Ah, the price of Imperialism: Franco-British army stole it in 1860; Chinese, of course, want it back. Est value £16-20million.
Give it back and apologize, I say.
“If we had to give these two pieces free to China, we would have to hand back the [Ancient Egyptian] Obelisk on the Place de La Concorde and numerous paintings in the Louvre,” a Christie's employee told lepoint.fr news site.
Imagine! The robber nation losing riches, rather than the nation that was robbed! Sounds a bit like justice! Could open a can of worms, eh?