Comment 4 for bug 1168782

Just curious: did you also file a radar report for Apple's Preview.app? On OS X 10.7.5, Apple's 'Preview' application renders the AI file like Inkscape does, i.e. the same page size (63.83 × 48.1 cm, or 1809.17 × 1363.36 pt), and the same amount of objects on the page.

Note I: testing different 'Clip to' options in Inkscape's PDF import dialog does influence which objects are visible on-canvas when opening the file in Inkscape, but AFAICT it has no effect on the page size and the absolute position of the objects on that page size. Possibly Illustrator stores different information in different portions of the AI file (AI files are PDF (readable by Inkscape) + embedded binary data proprietary to Adobe Illustrator (PGF data), which AFAIU cannot be parsed by Inkscape).

Note II: I don't own a copy of Adobe Illustrator, and cannot test what custom information about the page size it stores in the provided AI file.