[MSN] Casino billionaire Stanley Ho paid a record HK$69.1 million ($8.9 million) for a Qing Dynasty bronze, preventing a controversial auction of the looted artwork by Sotheby's. Ho plans to donate the horse-head sculpture to China.

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Stanley Ho Pays $8.9 Million for Looted Bronze Horse (Update1) 

By Le-Min Lim

 Sept. 20 (Bloomberg) -- Casino billionaire Stanley Ho paid a record HK$69.1
million ($8.9 million) for a Qing Dynasty bronze, preventing a controversial
auction of the looted artwork by Sotheby's. Ho plans to donate the
horse-head sculpture to China. 

The work is one of 12 zodiac animals from a water-clock fountain in
Yuanmingyuan, the imperial summer palace, according to Sotheby's, the
world's biggest publicly traded auction house. The palace was set ablaze and
its treasures plundered and scattered by British and French troops in
October 1860. Earlier this month, Sotheby's said it will auction the
sculpture in Hong Kong on Oct. 6, sparking protests from Chinese officials. 

``Dr. Ho bought the horse-head and will be donating it to China,'' said
Janet Wong, Ho's Hong Kong-based spokeswoman. 

In 2000, Hong Kong protesters demonstrated outside Sotheby's auction site
when it sold the water-clock's tiger-head. Hong Kong lawmaker Leung
Kwok-hung, who helped initiate that protest, said he may hold another if
Sotheby's auctioned the horse. 

In 2003, Ho bought the clock's boar-head at a private sale and donated it to
Beijing's Poly museum, an arm of the People's Liberation Army. Poly museum
also has the monkey and ox. The rabbit and the rat belong to a private
European collection, while the whereabouts of the other zodiac signs are
unknown. 

Sotheby's had previously said it expected the horse sculpture to fetch as
much as HK$80 million at the auction. The price Ho agreed to pay is the
highest for a Qing Dynasty sculpture, according to a statement from the
auction house. 

`Good Intention' 

Sotheby's decided to sell the bronze to Ho ``given his good intention to
donate the bronze to China,'' said Rhonda Yung, the auction house's Hong
Kong-based spokeswoman. 

Earlier this month, Xu Yongxiang, a buyer for China's state- run Shanghai
Museum, said the horse head was ``stolen property'' and should be returned
to the Chinese government. 

Sotheby's Asia Chief Executive Kevin Ching said Sept. 5 that the proposed
auction was legal. The 1995 United Nations Unidroit Convention limits claims
on stolen cultural artifacts to within 50 years of their theft. 

The horse head had been billed as the highlight of a four-day auction in
Hong Kong starting on Oct. 6. 

To contact the reporters for this story: Le-Min Lim in Hong Kong at
lmlim at bloomberg.net 

Last Updated: September 20, 2007 03:20 EDT