Sabotage at the Yves Saint Laurent Auction in Paris

AUCTION REBOUND

In a dramatic development worthy of a suspense thriller, the anonymous telephone bidder who won the controversial pair of 18th-century Chinese bronze animal heads in the Yves Saint Laurent-Pierre Bergé “sale of the century” last week has surfaced-and announced that he will refuse to pay his winning bid of €31.4 million ($40.5 million).

At a press conference in Beijing on Monday, Cai Mingchao, an art collector and owner of a small auction house in Xiamen, in southwest China, revealed that he was the winning bidder, claiming to have acted, “for the Chinese people”. “I think that anyone in China would have wanted to do the same thing. I was able to do it, so I did my duty.” At the press conference, Cai was accompanied by Chinese cultural authorities from the National Treasure Funds of China (NTFC) a government agency that seeks to recuperate Chinese art treasures dispersed around the world.

The superb pair of Qing dynasty heads-of a rat and a rabbit-represent signs of the Chinese zodiac, and are thought to be part of an original dozen heads, ornamenting a zodiac fountain in the imperial summer palace, which were pillaged by British and French troops during the Opium War of 1860. Shortly before the highly publicized auction, the Chinese government objected to their sale, and a legal challenge was brought by a European-based private organization, but a French court rejected the challenge.

Bergé’s widely quoted response to the protest was that he would be happy to give the bronze heads to China if China would respect human rights and give freedom to Tibet-a response which evidently added fuel to Chinese ire. (And President Nicolas Sarkozy’s recent meeting with the Dalai Lama had already added to currently shaky Franco-Chinese relations)

The previously little-known Cai Mingchao had already made news when he bought a 15th-century bronze Buddha for $15 million at a 2006 Sotheby’s auction in Hong Kong-at the time a record price for a Chinese antiquity. “I didn’t really pay attention to the price,” he is quoted as saying at the time. “I just wanted to bring a national treasure back home.”

With the refusal to pay for the Saint Laurent-Bergé bronze heads, Cai has undoubtedly sacrificed his ability to participate in international auctions for the foreseeable future.

As for the fate of the heads themselves, French regulations allow the seller a month to legally pursue the buyer for the promised price; otherwise, the sale is annulled. The seller also has the right to request a sale called a folle enchère: if the object is then sold for less than the first winning bid, the original winning bidder is legally liable for the difference.

For the time being, the rabbit and the rat remain cloistered at Christie’s Paris, which conducted the sale in conjunction with Bergé’s own auction house Pierre Bergé & Associés. Christie’s so far has no comment.

The seller also, of course, has the right to keep the goods. Asked by a journalist on French radio station France Info what he will do if Cai Mingchao really does not pay, he replied, “Mais je les garderai! They were in my home, they will return there, and we’ll continue to live together.”