ART WORLD

Collector Cries Foul at YSL Auction

Winning bidder says objects were looted.

Collector Cai Mingchao identified himself as the winning bidder in last week's Paris auction of two bronze sculptures, but he says that as a patriot, he won't pay, The Independent reports. Cai won the items from the late Yves Saint Laurent's art collection with a bid of $18.9 million dollars, but Cai is also an adviser to a private foundation in China that seeks to recover looted national treasures. He says the bronze heads of rat and rabbit were stolen from Beijing's Summer Palace when French and British forces razed it in 1860 during the Second Opium War. For its part, Christie's says it does not release items that have not been paid for.