BEIJING TODAY PUBLISHED EVERY FRIDAY February 13, 2009 – February 19, 2009 NO. 402 CN11-0120 HTTP://BJTODAY.YNET.COM CHIEF EDITOR: JIAN RONG NEWS EDITOR: YU SHANSHAN DESIGNER: ZHAO YAN
Designing the impossible
Collectors quest for relic bikes
Pages 12-13
Page 15
Rat and rabbit fated for auction
Page 4 International NGOs stuck in legal limbo
Page 5 Martial masters fight to make ends meet
2009
176 By Venus Lee Christie’s shot down the possibility of a private sale of two relics: the bronze rabbit and rat heads pilfered more than a century ago from Yuanmingyuan, the ruined summer palace. The auction will be held February 23 to 25 in France despite protest. The price of stolen Chinese relics has skyrocketed in the last decade. The bronze ox head was recovered for 6.5 million yuan in 2000; this year, the pair of heads may fetch 176 million yuan. China opposes the auction of any cultural relics plundered by the
Eight-nation Allied Forces and hopes for their fair return, Song Xinchao, an official with the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, said. Only five heads have been recovered. The whereabouts of the remaining seven, aside from the two heads up for auction, remains unknown. Rumor has it that two heads were sighted in Japan. The cultural heritage office fears that when the dragon head surfaces, it will carry an outrageous price, Liu Yang, a lawyer working to recover the lost pieces, said. CFP Photo
Page 9 2007
69.1
Page 10 2000
Grape Wall blogger wild on wine
16.4 2000
8.2
2000
8.7
Iraqi woman ‘mixes up’ Beijing and Amsterdam
(In millions ofCFP yuan) Photo
Gifts to make her heart melt Page 16
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