Christie's faces clampdown following auction

China is to make life more difficult for Christie’s after the auction house ignored Chinese protests against the sale of two Qing dynasty bronzes, Bloomberg reported. Christie’s must now give details of the ownership and provenance of any artifacts it wants to bring in or out of China, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage said. The bronzes sculptures of a rat and a rabbit head – which were part of the estate of French fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent – sold in Paris for a total of more than US$39.5 million. The artifacts were looted from the old Summer Palace in Beijing by invading French and British forces in 1860. Prior to the auction, the heritage administration warned that Christie’s would have to bear responsibility of any repercussions of an act that "harmed the cultural rights and national feeling of the Chinese people."