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Los Angeles TimesReporting from Beijing -- The bronze heads of a rat and rabbit that ignited an intercontinental bidding war will likely return to the Paris home of the late designer Yves Saint Laurent after a attempt to auction them was sabotaged by a Chinese art dealer.
"I will be thrilled to keep them," Saint Laurent's partner, Pierre Berge, was quoted as saying in the French newspaper Le Figaro. "These heads were with me and they will return, and we will continue to live together next to my Picasso."
The auction house Christie's has not disclosed what action it will take against the Chinese dealer, Cai Mingchao, who revealed Monday that he had submitted the winning $40-million bid in an auction last week as a patriotic gesture to block the sale. The bronze heads in question had been looted during the second Opium War in 1860 by French and English troops from the Old Summer Palace in Beijing.
Art experts have warned that Cai could be subject to civil and even criminal charges for submitting a fraudulent bid in the auction, which was conducted anonymously by telephone. However, Christie's might be loath to prosecute Cai, who has become overnight a Chinese national hero.
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http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-web-bronze3-2009mar03,0,5940969.story