China says bronze bidder acted on his own

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China says bronze bidder acted on his own
http://www.reuters.com/article/artsNews/idUSTRE5210FM20090306

Thu Mar 5, 2009 11:42pm EST

BEIJING (Reuters) - China's government had nothing to do with a bid by a Chinese art collector for two sculptures looted from Beijing in the 1800s in which the bidder has refused to pay in an act of patriotism, state media said on Friday.

Cai Mingchao, a collector and adviser to a private foundation in China that seeks to retrieve looted treasures, said he successfully bid for the items which sold for 15 million euros ($20 million) each at a Paris auction for the art collection of late designer Yves Saint Laurent.

But Cai said the relics should not have been put up for sale in the first place as they had been stolen from Beijing's Summer Palace, which was razed in 1860 by French and British forces.

Shan Jixiang, director of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, said the government had stayed out of the bid.

"The bidding was completely a personal behavior," the official Xinhua news agency quoted Shan as saying in an English-language report.

"The (administration) had nothing to do with it," he said, adding his department had no idea who the bidder was until he identified himself earlier this week.

Before the auction, France was already the target of Chinese public ire because President Nicolas Sarkozy had met the Dalai Lama, whom China brands a separatist.

Five other bronze heads looted from the Summer Palace are still unaccounted for and it is unknown if they were destroyed or are in private collections.

Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani

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