A set of bronze statues being sold by Christie’s in Paris has China in a dither. From The Los Angeles Times:

On Monday, a French judge ruled that the 18th century Chinese bronze heads depicting a rabbit and a rat can be auctioned off this week at Christie’s in Paris as part of the estate of the late designer Yves Saint Laurent.

Nobody disputed that the heads were looted during the second Opium War in 1860 when French and British troops sacked the Old Summer Palace in Beijing, one of the great humiliations in Chinese history. However, the auction house insisted that the heads, worth about $10 million each, have a clear chain of ownership and can be resold since they traded hands several times over the 20th century.

The auction house also said, in effect, that if China wants the heads back, it can shell out the necessary money during the three-day auction, which concludes Wednesday.

[…]

“It is really shameful. They are like kidnappers demanding ransom to give back your own child,” said Li Xingfeng, one of a group of 81 Chinese lawyers who filed the lawsuit last week in Paris trying to block the sale. They have vowed to pursue the case to recover the heads from whomever might buy them.

The Time’s China Blog has two posts on the story, here and here.