The Extraordinary Value of a Rat's Head

Christie's auction house employees stand in front of a video image of Andy Warhol's Mao portrait during a 2006 sale. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

Chinese cultural leaders have taken a strong objections to an upcoming auction of bronze heads of a rabbit and a mouse by Christie's Auction House.

The statues belonged to fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent and his partner Pierre Berge. China's Lost Cultural Relics Recovery Fund may even attempt to buy them back.

According to the press release, Laurent and Berge displayed the animal heads near the entrance to the first floor of an apartment in their home on Rue Bonaparte in Paris. They had previously belonged to Spanish painter José Maria Sert.

A Christie's press officer told me he did not have pictures of the statues, but a China Central Television article shows them here.

As relics go, the rabbit and mouse heads aren't incredibly special. They date to the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), the last dynasty of China. Compared to other relics that China's Lost Cultural Relics Recovery Fund has sought, they are relatively new. But they hold significant saving-face value.

The animals were part of 12 animal sculptures representing the Chinese zodiac animals that had decorated the Old Summer Palace in Beijing. The animal heads were stolen by French and British troops who looted the palace in 1860, then burned it down in the Second Opium War.

Over the years, five of the animal heads have been bought back or donated to the Chinese government. Setting aside the mouse and rabbit heads up for auction, there are still five animals remaining: the Dragon, Snake, Sheep, Rooster and Dog.

Christie's expects that the rabbit and rat heads will raise between $10-12 million each. But to relic preservationists in China, they are priceless.