.2m in auction

PARIS: A Chinese bidder snapped up an 18th-century Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) seal for 1.68 million euros ($2.2 million) at a Paris auction on Wednesday. The white jade imperial seal, which was looted from the Old Summer Palace in 1860, was acquired by a Chinese national who refused to give his name. Sold as part of a collection of Asian art, the seal went for more than five times its estimated price of 300,000 euros, after a tense bidding race with another Asian buyer.

AFP