Zhuang Rui knew from Bonadette's action of taking out these six volumes of "Yongle Dadian" that the old man's ancestors must have participated in the Eight-Power Allied Forces. Objects like this were hidden deep in the inner palace.
, except for the catastrophe that year, there is almost no possibility of it being lost abroad.
There are really countless national treasures that were lost back then. Someone once made a rough statistics. At least one million pieces of antique cultural relics accumulated by China's thousands of years of civilization are in museums or private collections around the world. Many of them are even in China.
Some exquisite items that you can never see.
Zhuang Rui is not an angry young man. He also knows that he cannot return all these national treasures to the country with his own efforts. But now that he has encountered it, Zhuang Rui does not want to let it go. Then again, although his museum is famous, the collection of
There are really too few of them. Bringing back some items from abroad can enrich your own collection of exquisite items.
This time I came to Las Vegas, although I didn't win the billions as expected, but the more than 700 million US dollars on hand was the largest amount Zhuang Rui had come into contact with so far, even if he gave Huangfu hundreds of millions
Yun used it for his charity foundation, and the remaining money was more than enough to buy some antiques.
"Want to visit my collection room?"
Bonadette was stunned for a moment when he heard Zhuang Rui's request, and then said with a smile: "No problem, but Zhuang, you have to spare two days..."
"Two days?"
Zhuang Rui was a little puzzled. Although his collection in Dingguang Museum in Beijing was not as good as those in national museums, it was definitely not much smaller than private collections. Even so, if you look faster, it would only take two hours.
I can finish shopping.
And Bonadette said that it would take two days to see his collection, which meant that Bonadette's collection was at least dozens of times larger than Zhuang Rui's. Zhuang Rui was quite dissatisfied because he was a big British collector.
Ezkenna did not dare to boast such a reputation in front of him.
Danny, who was next to Bonadette, saw the disapproval look on Zhuang Rui's face and said with a smile: "Mr. Zhuang, Mr. Bonadette has a large manor, which is full of his treasures from
There are more than 400,000 cultural relics from all over the world, and I’m afraid it would take two days to see them all…”
As Bernadette's senior personal assistant, Danny happens to help Bernadette manage these collections, so he knows Bernadette's huge collection well, which is why he can participate in this auction.
one.
"Four...more than 400,000 pieces?!"
Since entering this venue, Zhuang Rui, who had always been calm and composed when meeting his former idol, finally changed his expression after hearing this number.
Since the establishment of the museum, Zhuang Rui has worked hard to acquire antiques everywhere, and has accumulated more than 10,000 pieces in the collection, and there are not all exquisite items in the collection, but also many dross items that cannot be displayed. Even so, Zhuang Rui's museum has been
International appraisal agencies have estimated the value to be more than three billion US dollars.
And Bonadette's collection is more than thirty times that of Zhuang Rui. Even if there are only one-third of the valuable objects in it, then he has a net worth of tens of billions of dollars just from the collection, and this
It's not a money-making industry, it's just Bonadette's private collection.
Danny's words made Zhuang Rui realize the gap between himself and the world's super rich. Zhuang Rui, who originally felt that he had achieved a small amount of achievements, was now sweating on his forehead. He dared not mention his actions in the museum several times before.
It's all Lu Ban who plays with a big ax in front of Guan Gong, and Guan Gong with a big sword in front of him.
"Grandma, aren't they all stolen by our ancestors?"
Zhuang Rui cursed secretly in his heart and found some balance for himself, otherwise there is nothing he can do. Zhuang Rui has always been proud of the museum collection, but it is not as much as other people's. This is too damn good.
It hits people.
"Gentlemen and ladies, the item that will be photographed below also comes from the mysterious country in the East...China. This is a metal tool used by ancient Chinese people to smoke clothes or for decoration and to worship God. They love Chinese art.
Dear friends, you can prepare to bid..."
Just when Zhuang Rui felt a little embarrassed about his gaffe, William's voice rang out from the auction stage, which immediately made Zhuang Rui forget about Bonadette's collection of more than 400,000 yuan, and he was very confused, because he
I didn’t hear it, what exactly was William describing?
"What is this thing used for worshiping God?"
Ancient Chinese only worshiped ghosts and gods. Although foreign missionaries have entered China since the Ming Dynasty, the Chinese ruling class has always restricted their development. Even during the enlightened Kangxi period, foreign missionaries had no room for survival in China.
It was not until after the 18th century that China's national power declined, especially during the Opium War when the British used cannons and ships to knock on the country's door. Then worshiping God became popular. After hearing William's words, Zhuang Rui guessed in his heart: "Is it possible?
Could it be objects used in Chinese churches in the 18th century? But these things are not of high value..."
"Shit, is this for worshiping God?"
After Zhuang Rui saw the thing that was placed in the crystal display case and pushed in, he couldn't help but stare. Are you kidding? This... isn't this just an incense burner?
However, Zhuang Rui also understood what William meant. In his eyes, the Chinese people's act of worshiping gods and Buddhas was worshiping God. This foreigner was arrogant and believed that there was no other faith in the world except Jesus.
After despising William, Zhuang Rui focused his attention on the display cabinet, looked at it carefully, and couldn't help but move in his heart.
The shape of this object is a Ming Dynasty Xuande furnace made with two techniques of sprinkling gold and interlacing gold. It has an open mouth with round lips, a short and thin neck, a flat and bulging belly, and the furnace body is carved with dragons and phoenixes, with a total of blue, yellow, gold and purple.
There are four colors. At first glance, the entire device has a crystal texture and a simple shape, which makes it look like a return to nature.
The furnace body is golden yellow except for the embroidery and sprinkling of gold. It looks shiny and golden. There is a hard layer of ancient ancient materials on the surface. The color is moist and delicate. There seems to be a strange light coming from the inside, which makes people feel the charm.
endless.
"Imitation of Xuande stove?"
Without using the aura in his eyes, Zhuang Rui was a little unsure. The production and smelting methods of the Xuande Furnace were very particular. Generally speaking, copperware only required four smeltings, but the Xuande Furnace required twelve smeltings, and it was also imported from Siam.
Red copper, as well as dozens of precious metals such as iron, aluminum, gold, silver, etc., the process is very cumbersome and complicated.
It can be said that, except for the first smelting in the Xuande period, the Xuande furnaces produced in the middle and late Ming Dynasty are all imitations. Although they can be called Xuande furnaces, they are far from the original ones.
.
After hundreds of years of ups and downs, the genuine copper incense burner cast in the third year of Xuande is extremely rare. Even the imitation Xuande burners in later generations are expensive, and the fine ones are even more sought after.
Just last year, the China Guardian Autumn Auction concentrated on auctioning a batch of Xuande furnaces collected by the famous collector Wang Shixiang. One of them was an imitation of the "Soaring Ear Gold Piece" in regular script inscribed with "Chongzhen Ren Wu Dong Yue Qing Lai Supervision" in regular script.
A later imitation of the "Three-Legged Xuande Stove" sold for nearly 2 million RMB at auction.
Generally speaking, as long as the style and design of the imitation Xuande furnace has the characteristics of the mid-Ming Dynasty such as patina and copper, its price will be more than 100,000 yuan. It is especially loved by collectors in Hong Kong and Taiwan, and the price has been rising in recent years.
Precisely because of the rarity of genuine Xuande incense burners, in order to make huge profits, from the Xuande period of the Ming Dynasty to the Republic of China, antique dealers continued to imitate Xuande incense burners.
These carefully cast imitation Xuande incense burners are comparable to the real ones and cannot be distinguished by expert authorities. So far, among the many Xuande incense burners collected in major domestic museums, none of them can be recognized by many connoisseurs as the real Xuande incense burner.
Identifying the authentic Xuande furnace has become one of the "unsolved cases" in Chinese archeology.
The Xuande furnaces produced in the third year of Xuande with gold sprinkling and gold inlay techniques are only legendary. What can be seen on the market now are basically from the middle and late Ming dynasty and the third dynasty of the Qing dynasty.
, so Zhuang Rui couldn't tell the authenticity just by looking at it with his eyesight.
Zhuang Rui has also seen a lot of Xuande furnaces in China, but they are all imitations. You can tell them from the color and strength of the aura. Most of them are works from the late Ming Dynasty and early Qing Dynasty, so he can see
Zhuang Rui didn't pay much attention to this object. You must know that during the Qing Dynasty, most of the Xuande furnaces used in the palace were imitations. What the Eight-Nation Allied Forces took away may not be the real Xuande furnace.
"Huh?"
However, since the Xuande furnace appeared, Zhuang Rui still released a trace of spiritual energy and escaped into the crystal display cabinet. When the spiritual energy in his eyes just touched the gold Xuande furnace, Zhuang Rui was stunned for a moment.
Zhuang Rui has owned aura for such a long time, and has also classified the colors reflected by aura. In his classification, most of the aura colors displayed by objects in the Ming Dynasty are red. Early objects
The red color is slightly purple, but the Xuande furnace in this glass cabinet is so purple that no trace of red can be seen at all.
"Could it be...that this is the real Xuande stove made during the Xuande period?"
Zhuang Rui felt the rich aura and deep purple color in his eyes, and an idea came to his mind. In his experience in using aura to identify objects over the past few years, the aura strength and color of the object exceeded what it appeared to be.
At that time, there was only one explanation, and that was that this item was definitely a fine product produced at that time.
It's just that although Zhuang Rui has possessed spiritual energy for several years, he has never been able to effectively use spiritual energy to detect the specific age of objects. In response to this phenomenon, Zhuang Rui guessed that the strength of spiritual energy and the intensity of color in objects may be played by people.
Of course, this is just Zhuang Rui's guess.
However, even if it is a guess, Zhuang Rui is still very excited, because among the Xuande furnaces he has seen, only this one is most like the authentic Xuande furnace. Perhaps after buying it back and conducting research, he can reveal the difference between the authentic Xuande furnace and the fake Xuande furnace.
difference.
"This metal vessel for worshiping God is beautifully made and is still shining brightly after six or seven hundred years. It is said to have been used by emperors in ancient China. Its base auction price is US$200,000, and each increase is US$10,000.
, ladies and gentlemen, if you are interested, you can bid..."
After William gave a brief explanation of the Xuande stove, he offered the lowest price. However, the response at the scene was not as enthusiastic as William imagined. For more than a minute after William shouted, the entire
The banquet hall was silent.
William was a little anxious. The auctions of the few books just now were probably so hot. They were all ancient Chinese cultural relics. Why was this incense burner so uninterested? After William coughed, he said loudly: "Gentlemen and ladies, what is the value of this item?"
The bottom auction price is so low, there is definitely huge potential for value-added, are there any friends who are interested?”
However, after William emphasized the preciousness of this incense burner, no one bid, and more people simply turned their attention away from the incense burner.
In fact, William made a fundamental mistake, that is... he should not say that the price of this item is low, because in this venue, including international movie stars and directors, all have net worths of more than ten million US dollars.
Rich man.
Just now, Zhuang Rui made an extraordinary move and spent 30 million US dollars to buy ancient books. Now if he bids for these 200,000 to 300,000 US dollars items, these super rich people will inevitably feel that they have no shame in their faces. To use a popular saying in the past few years,
, when they buy things on such occasions, they only buy expensive ones and not the right ones. They cannot afford to embarrass this person!
Another important factor is that William made a mistake in his explanation. When foreigners worship God, they worship the one on the cross. There is no tradition of offering incense and worshiping. At most, they just chant a few words of prayer.
Therefore, people who believe in Jesus do not think that these things are used to worship God.
As for the oil tycoons of the Arab Kingdom, they are believers in Islam. They only believe in the one God, Allah, and have no interest in this incense burner. If it were photographed, it would definitely be a kind of blasphemy against Allah.
Therefore, the combination of these factors has led to a very rare phenomenon in private charity auctions. No one bids. Usually out of politeness, the guests will not let the items taken out by the host pass the auction, but this item
It was a bit special. Until William started shouting again, the people below were still showing little interest.
Zhuang Rui had been immersed in appreciating this Xuande furnace just now. He raised his head and saw that the venue was completely silent. No one was bidding. He couldn't help but be stunned for a moment, and then he was overjoyed. Although he failed to use it, he observed it through his eyes.
, this object is most likely the real Xuande furnace!
"Two hundred thousand dollars..."
Zhuang Rui raised his right hand number plate. His action almost made William burst into tears. Just now, William almost thought that he had failed because of the failure of his first private charity auction.
