The biggest private art auction in history ended at the Grand Palais in Paris Wednesday night. The final sale of the Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé collection brought the grand total to 373.5 million euros, or $484.6 million.
These are the rat & rabbit fountainheads, currently being the object of controversy. China claimed that these two animal fountainheads are among the 12 taken from the Summer Palace of the Emperor Qianlong in Beijing when it was looted by Anglo-French forces during the Second Opium War. A team of 80 lawyers were said to be preparing a lawsuit 2 weeks ago. In the auction, these two fountainheads were finally sold to an anonymous telephone bidders for $20 million each.
Pierre Bergé told WWD: ““The Chinese would be better off taking care of human rights. These pieces were indeed stolen, but it’s an affair that’s as old as the hills. It’s like the frieze from the Parthenon that’s in the British Museum in London. All the museums in the world are filled with Greek sculptures that were stolen. It’s nothing new.”
I have not much to say, but I really can’t deny that these two fountainheads are simply beautiful..beautiful work of art. All of the proceed of the auction goes to charity. So what do you think? Does the fact that these two beautiful objects are sold to avid art collector (and the proceed goes for charity) compensate for the belief that a national precious heritage should be kept where it belong?
If I were a billionaire, I would buy the two fountainheads from the auction for 40$ million, and return them to China. This way, my money not only go the charity, but I would also have the once-in-a-lifetime chance to make 1.3 billion of people in a country happy. A great joy & an honour indeed!