"In recent years, Christie's has frequently sold cultural heritage items looted or smuggled from China, and all items involved were illegally taken out of the country," the State Administration of Cultural Heritage said.

In a statement, the administration announced increased checks of Christie's operations in China to halt what it said was the illegal trade.

The statement was part of a furious reaction from China to the sale on Wednesday at a Christie's auction in Paris of two bronze artifacts looted by British and French forces from Beijing's imperial Summer Palace 150 years ago.

The bronzes, part of the personal art collection of late French fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent and his partner Pierre Berge, sold for 15.7 million euros (20.3 million dollars) each to unidentified bidders.

The fountainheads, dating from the Qing Dynasty (1644 to 1911), were looted from the palace in October 1860, towards the end of the Second Opium War -- which pitted the British and French against China.

China had demanded the relics be returned, but the French government said it received no official request and the sale went ahead after a Paris court threw out a last-ditch bid to remove the bronzes from auction.

The cultural heritage agency released an initial statement earlier Thursday condemning the Paris auction as illegal and warning Christie's there would be consequences.

In its later statement, the agency said it had pressed Christie's for the withdrawal of the Summer Palace relics.

"But Christie's took its own course and insisted on auctioning the relics looted from the Summer Palace in breach of the spirit of international pacts and the consensus on the return of such artifacts to their original countries," it said.

As part of the tougher regime to be imposed on Christie's, all relevant departments would be required to "seriously" check all items that the auction house intended to import or export from China, the cultural agency said.

All Christie's employees would also face tougher scrutiny, it said, without providing details. AFP calls to Christie's offices in China went unanswered on Thursday.

Kung Fu legend Jackie Chan chipped in Thursday, criticising the auction as he said he was working on a new movie about the theft of cultural relics.

"This behaviour is shameful," he said.

The star of "Shanghai Knights" and "Rush Hour" accused Western countries of stealing cultural relics from countries such as China, Egypt and Cambodia and yet insisting they were doing so only to preserve them.

"They remain looted items, no matter whom they were sold to. Whoever took it out (of China) is himself a thief," he fumed to reporters in Hong Kong.

"It was looting yesterday. It is still looting today."

China is extremely sensitive to the loss of its cultural heritage, much of which is believed to still disappear across its borders as a result of smuggling.

China wrath over YSL sale comes as restitution claims increase
China's wrath over this week's sale of two ancient Chinese bronzes comes as more and more nations demand the return of heritage works -- from Iraqi antiquities to the Elgin Marbles -- with some snatched thousands of years ago.

"There are restitutions each and every day," said Edouard Planche, a cultural property expert at UNESCO. "There are more and more claims."

Returning cultural relics is relatively easy when it comes down to theft, trafficking or illegal exports.

Under a 1970 convention drafted by the UN's cultural agency, a state seeking recovery of stolen goods must provide proof of theft to the state where the goods are believed to be held.

But the convention only covers works that went missing after 1970 -- which is not the case of the ancient Chinese rabbit and rat heads sold for 31 million euros (40 million dollars) at the Yves Saint Laurent art auction Wednesday.

Once a claim is made under the UNESCO text, a court hands down a ruling that countries are expected to abide by.

As a result, Syria returned last year 700 stolen antiquities to Iraq, France some 260 stolen archeological items to Burkina Faso and Denmark 150 illicitly exported relics to China.

But restitution is a far more complex matter in disputes over works that went missing hundreds of years ago, when missionaries, amateur archeologists or troops took home relics now showcased in the world's top museums, or which surface from time to time on the international art market.

The ongoing row between Greece and the British Museum over the Elgin Marbles, and China's fury over the sale through Christie's of the two ancient bronzes, are notable examples.

The pair of precious Qing dynasty bronzes, which have passed through various hands, were looted from the imperial Summer Palace by British and French troops in 1860.

"They left China before the signature of the convention, which is not retroactive," a UNESCO statement said.

The UN agency, it added, "has not received an official request from China to recover these items."

France says it has received no formal claim from Beijing, which on Wednesday accused auctioneers at Christie's of repeatedly selling smuggled Chinese relics and vowed to place tough checks on the auction house in an angry response to the Paris sale.

UNESCO said it had set up a 22-member committee that includes China in order to encourage negotiations between states for the repatriation of cultural heritage works.

Greece, which wants the return of the Elgin Marbles removed in the early 19th century, is negotiating with Britain through the committee.

"The debate is always over the lawfulness and the legitimacy of the claim," said Planche. One side will claim the works were bought legally or taken from abandoned cultural sites while the other side will claim they were stolen.

"Nowadays, countries that once were colonised are more and more interested in their heritage, their identity and their roots," he said.

Solutions such as longterm lending, exchanges or even cash compensation are one way of resolving the rows.

The Louvre museum, for instance, has a Nigerian statue that is exhibited in Paris but labelled "property of Nigeria".

In 2008, the Vatican and Italy returned Parthenon relics to Greece, Ethiopia recovered the Aksum Obelisk and a private Swiss foundation is about to return a sacred mask to Tanzania.

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