'my patriotic duty; now i am 40 million USD in debt'

Well, the chinese patriot who ordered those art heads of long ago and now refuses to pay won't be very welcome in some western countries.  my small hope is that he will be refused entry to all other nations, except of course, north korea, china's good friend in communism.  i will also find it interesting to learn the comments of the chinese govt on such 'law abiding' citizens who make a contract to buy then refuse to pay.  i also suspect many chinese 'netizens' will be highly supporting of this method of business.  i have no indication the art heads ever left france, so no damage done.  another day a new auction will see those metal heads sold and paid for. 

Making a contract to purchase things and then refusing to pay the invoice as contracted is a fine old Chinese business practice...it's RAMPANT here. Enforcement of contracts is difficult when it's possible at all. Furthermore, domestic producers are required by law to sell on credit to companies in certain industry sectors, even if they're bound to get stiffed on the bill...

Foreign exporters can at least structure contracts so that the Letters of Credit don't clear until the goods have been inspected and loaded for shipping. Domestic producers are just plain ol' up the creek.

Explains why so many of my Chinese friends had zero interest in domestic business...