This time there was no need for the person in charge of the Christie's auction to signal, the auctioneer had already taken the initiative and said: "In 1860, the Second Opium War broke out. The British and French allied forces captured the capital of the Qing Empire and looted and burned the Old Summer Palace...!"
However, his unscrupulous publicity for the auction obviously angered all the wealthy Chinese present!
"Okay, you don't need to say anymore. We know China's history better than you do. We will not take pictures of these two animal heads from the Old Summer Palace. There was a shame more than a hundred years ago. We don't want them to be sold again.
Once!" A half-hundred-year-old man with gray hair and wearing a Chinese-style long coat interrupted the auctioneer and said with a serious expression.≥,
"That's right, we don't want the heads of the twelve zodiac animals in the Old Summer Palace this time, just take them!" A young man in a suit and leather shoes, about 30 years old, stood up and echoed loudly.
"What Mr. Wang means is what our American Chinese General Chamber of Commerce means. No one will take pictures of pig heads and tiger heads!" A middle-aged man also wearing a suit stood up and said seriously.
"Who do you think you are, and you Chinese are not the only ones participating in the Christie's auction, why can't we auction it!" Charles Kushner suddenly shouted.
Because he couldn't stand Liu Dong's relationship, he didn't even have a favorable impression of the Chinese who were of the same clan as Liu Dong.
But before he could finish speaking, the middle-aged man who had previously spoken on behalf of the Chinese Chamber of Commerce in the United States had turned his head and said coldly: "Try saying it again?"
"I……?"
Charles Kushner was about to speak when he suddenly discovered that at some point, almost all the wealthy Chinese people in the entire auction house had stood up. And all of them had serious faces and stared at him with cold eyes!
"This idiot, if the Kushner family's industry is handed over to him, he will soon be finished!" Steven Rockefeller said coldly.
Although China lost its status as the world's economic and cultural center hundreds of years ago, the influence of the Chinese in the world has not been reduced. On the contrary, with the rise of contemporary China, it has become even more powerful!
Moreover, in terms of the ability to get rich through hard work, the Chinese are not inferior to the Jews. Otherwise, Hong Kong and Singapore, which are just small places, would not have produced so many super-rich Chinese!
In the United States, although the wealth of a single Chinese rich man or family is not top-notch, the number is definitely large. If they join forces, even Morgan and Rockefeller will shy away! What's more, those whose assets do not exceed US$3 billion
The Kushner family!
"This stupid guy, it seems like I really need to teach him a lesson if I have the chance!" Liu Dong, who stood with his arms folded, stared at Charles Kushner with a cold expression and thought to himself.
However, the incident with Charles Kushner was just an incident. No matter how stupid he was, he knew that confronting so many wealthy Chinese people was tantamount to asking for trouble, so even if he was humiliated, he did not dare to say a word and sat there in despair.
Got off.
The other wealthy people in the auction hall knew Chinese history more or less, so they didn't say anything when faced with this situation. After all, this is about the history of humiliation of other countries. As long as they are not stupid, no one will stand up at this time.
Come out and oppose!
You know, this is not a matter of offending a person, but a major matter of offending an ethnic group and a country!
Faced with the joint efforts of more than 30 Chinese tycoons to force the emperor to surrender, Christie's auction house, which encountered this situation for the first time, quickly withdrew the two animal heads after urgent discussions.
Chinese art has always been the best-selling auction item at Christie's auction house. It has offended more and more wealthy Chinese who are becoming more and more financially powerful. How can they make any money in the future!
Moreover, Christie's auction house is now considering entering the Chinese market. If today's incident leaves a bad impression on the increasingly powerful Chinese government, then they will not even think about entering mainland China.
The increase in national strength has gradually changed many things that were not of much concern at first.
Chinese people abroad feel this change particularly strongly!
“Now let’s look at the fourth lot…!”
Because of what happened just now, the atmosphere in the auction hall was obviously depressed. Therefore, the twelve lots worth more than one million US dollars prepared by Christie's auction house in the morning were basically priced at or below the market price.
The price has been met!
After the twelve zodiac animal heads in the Old Summer Palace were forcibly rejected by the Chinese wealthy present, Liu Dong no longer kept the money in his hands. Finally, when the auction was about to end in the morning, Liu Dong spent US$80,000 to buy the Northern Song Dynasty
The great painter Wu Zongyuan's "Chaoyuan Immortal Battle Picture Scroll"!
Wu Zongyuan was a native of Baipo, Henan in the Northern Song Dynasty. He was good at painting Taoist and Buddhist figures. He once painted a large number of murals for temples in Kaifeng and Luoyang. He learned from Wu Daozi's method. His writing style is like flowing water, and his expression is active, which is generally like writing cursive script.
He has excellent writing skills. At the age of seventeen, he was able to draw the murals of Laozi Temple in Beiman Mountain, which is said to be "excellent".
During the reign of Zhao Heng and Jingde, Emperor Zhenzong of the Song Dynasty, in order to build the Yuqing Zhaoying Palace, he summoned three thousand painters from all over the world. Only more than a hundred painters were selected, and they were divided into two departments. Wu Zongyuan was appointed as the head of the left department, which shows his superb painting skills.
And his handed down work "Chaoyuan Immortal Battle Picture" volume, silk, ink pen, 58 cm in length, 777.5 cm in width, the characters are dignified and plump, with all kinds of manners, extraordinary appearance, without seals, it is a manuscript of a Taoist mural
This volume depicts the dueling procession of Taoist emperors and gods paying homage to Yuanshi Tianzun. There are 81 people in total. The characters are full of energy, their clothes are flying, and the lines are dense and smooth, with strong and smooth lines. At the back of the volume, there is a postscript written by Zhang Zimin in the eighth year of Qiandao in the Southern Song Dynasty.
There is also an inscription by Zhao Mengfu of the Yuan Dynasty!
Faced with this ancient painting that has been passed down for thousands of years, and it is also a large-scale masterpiece, Liu Dong originally thought that it would take a lot of effort to win, but he unexpectedly bought it for more than 2 million US dollars and more than 20 million Chinese coins.
Got it!
Although the price is not cheap compared to an ancient painting from the Song Dynasty, Liu Dong thinks it is a great value!
However, Liu Dong is not without regrets. Originally, after being the leader of the Twelve Beasts in the Old Summer Palace, he wanted to compete for the final auction of Vincent Van Gogh's famous painting "The Town Hall of Auvers"!
But I don’t know who bid over the phone and directly raised the price to a super high price of 90 million US dollars. This not only suppressed the super rich people in the auction hall, but also made Liu Dong sigh.
Excluding the US$100 million paid to Zhang Fan for acquiring New Line Films and investing in the stock market and futures, as well as the funds paid for the previously purchased artworks, the total money in Liu Dong's pocket is less than US$80 million!
Facing "Auvers City Hall", which has been ranked as one of the "Top Ten Most Valuable Oil Paintings in the World", Liu Dong was really helpless.
Fortunately, on the last day of this gathering of fine products, Liu Dong was not without gains!
John Constable, an academician of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts and the greatest British landscape painter in the 19th century, bought "The Unveiling of Waterloo Bridge" for US$21 million!
In addition, the bronze animal mask pattern Fang Yi from the Shang Dynasty was auctioned for US$950,000, the Xuande blue and white dragon vat from the imperial kiln of the Ming Dynasty "Yipin Palace Porcelain" was auctioned for US$2.8 million, and the calligraphy master of the Yuan Dynasty was auctioned for US$1.2 million.
Xian Yushu’s authentic copy of Laozi’s Tao Te Ching!
However, while buying these precious works of art, the money in Liu Dong's pocket has also been reduced from the original 220 million US dollars to the current 60 million US dollars!
However, the direct consequence of spending 60 million US dollars on the Christie's auction is that Liu Dong directly became a platinum member of Christie's. He can participate in any Christie's auction by phone from anywhere in the world, and can participate in social receptions organized by Christie's every year!
But in Liu Dong's opinion, these are all meaningless things. Although Christie's auction is good, but even without this card, with his wealth, this kind of opportunity is just "come and go"
stuff.
As for the social reception organized by Christie's, even if he was invited to go, Liu Dong might not have time!
In general, these benefits are not as real as the 10% discount for Liu Dong.
But he also knew that it would be too difficult for these profit-seeking businessmen to get even a tiny bit of profit out of them!
At the banquet in the evening, as expected, Del. Roosevelt and Steven Rockefeller III became the center of attention.
Although there are many political and economic families in the United States that can compare with them, the children of the top wealthy families in the United States, such as Morgan and Rockefeller, generally lead a low-key life, which is comparable to that of some ordinary American wealthy people.
For example, they rarely appear in the public eye. After all, Americans also have a class that hates the rich.
If it were not to support Liu Dong this time, Del. Roosevelt would not appear directly at the auction. Even if he participated in the Christie's auction, he would be contacted by phone.
The same was true for Steven Rockefeller III, but he wanted the key in Liu Dong's hand, so he also appeared here.
The appearance of the two people directly ignited the desire of many American wealthy people present to get to know each other so as to pave the way for their futures.
Of course, many people came over to chat with Liu Dong, but compared to the crowds surrounding Del Roosevelt and Steven Rockefeller, they were far behind.
"Mr. Liu...!"
Hearing the voice, Liu Dong turned around and looked with curiosity. What appeared in front of him was the second young man in his thirties who stood up at the auction in the morning to support the old man named Wang and let the Old Summer Palace beast pass the auction.
Precisely because of this incident, Liu Dong had a pretty good impression of this person, so his attitude seemed more polite!
………………………………………………………………………………………………(To be continued……)