Yves Saint Laurent sale thwarted

The sale of Yves Saint Laurent’s art collection at Christie’s in Paris last week netted a staggering €373.5m. But it looks as if the auction house will not be receiving the cash for two of the most contentious lots - a pair of bronze sculptures which sold on the day for €14m apiece - because the person who bid for them is refusing to pay up.

As reported here, the two bronzes of a rat and a rabbit were looted from the Old Summer Palace in Beijing in 1860 and have been the cause of a bitter legal dispute between the beneficiary of Saint Laurent’s estate, Pierre Berge, and a team of 50-plus lawyers who have been working on behalf of the Chinese government to get them returned.

When Beijing’s attempts to get the bronzes withdrawn from the sale failed, it looked as if the row would fizzle out. But it now emerges that the man who bought them, Cai Mingchao, had no intention of actually buying them, but, in a patriotic gesture, wanted only to draw attention to the sale.

Mingchao, it transpires, is an adviser to China's Fund for Recovering Artefacts Lost Overseas, a private foundation run by academics and “prominent people” but claiming no government affiliation. "What I want to stress is that this money cannot be paid," said Cai in a statement released by the Fund. "I believe that any Chinese person would stand up at this time... I am making an effort to fulfill my own responsibilities.”

Christie's now have the choice of suing Cai, or returning the bronzes to Berge. ·