The National Palace Museum (NPM) will never accept artifacts that are controversial, stolen or of unknown origin, the museum's curator reiterated Thursday at a Legislative Yuan session. It was the second consecutive day that NPM Director Chou Kung-shin had expounded on the museum's stance as lawmakers across the political spectrum continued to question the museum's rejection of a reported offer by a French owner to give it two bronze statues stolen from China some 150 years ago. Pierre Berge, partner of the late French fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent, reportedly has offered to donate the two bronzes -- a rat head and a rabbit head -- to a Taiwanese museum, but the offer was rejected because the museum feared angering China. During a legislative session a day earlier, Chou said she was invited by the French government to visit Paris in June. During the visit, she met with Berge, who said at the time that he 'would neither sell nor donate' the two pieces, she recalled. Chou further said that even if the owner offered to donate the two pieces, the NPM would not accept them from the perspective of professional ethics. On Thursday, lawmakers continued grilling Chou over the issue at a meeting of the Legislative Yuan's Education and Cultural Affairs Committee. In response, Chou once again stressed the museum's stance, saying that the NPM, as one of the world's most famous museums, should follow professional ethics and uphold its international image. According to a declaration issued by the International Council of Museums (ICOM) and the United Nations Economic, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in 1970, Chou said, museums should not procure, accept or exchange artifacts of illegal origin. She also noted that Gary F. Edson, a senior member of the ICOM's ethics committee, was very positive toward her museum's rejection of the reported offer. The NPM in suburban Taipei is home to the cream of the 1,000-year Chinese art collection originally stored at the Forbidden City in Beijing and transported to Taiwan during the Chinese civil war. The two controversial bronzes of the Chinese zodiac animals were illegally seized in 1860 from Beijing's imperial summer palace, Yuanmingyuan, by invading French and British forces. The two items later became part of the Yves Saint Laurent collection. When they were put up for auction by Berge early this year, it aroused great anger in China, which demanded their return. China's Lost Cultural Relics Recovery Fund, an activist group, filed a petition in France in an attempt to stop the auction, but a Paris tribunal rejected the petition. The two pieces were sold in the Paris auction in February this year for 15.7 million euros each to a telephone buyer who at the time remained anonymous. A few days later, Chinese collector Cai Mingchao said that he was the successful bidder but would refuse to pay for the statues, claiming that his bid was a 'patriotic act' to sabotage the auction. The two statues have since been sitting in a safe room at Christie's auction house. According to a Reuters report, Berge has said he will return the two pieces to China only if the country guarantees human rights and allows the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, to return home. 