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BEIJING — A Chinese art collector revealed himself as the man behind the winning bids for two imperial bronzes auctioned at Christie’s over Beijing’s objections, then announced he had no intention of paying the $36 million. The bogus bids were the latest attempt by both the Chinese government and private citizens to block the sale of the pieces, which disappeared when French and British forces sacked and burned the imperial Summer Palace outside Beijing in 1860 at the end of the second Opium War. Chinese view the devastation of the palace as a national humiliation.
