By Keen Zhang and David Ferguson
China.org.cn editors
Xinhua News Agency also contributes to this story

China has vigorously condemned Christie's, the auction house, and warned that the company will "suffer the consequences" after it auctioned two looted Chinese bronzes on Wednesday night for €31.4 million (US $40 million). An official statement was issued on Thursday by Chinese authorities, followed by a second policy circular intended as a preliminary sanction directed at Christie's.
 Looted relics were sold at Christie's

The bronze sculpture of a rabbit's head, which is an ancient Chinese relic, is auctioned in the Grand Palace of Paris in Paris, France, Feb. 25, 2009.[Zhang Yuwei/Xinhua]

The first statement issued by China's State Administration of Cultural Heritage (SACH) condemned the sale and said it would have "a serious impact" on Christie's business in China. It added that Christie's would suffer consequences as a result of the auction, which had "damaged Chinese citizens' feelings and their cultural rights, and will have serious effects on the development of Christie's business in China."

The two bronze sculptures, representing the heads of a rabbit and a rat, were among 12 animal head sculptures that formed a zodiac-themed water clock decorating the Calm Sea Pavilion in the Old Summer Palace of Emperor Qianlong (1736-1795) in Beijing. The sculptures were looted when the palace was burned down by Anglo-French allied forces during the Second Opium War in 1860. To date, five of the 12 bronze animal heads have been returned to China, while the whereabouts of five others are unknown.
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Christie's auctioned off the controversial relics on Wednesday night for €15.74 million each (US$20 million) to anonymous telephone bidders in a sale of the collection of the late Yves Saint Laurent and his partner Pierre Berge in the Grand Palace of Paris. After the first round of the sale, Berge, who decided to sell the pair's 50-year-long collection after the designer's death last June, told reporters that "Yves would have been very happy" over the very large sum of money that the bronzes had fetched.

A figure of "14 million euros" previously reported by a number of media is mistaken. The figure of "14 million" referred to British pounds not Euros, China.org.cn has verified.

According to Christie's, they received eight telephone enquiries before the sale. Once the auction was under way, all bidding took place over the telephone, with no bidder personally present for the auction. At a subsequent press conference Christie's refused to disclose the identity of the successful buyers.

The Association for the Protection of Chinese Art in Europe had filed a motion at the Tribunal de Grande Instance in Paris last Thursday, seeking an injunction to stop the auction. The court rejected the motion on Monday.

The bronze sculpture of a rabbit's head, which is an ancient Chinese relic, is auctioned in the Grand Palace of Paris in Paris, France, Feb. 25, 2009.[Zhang Yuwei/Xinhua]

Today, the China's heritage administration issued its first statement, saying that China refused to recognize what it called the "illegal possession" of the two sculptures and would "continue to seek the return of the sculptures by all means, in accord with related international conventions and Chinese laws."

According to the statement, SACH officials had made repeated efforts to halt the sale, including writing letters to Christie's officials. However, it said, Christie's had gone ahead with the auction in violation of international conventions and of a "common understanding" that such artifacts should be returned to their country of origin.

In the hours following the sale, SACH issued a second circular as a preliminary sanction against Christie's.

The circular states: "In recent years, Christie's has frequently sold items of cultural heritage looted or smuggled out of China, and all items involved were illegally removed from the country," though the individual items or transactions were not specified.