TAIPEI: A national treasure looted from Beijing's summer palace is in Taiwan. The Taiwanese collector who claims to have the bronze dragon head reportedly dropped plans to auction the relic after the international furore over the auction of two companion pieces in Paris.

Wellington Wang, a well-known local art collector, told the TVBS news channel he was contacted by a businessman who claimed to have the bronze dragon's head and was initially looking to auction it.

"He was willing to sell it if the (Christie's) auction went well. He didn't expect such a big fallout and now everybody is afraid," Wang said, indicating that the dealer had changed his mind.

The owner allegedly bought the dragon's head for $200,000 from a European antique dealer around 1988 and has since stored it in central Taiwan, Wang told the local Apple Daily.

Wang declined to name the collector and added he has not seen the artifact.

The dragon's head could be more valuable than the rabbit and rat due to its highly symbolic status in Chinese culture, the newspaper said, quoting another local antique collector.

The sale of the bronze rabbit's and rat's heads, from the Yves Saint Laurent estate aroused Beijing's wrath last month as the central government again denounced sales of stolen antiquities.

The dragon's head, along with the rabbit and rat bronzes were stolen by British and French forces from the Imperial Summer Palace near the end of the Second Opium War in 1860.

The rat and rabbit bronzes, part of the art collection of late French fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent and his partner Pierre Berge, sold for $20.3 million each at Christie's auction in Paris last month.

Authorities in Beijing had repeatedly called for cancellation of the sale and called for the relics to be returned to China.

A Chinese art collector admitted he was the successful bidder at the Paris auction. His subsequent refusal to pay left the auction in limbo.

AFP

(HK Edition 03/14/2009 page1)