'Brilliant' bogus bid blocks sale of Chinese relics

BEIJING - The man who made winning bids for two imperial bronzes auctioned at Christie's over Beijing's objections, then said he had no intention of paying the US$36 million ($72 million) "only did what I was obliged to" do.

The audacious act of commercial sabotage by the Chinese art collector exposes the tensions China and other countries, such as Greece and Egypt, face in trying to recover cultural objects plundered in war or stolen.

One overseas expert in looted relics called the fake bids "brilliant" - a ploy likely to be copied in future disputed sales.

The bogus bids were the latest attempt by the Chinese Government and private citizens to block the sale of the pieces, which disappeared when French and British forces sacked and burned the imperial Summer Palace outside Beijing in 1860 at the end of the second Opium War. Chinese view the devastation of the palace as a national humiliation.

Auction house owner Cai Mingchao said he put in telephone bids for the bronze rat and rabbit heads - part of a collection owned by the late French designer Yves Saint Laurent - during last week's auction in Paris. The three-day sale set a record for the most valuable private collection sold at auction, bringing more than US$484 million.

"What I need to stress is that this money cannot be paid," Cai said in Beijing.

"At the time, I was thinking that any Chinese would do this if they could ... I only did what I was obliged to."

Pierre Berge, Saint Laurent's long-time partner, told France-Info radio that he was not altogether surprised by the manoeuvre since he believed "the Chinese would have done anything to try to get back the pieces".

Berge said he would keep the bronzes if Cai did not pay up.

An official with Christie's in Paris confirmed yesterday the bronzes were still in the auction house's possession but would not give details. The official was not authorised to be publicly named, according to company policy.

Actually paying for the bronzes would equal paying ransom, some Chinese have said.

Cai's fake bids drew praise for patriotism, but others said the move could sink his career. Attempts to reach him have been unsuccessful.

The Chinese Government said it had nothing to do with the bids. The Government had tried to stop the sale, saying the bronzes should be returned instead.

Christie's stood by its right to sell them and a French court rejected a Chinese group's petition to block the sale.

"I can't speak to the legalities of this collector's actions, but it is a brilliant move that is likely to be copycatted and has thrown a wrench in the market," said Lawrence Rothfield, author of the forthcoming book The Rape of Mesopotamia: Behind the Looting of the Iraq Museum and professor at the University of Chicago's Cultural Policy Centre.

Cai's fake bids apparently were made in co-operation with China's Lost Cultural Relics Recovery Programme, a group dedicated to repatriating looted Chinese art.

On its website, the group describes itself as a non-governmental cultural body set up by collectors and scholars, and Cai serves as an adviser.

- AP