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Chapter 662: The Tsarina’s Shipwreck Treasure
…
"The story of this treasure has to start more than two hundred years ago. In 1771, when the Russian Empire was expanding its territory and at its peak of glory, the Empress Catherine II sent an envoy to the Russian Empire at the end of July of that year.
The auction house in Amsterdam purchased a large number of precious porcelain, gold, silver and copper products, as well as 27 oil paintings created by Dutch masters. The treasures were carefully selected and priced at a high price to be collected by the Tsar in the newly built Egyptian Palace in St. Petersburg.
In the Hermitage Museum, the schooner 'Lady Maria' departing from Amsterdam is loaded with precious porcelain, gold, silver, and famous paintings and works of art!" Li Yan said.
"Is this ship sinking?" Fang Zhonghua said, sitting next to Liu Dong.
"That's right, 28 days after leaving Amsterdam, the 'Maria Madame' encountered a storm in the waters near Finland (then part of Sweden) and ran aground on the island of Julm!"
"Stranded? Then there was no salvage later? This is a ship full of treasures!" Liu Dong said.
Hearing this, after looking at him, Li Yan continued: "Of course the Tsar will not abandon her treasure ship. After the sinking of the Lady Maria, Catherine II organized several salvages. It is a pity that
Every time, there was no success, and then the matter was dropped!"
"It's only been a few hundred years. People have never forgotten this sunken ship full of Tsar's wealth. Therefore, the exploration of its specific sunken location has not stopped for hundreds of years. Until June 28, 1999, sonar detection in Finnish waters
The 'Lady Maria' was found. All the measurement data were consistent with the data. The 43-meter deep seawater formed a protective layer, allowing her to sleep for 228 winters without being damaged by ice. The fully loaded cabin was filled with antiques and works of art.
!Based on the information left behind from that year, relevant organizations speculate that the wealth on the Lady Maria is worth at least 1 billion euros!"
"Hey, is it worth so much?" Everyone was stunned!
Li Yan nodded and said with a hint of longing on his face: "Yes, and it's a conservative estimate! You are also in the antique business. Although most of them are mainly engaged in the appraisal of domestic cultural relics, but I want to deal with Rembrandt.
Huo Yan and other oil painting masters are no strangers either!"
Of course you are no stranger to Rembrandt Harmansson Van Rijn. He studied under P. Lastman in his early years and opened a studio in his hometown in 1625. He painted a wide range of genres and was good at portraits, landscapes, genre paintings, and religious paintings.
Historical paintings, etc. In the creation of oil paintings and prints, Rembrandt showed his perfect grasp of classical imagery, while adding his own experience and observation. Because of this power of empathy, he was called the "prophet of civilization"
", one of the greatest painters in Europe in the 17th century. He is also the greatest painter in Dutch history.
Hoyen, one of the founders of Dutch realist landscape painting in the 17th century.
Liu Dong is very familiar with these two people, and every one of their paintings at auction can easily fetch tens of millions of dollars. Especially Rembrandt, none of his fine oil paintings is worth less than 20 million pounds!
Obviously, the auction items that can be valued by Tsar Catherine II must be the best among the best!
"In addition, I heard from the newspaper that among the 27 paintings on the sunken Lady Maria, one of them was an oil painting created by a Dutch court painter, which caused competition between the two royal families of France and Tsarist Russia, and the transaction price set a sky-high price record at the time.
Madame Bidou once wanted to buy this painting as a gift to her lover, King Louis XV of France, but in the end it was snapped up by Empress Catherine II of Russia for 15,000 guldin (gold coins). If converted in current currency
If so, the price would be as high as 100 million euros, which can be said to be an incredible price even now. From this, you can also imagine how valuable this sunken ship is!" said Li Yan.
When everyone was sighing, Liu Dong was equally surprised, but he still had a question, "Secretary Li, the sunken ship Lady Maria has been buried deep in the sea for more than two hundred years. Even if these oil paintings are valuable, they should be
It must have turned into ashes a long time ago! After all, paper is not gold, silver, copper, or iron. Without protection, it will not survive for long in the water!"
After listening to Liu Dong's words, everyone reacted immediately. As antique appraisal experts, they quickly realized this problem.
"Haha, don't worry about this. Before being shipped, the oil paintings were placed in lead boxes and sealed with wax. Moreover, the location of the sunken ship is only 43 meters, which is not too deep. Therefore, according to expert estimates, these precious oil paintings have not been destroyed.
Seawater damage!" Li Yan said.
"If that's the case, then this sunken ship is really tempting!"
"Of course, if it wasn't tempting, I'm afraid there wouldn't be this parade in front of us!"
Listening to the discussions around him, Li Yan nodded and continued: "Although the sunken ship of the Lady Maria has just been found, the wealth is still at the bottom of the sea, and many countries involved in it have already had disputes about the sunken ship of the Lady Maria.
The location was located 43 meters off the coast of Sweden at that time, and this area of sea now belongs to Finland. According to Finnish law, anything that has stayed in Finnish waters for more than 100 years is officially owned by Finland."
"However, the Russian Empire signed a 'true document' when purchasing these treasures - the contract stated that the contents on the ship belonged to Russia. When this agreement was signed, Finland was still part of the Russian Empire. The Netherlands believed that the treasures on the ship ultimately belonged to them.
, because the 'Lady Maria' is a Dutch merchant ship. So now three countries are arguing over this matter. As for the salvage, we don't know when it will be!"
After Li Yan finished speaking, Liu Dong's eyes lit up and he quickly said: "Secretary Li, do you mean that this ship is still sinking at the bottom of the sea and no one has salvaged it?"
Although he didn't understand why Liu Dong's tone was so urgent, Li Yan still nodded.
"What? Xiaodong, are you still planning to dig out the treasure?" Fang Zhonghua said with a smile.
"Isn't it possible?" Liu Dong asked.
Such a treasure ship is still sinking in the sea, and it is not owned by his own country. How can Liu Dong not covet it?
"Haha, the location of the sunken ship has been monitored by the Finnish police. Although private exploration is not prohibited, the salvage ship will not be able to get through!" Li Yan said with a smile.
Hearing this, Liu Dong nodded and didn't say anything. Unless it was a deep sea of more than 300 meters, he wouldn't need a salvage boat at all. He only relied on his strong physical fitness, ability to hold his breath for a long time, and the relic Yuanguang.
With the existence of Mustard Seed Space, he can loot any sunken ship!
However, although Liu Dong has already pulled this sunken ship into his bowl, he is now acting collectively with everyone, and the specific time to plan this sunken ship needs to be discussed in the long term!
After waiting for more than ten minutes, the parade on the street finally passed, and the street became smooth again. Soon the group arrived at the hotel they had booked in advance. Originally, according to regulations, the food, clothing, housing and transportation this time were all arranged by the association, but
As a wealthy man, Liu Dong was used to sleeping in a single room by himself, so he asked Lin Ling to book a luxury suite for him in advance.
This treatment made Fang Zhonghua, who originally slept with him in a two-person suite, envious. After he sent this guy away with the promise of three big meals, Liu Dong took out the newspaper he had just bought in the hotel lobby.
Looking at the above special introduction about the sinking of the "Lady Maria", Liu Dong's heart became increasingly hot.
There are 27 masterpieces handed down by contemporary masters such as Rembrandt and Hoyan, and there may even be unpublished works of the masters hidden among them!
In addition, there are hundreds of bronze sculptures, hundreds of pieces of porcelain and countless gold and silver coins on the ship.
"If I can get these priceless antiques, it will lay the foundation for the Western Pavilion of the Old Summer Palace Museum in the future. I think with them as a foundation when the time comes, the application for the reconstruction of the Old Summer Palace will be more easily approved!" Liu Dong thought to himself.
In addition, Liu Dong wants to build the Old Summer Palace Museum into a world-class large-scale museum comparable to the British Museum, Louvre Museum, etc. To achieve this goal, it is obvious that only Chinese cultural relics are required!
…
In order to catch up on jet lag, everyone rested in the hotel on the first day after arriving in the Netherlands. Although Liu Dong didn't feel much, he didn't go out because he was too unfamiliar with Amsterdam.
Early the next morning, as soon as Liu Dong had breakfast, Fang Zhonghua came to the door and said, "Xiaodong, let's go, I will take you to a good place!"
"Aren't you unable to speak out today?" Liu Dong said in surprise.
Because most of the people in the Collection Association are old men in their fifties and sixties, their physical fitness is obviously not comparable to that of young people like them, so without two more days of rest, the body and spirit cannot recover!
"Do you want to stay in the hotel all day? Let's go, let's have free time today!" With that, Fang Zhonghua pulled Liu Dong's arm and the two of them went out.
As the capital of the Netherlands, Amsterdam is so famous in the eyes of any man, and even longed for in his heart, because it is the most open sexual capital in the world. However, the destination of Fang Zhonghua and Liu Dong is not De Wallen, where the red light district is located, but
Museumplein in the center of Amsterdam.
There are more than 60 large and small museums here, including the Rijksmuseum of the Netherlands and the famous Van Gogh Museum, which collect various artworks including gold and silver products, sculptures, glass products, porcelain, etc. from the Dutch Golden Age, as well as
Famous paintings by world-famous painters such as Rembrandt, Van Gogh, and Gauguin.
However, the plan to visit the museum has to wait until tomorrow. Liu Dong and Fang Zhonghua came to Museum Square today mainly because it also has the largest number of antique shops in the Netherlands!
Anyone planning to travel with the purpose of picking up leaks, this is the right place!
………………………………………………………………………… (To be continued, please search Piao Tian Literature, the novel will be better and updated faster!