"One day, two robbers entered the Winter Palace. One looted, another burned. The victor may be a thief, it would seem. A great devastation was made between the two winners.

All the treasures of our cathedrals together does not equal this beautiful and wonderful museum of the Orient.

One of two winners had filled his pockets, seeing the other had filled his coffers, and we returned to Europe, arm in arm, laughing.

To history, one of the two bandits is named France, the other is named England."

--After the British and French invaders had burned the Winter Palace in 1860, French writer Victor Hugo wrote a reply to a lieutenant named Bartlette, indignantly denouncing the atrocities.

WANDERING RELICS: Two ancient Chinese relics, a bronze rat head and a rabbit head, are controversially auctioned off for 14 million euros each in Paris, on February 25, 2009 (ZHANG YUWEI)

Two Chinese bronze relics were auctioned off in Paris on February 25 amid strong protest from their home country.

The relics were sold to anonymous telephone bidders who bought them for 14 million euros ($17.9 million) each during Christie's sale of the collection of renowned fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé (Saint Laurent's longtime partner and co-owner of the art collection).

According to Christie's, the auction house had received eight phone calls for "enquiries" about the pieces before the final sale. The auction was conducted between telephone bidders only, with no present bidders making an offer.

OLD LOOK: A historic document shows the water clock consisting of the 12 bronze animals that spouted water to tell the time. The sculptures were situated in Haiyantang in the Garden of Eternal Spring, one of the three gardens that constituted the Winter Palace (CFP)

Chinese lawyers had filed a last-minute attempt to halt the sale of the two bronze animal sculptures that were part of a three-day auction that began on February 23.

The two relics, a bronze rat head and a bronze rabbit head, were looted from China's imperial winter resort, Yuanmingyuan, when it was burned down by French and British forces in 1860 during the Second Opium War (1856-60).

A few days before the sale, a French judge ruled the auction could move ahead and go on the block with other art items, rejecting the Chinese group's motion to block the sale.