PARIS—Pierre Bergé, collector and the partner of late designer Yves Saint Laurent, has disclosed that he received death threats regarding two Chinese bronzes that went up for auction at the pair's hugely successful Christie’s sale last February. During an interview on French TV station RTL this week, Bergé said he was given police protection around the time of the sale after being threatened.

China has demanded the return of the Qing Dynasty sculptures, the head of a rabbit and a rat, claiming they were seized illegally in 1860 by invading French and British forces. Despite Beijing’s protests, they were sold at Christie’s to a Chinese collector who bid €15.7 million ($23 million) for them but then refused to pay, which has left the bronzes sitting in a Christie's safe. They are part of the collection owned by Bergé and Saint Laurent.

Bergé said he had considered donating the bronzes to a Taiwan museum or to France's Guimet Museum but did not want to create problems between those countries and China. He added that he hopes to sell the bronzes one day to a “courageous” buyer but is emphatic that China will never get them. Meanwhile, Taiwan’s main museum says it won’t exhibit the sculptures, calling them looted objects.

Read more at Artforum.