法国驳回圆明园兽首禁拍请求

巴黎大审法院(Tribunal deGrandeInstance)于当地时间23日中午11时30分(北京时间23日18时30分)紧急审理禁止圆明园流失文物鼠首和兔首铜像拍卖的请求。在经过审理后，该法院驳回禁止拍卖的申请，判定拍卖继续进行。如果不出意外，兔首和鼠首将被如期拍卖。
法院认为请求人欧洲保护中华艺术联合会对于该院没有直接请求权，驳回其关于停止拍卖、禁止拍卖两兽首的请求，并要求赔偿两位被告各1000欧元。

相关媒体报道：

A Paris court on Monday ruled against stopping the sale of two looted Chinese bronze sculptures which come up for auction at Christie's on Wednesday.

Under the ruling of the Tribunal de Grande Instance in Paris, the plaintiff, the Association for the Protection of Chinese Art in Europe (APACE), was ordered to pay compensation to the defendant .

Ren Xiaohong, a lawyer for APACE, told Xinhua that it was "of great significance" to file the lawsuit.

"We hope to arouse public attention in Europe on the fate of numerous Chinese works stolen in the past, to help keep those relics well protected and collected," Ren said.

The Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) relics, the heads of a bronze rabbit and a rat, were among an original set of 12 bronze animal heads that once adorned the imperial summer resort Yuanmingyuan. They were looted when the palace was burnt down by Anglo-French allied forces during the Second Opium War in 1860.

The pair became part of a collection of the late fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent. They have been put up for auction by his partner, Pierre Berge.

The two items are expected to fetch between 16 million and 20 million euros (20.8 million to 26 million U.S. dollars).

So far, five of the 12 bronze animal heads have been returned to China, while the whereabouts of five others are unknown.