"...an ancient Persian "Ramayana" written in the early days of the Mughal Empire. The base price is 10 million rupees. Each increase in price shall not be less than 500,000 rupees. Interested parties are invited to start bidding now!"
"'Ramayana', if you look at the early Mughal Empire, it should be four hundred years old now, so it's quite a good thing!" Liu Dongxin said.
Ramayana and another longer Indian epic "Mahabharata" are the foundation of Indian culture and have played a considerable role in the development of Indian literature and religion. The Chinese literary work "Journey to the West" has also been influenced by
Its influence. Rama's status in Indian culture is even equivalent to Jesus' status in the culture of the Christian world.
"Ramayana" was originally circulated orally, with additions, deletions, and changes depending on people and places. After it was written, there was still no final version. It is generally accepted that among the seven chapters in the book, Chapters 1 and 7 were published later, and Chapters 2 to 6 were published later.
Chapter 1 is the original part of the whole book. Therefore, this epic poem containing 24,000 verses will never be completed at one time. It was written between the 3rd and 4th centuries BC and the 2nd century AD. The seven chapters of the book are arranged in sequence.
They are: "Childhood Chapter", "Ayotta Chapter", "Forest Chapter", "Monkey Kingdom Chapter", "Wonderful Chapter", "Battle Chapter" and "Last Chapter".
So far, the several treasures Liu Dong has found have made him quite rich in art collections from ancient India, ancient Greece, ancient Egypt, and European medieval and modern times. The number of ancient Indian art pieces is quite rare.
.So, when I came to India this time, in addition to looking for the real body relics of Sakyamuni that I wanted, the most important thing was to take the opportunity to search for a batch of ancient Indian artworks.
Now this "Ramayana" met his requirements, and because the value was not too high, he did not wait until the end. He raised his bidding sign directly after the auctioneer announced the start of the auction.
This time Liu Dong didn't pretend to be the world's richest man and used his money to win over others. He was still the same as most of the bidders, adding hundreds of thousands or millions of rupees.
Even so, there were still few people who could compete with him in the end.
For 18 million rupees, which is equivalent to a price of about 160,000 US dollars, Liu Dong took a photo of this good "Ramayana" from the early Mughal Empire.
The auction next to "Ramayana" is a bronze statue of Allah from the "Tughluq Dynasty" period of the Delhi Sultanate. The statue is about 50 centimeters high and has exquisite workmanship. It should be placed at home by wealthy people to pray.
Used when eating. The batter on it is quite thick and the quality is almost perfect.
The Delhi Sultanate is the collective name of the religious regional feudal state in North India that was ruled by Turkic and Afghan military aristocrats from the 13th to the 16th century. It was named after its capital, Delhi.
The "Tughluq Dynasty" was the third dynasty of the Delhi Sultanate. Its founder was Ghazi Tughluq. It existed in the 14th century and the early 15th century, for nearly a hundred years. It is equivalent to China's
Late Yuan and early Ming dynasties.
It is precisely because of this that the auction reserve price of this bronze statue of Allah, which has a history of more than 600 years, is nearly double that of the Ramayana that Liu Dong just acquired.
But even so, it is not a problem for Liu Dong, who has a bulging budget.
55 million rupees, he is still the final winner.
"Mr. Liu seems to be very interested in these ancient Indian works of art?" Said next to him asked with some curiosity as Liu Dong took two pictures in a row.
"Of course! I have a museum under my ownership! If we don't collect more collections, how will we attract tourists?"
"Yuanming Museum?"
"I didn't expect that Mr. Said who was far away in the Middle East also knew about it!"
"Haha, this is not surprising. Nowadays, the world's information is so advanced that a message can reach every corner of the earth in a few minutes at most. What's more, the Yuanming Museum owned by Mr. Liu is now famous in the world. The goddess of wisdom and the god of war
The chariot statue of Athena, the immortal masterpieces of the three Renaissance masters 'Michelangelo', 'Da Vinci' and 'Raphael', as well as the magical 'Yaochi Holy Land', 'Mermaid's Tears' and Kowloon
I have heard about the Jade Cup and Amber Dinosaur for a long time! ...It’s a pity that I can’t spare the time recently, otherwise I would definitely visit the Yuanming Museum in person!”
"Mr. Said, thank you! ... If you really go to visit the Yuanming Museum, I am willing to accompany you in person!" Liu Dong smiled.
"Then we've made a deal!" Said said with eyes shining.
"certainly!"
As soon as he finished speaking, Liu Dong frowned slightly.
"What's wrong?" Said asked quickly after noticing the change in Liu Dong's expression.
"Nothing, I just happened to come across a collection that interests me!"
After smiling, Liu Dong immediately turned his head and looked towards the auction table.
At this moment, a picture of a Buddha sculpture was displayed on the large screens on both sides of the auction table!
Judging from the appearance of this Buddha, he has obvious Greek-style curly hair, and the cassock on his body is also a Greek-style wide robe. It is obvious that this is the influence of Hellenism in Central Asia after Alexander's Eastern Expedition.
"A stone Buddha statue from the Gupta Dynasty in ancient India is priced at a low price of 30 million rupees. Each increase in price shall not be less than 1 million rupees. Interested parties are invited to bid now!"
"35 million rupees!" As soon as the auctioneer finished speaking, Liu Dong raised the bidding sign in his hand.
"Mr. No. 188 bids 35 million rupees. Is there anything higher?"
"Mr. Liu seems to have taken action a little too early this time?" Said said from the side.
"When I encounter something good, I can't help but want to get it first, so... I can't help it!" Liu Dong shrugged slightly.
"Then I congratulate Mr. Liu on achieving something again!"
"Thanks!"
After nodding, Liu Dong raised the bidding sign again, "40 million rupees!"
The high price instantly exceeded the previous highest price of 38 million rupees. Liu Dong, who competed entirely with strong capital and his prominent status, naturally attracted the attention of the audience.
Liu Dong's aggressiveness also made the local Indian wealthy frown.
This is India, not China!
But asking them to offend a world-class rich man with a promising future for a low-value Buddha statue is obviously unwilling to do so. Their efforts are seriously out of proportion to their gains.
Moreover, in India, Christianity and Hinduism are the fundamental religions, while Buddhism, which was once prosperous for a while, has long become a thing of the past.
It's just a Buddha statue. It's just a work of art at best. It has no spiritual appeal. Naturally, no one is willing to pay a high price for it.
“45 million rupees!”
Just when Liu Dong thought he had basically captured this Buddha statue from the Gupta Dynasty, a slightly shrill voice suddenly interrupted.
"Um?"
Frowning, Liu Dong looked in the direction of the sound. Immediately, he saw a young man wearing a brown suit, with a three-quarter hair style, a slightly pointed chin, tall cheekbones on both sides, and not too tall.
The man appeared in his eyes.
Perhaps feeling Liu Dong's gaze, the young man turned his head and smiled, nodded, and then turned his attention to the auction table again.
Facing the young man's friendly gesture, Liu Dong also nodded slightly towards the other man without saying much. Because he always felt that there was something different hidden behind the young man's show of goodwill.
"50 million rupees!" Liu Dong raised the bidding sign again. He would not give up so easily.
"55 million rupees!"
"Rs 60 million!"
“Rs 62 million!”
“Rs 65 million!”
In just ten minutes, the two people have made six or seven consecutive bids, and the price of this Hellenistic Buddha from the Gupta Dynasty in ancient India has more than doubled from the original price.
"Mr. Liu, the current bidding price has exceeded the market value of this Buddha statue!" Nancy couldn't help but said.
"I know!"
Looking at the unmoved Liu Dong, Nancy frowned and thought in her heart that Liu Dong was really money-burning, "Why didn't he stop earlier on such an obviously failed investment? Couldn't he see that that guy just
Are you simply asking him to pay a high price? The richest man in the world? Is this really his level?"
For any successful entrepreneur, an essential quality is not how talented he is in business management, but the ability to assess the situation at critical moments and calmly analyze any situation he encounters, whether it is success or failure.
and failure, and then choose the one that is most beneficial to you.
Obviously, Liu Dong's lack of calmness at this moment made Nancy a little disappointed in him.
Of course, Nancy was not the only one present who felt this way. But Liu Dong naturally had his reasons for doing so.
If it hadn't been for the relics in the mustard space that suddenly jumped twice for no reason when this picture of the Buddha statue appeared, Liu Dong would not have been so determined to get this Buddha statue.
According to past experience, anything that can cause the relics to beat is either a Buddha relic or a precious Buddhist treasure.
No matter which of these two things it is, Liu Dong cannot give up easily.
Moreover, 60 to 70 million rupees is only over one million US dollars, which is not even a drop in his bucket. Even if this number is doubled several times, it is far from being a squandering for him.
"100 million rupees!"
Liu Dong was too lazy to add more, so he raised the price to 100 million!
One hundred million and one million are two completely different equivalent units, and naturally the feelings they give people are completely different.
Almost all those who thought Liu Dong was a little uncool in his bidding just now are envious or even jealous of his 'rich wealth'.
And Liu Dong's determination to win this statue was fully revealed at this moment!