Two imperial bronze sculptures that were looted from Beijing's Old Summer Palace will come home later this year, thanks to the donation of the French art-collecting Pinault family, China's top heritage authority announced on Friday afternoon.

The State Administration of Cultural Heritage announced the news on its website after a meeting with the visiting Pinaults on Friday morning.

The sculptures, of a rat and a rabbit head, were made for the zodiac fountain of Emperor Qianlong's Old Summer Palace, and looted when the palace was razed by invading French and British forces in 1860.

The sculptures made news when their auction by French auction house Christie's in February 2009 aroused controversy worldwide.

The statues' winning bid was more than 31 million euros ($40.3 million), but the deal collapsed when Chinese buyer Cai Mingchao refused to pay.

The Pinault family — the majority shareholder of PPR, whose brands include Gucci, Yves Saint Laurent and Puma — bought the two sculptures after that.

Francois-Henri Pinault, CEO of PPR, promised the donation on behalf of the family, which also owns auction house Christie's, during a meeting with SACH officials on Friday.

Earlier this month, Christie's was granted a license that will enable it to become the first international auction house to operate independently in China, which has overtaken the United States as the world's largest art and auction market.

The SACH highly endorsed the donation, saying it was "in accordance with the spirit of international conventions" and "of friendliness to Chinese people", which will help push forward the "common international understanding that cultural relics should be returned to their country of origin".

Song Xinchao, deputy director of SACH who met Pinault at Beijing's Park Hyatt Hotel on Friday morning, said China hopes to see the return of the sculptures by July and add them to the collection at the National Museum of China.

To date, five of the 12 bronze animal fountainheads from the Old Summer Palace have been returned to China through purchases in auctions or donations by overseas Chinese collectors.

Like other ancient civilizations, China saw many cultural relics taken overseas when the country was subjected to wars and occupation.

According to the Chinese Cultural Relics Association, more than 10 million Chinese cultural relics were taken from the country from 1840 to 1949, a large number of which are now stored at major public museums in Europe and the US.

The number of relics plundered from the Old Summer Palace alone is estimated at about 1.5 million, now housed in more than 2,000 museums in 47 countries.

A majority of them are being showcased in the British Museum and the Fontainebleau Art Museum in France, experts said.

China has been actively seeking the return of overseas relics during the past decade through purchases at international auctions, donations by private collectors or overseas Chinese, and increasingly through diplomatic means based on international conventions.

"We're open to any channel for the return of cultural relics," Song said.

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【新聞快訊】

昨日，法國(guó)皮諾家族在北京宣布，將向中方無償捐贈(zèng)流失海外的圓明園銅鼠首和兔首。這是圓明園十二生肖獸首被英法聯(lián)軍掠走后，首次由海外無償捐贈(zèng)的方式重返祖國(guó)。

法方表示，將在九十月份完成兩件圓明園獸首的回歸，不過，中方希望能提前至七月份。算上此次回鄉(xiāng)的鼠首和兔首，以及牛首、猴首、虎首、豬首和馬首，共有7尊獸首回到國(guó)內(nèi)。

皮諾家族，即法國(guó)PPR集團(tuán)是世界第三大奢侈品集團(tuán)，該集團(tuán)旗下的品牌更加耳熟能詳，比如古馳（Gucci）、寶緹嘉（Bottega Veneta）等。佳士得拍賣也為其家族所有。

對(duì)于此次捐贈(zèng)活動(dòng)，國(guó)家文物局給出了明確回復(fù)：中方對(duì)此舉予以積極評(píng)價(jià)，認(rèn)為這一意愿符合有關(guān)文化遺產(chǎn)保護(hù)國(guó)際公約的原則精神，是對(duì)中國(guó)人民的友好表示，也有利于更多中國(guó)流失境外文物的回歸。

雙獸首回歸的具體月份，仍未具體公布。國(guó)家文物局表示，文物回歸的“所有渠道都是敞開的”。該局負(fù)責(zé)人表示，鼠首和兔首可能入藏中國(guó)國(guó)家博物館。也有專家認(rèn)為，銅獸首應(yīng)當(dāng)回到圓明園里收藏，但目前該遺址并沒有標(biāo)準(zhǔn)的博物館，不具備展示和保存功能。