Eight hundred and ninetieth eight chapters still too young
In order to ask everyone present not to spread the news about today's incident, Geng Changgui hurriedly toasted another glass of wine. When everyone nodded and promised not to spread the matter, he sat down gratefully.
Looking at Geng Changgui who looked shabby, several old neighbors of similar status all had their own mixed thoughts in their hearts. They all felt that Geng Changgui had brought it upon himself and could not blame others.
But everyone knows Geng Changgui very well. He is a very shrewd person and has never suffered losses. This time he suffered such a big loss. It can be said that this is the first time in his life.
I wanted to suppress the newly opened Zhuoyue antique store and stepped on it, but instead I dug a bloody hole in my foot. Not only did I set up a table to apologize, but I also paid a million yuan in compensation. It can be said that it was a blood loss.
The reason for this result is that Geng Changgui was stupid this time and didn't find the right person, or... the young owner of Zhuo Zhuo Antique Shop is not a good person?
No matter what, with Geng Changgui's lesson learned, no one present dared to look down on Xue Chen and Zhuo Zhuo Antique Shop anymore.
After leaving the hotel, Xue Chen did not meet at Jingjia No. 6. Instead, he came to the store and sat down with Li Lingchun, each holding a cup of hot tea and chatting comfortably.
"Boss, if I remember correctly, this is your fourth branch, right?" Li Lingchun asked.
Xue Chen rarely saw Li Lingchun ask about his personal affairs: "Uncle Li is right, it's the fourth family, what's wrong?"
"Nothing, I'm just curious about how you got so many antiques to support four antique stores. I've heard someone say that your four branches were all opened in the past two years." Li Lingchun said curiously.
Xue Chen understood the meaning of Li Lingchun's words. An antique store is engaged in the buying and selling of antiques, but generally speaking, there must be more sold than bought. There needs to be other channels to keep the price slightly lower than the market.
Only by filling the goods at a reasonable price can the antique store operate normally. If you don’t have antiques to sell, why would you open an antique store?
The number of antiques sold by the four antique stores every year is not a small number, so more channels are needed, which is not an easy task, and many antique stores chained across the country have been around for more than ten years.
With a history and stable channels, we have been expanding our territory bit by bit. Opening one branch in a year is considered very fast. If we open four stores in two years, we can't find a second one.
When Li Lingchun mentioned the channel, he smiled bitterly: "Uncle Li, what you are talking about is exactly what I am worried about. Now the four stores are generally unable to make ends meet. The goods in several stores are very low."
I got most of them from the market myself, so I scraped together some here and there to make ends meet."
He is really a little anxious. The four stores can still be maintained now, but they are getting increasingly stretched. When there is really no antiques to sell, that will be the worst.
"It's hard to open an antique shop now." Li Lingchun lamented, "It's not like it was twenty or thirty years ago, when people didn't have a very clear concept of antiques. The prices of antiques on the market were relatively low, and sober-minded people
They buy in large quantities, even thousands of pieces in a few years, which is very impressive, but after all, there are only a few people like that."
"Yes, it's very impressive." Xue Chen also admitted that he was able to have the courage and vision to enter the market when the antique market was still cold, and those who purchased large quantities at low prices were really awesome.
At that time, antiques were either antiques or junk. As long as you had money, you could buy any treasure. Just thinking about it made me feel envious. Unlike now, when all the people collect, even the farmers in the most remote mountainous areas know that antiques are valuable.
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Therefore, now is the golden period of the antiques industry, but it is also the period of fiercest competition. Those who are capable can make a lot of money, while those who are not can just stand by.
"There are too few channels to get good things now. A snuff bottle of ordinary quality during the Republic of China would cost more than 100,000 yuan." Li Lingchun sighed, "The domestic market is booming, but a large number of foreigners are cheaper.
Ah, you should also pay close attention to the news. Nowadays, cultural relics lost overseas are bought back at high prices every year."
Xue Chen nodded silently. Of course he knew that in recent years, several related news had been reported every year. Large domestic collectors auctioned antiques lost overseas for hundreds of millions, although those were indeed national treasures.
It's a good thing, but whether it's really worth the price is a matter of opinion. Anyway, he wouldn't do it. It's not that he has no money to play, but it feels meaningless, and he feels like being treated as a fool by foreigners.
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Those cultural relics all passed away from China in the early 20th century. They were shipped overseas in batches at the price of Chinese cabbage, almost like cutting leeks. Now a century has passed, but they are bought back at a sky-high price of millions of times. I don’t know who else
No matter how he felt, he felt very uncomfortable.
"I have read reports that our country has lost as many as 10 million precious cultural relics overseas. Oh, what a crime." Li Lingchun shook his head and sighed, "You know Lu Qinzhai, right?"
"Lu Qinzhai?"
Bar."
Ordinary people have definitely never heard of the name Lu Qinzhai, but if you know something about cultural relics from the Republic of China period, you will definitely not be able to avoid this person.
Many people know that Wang Yuanlu, the Taoist priest Wang who sold the national treasure murals and scriptures of the Dunhuang Grottoes to the British Stein, are all gnashing their teeth and wishing they could dig them out of their graves and whip them into corpses.
When Stein first arrived at the Mogao Grottoes, he used four pieces of horseshoe silver weighing a total of 200 taels to cheat him into buying four boxes of ancient scriptures and five boxes of Buddhist paintings, textiles and embroidery.
The following year, the French also came after hearing the news and bought 6,000 volumes of printings, scriptures, documents, Buddhist paintings, etc. for 500 taels of silver.
A few years later, the Japanese also came. Yoshikawa Koichiro came to Mogao Grottoes and bought more than 400 volumes of scriptures with 350 taels of silver.
Then Stein, who had tasted the sweetness, came back again and once again fraudulently bought a large number of Buddhist scriptures and murals...
Whether he saw it in textbooks when he was a student or read it in some books after graduation, whenever he saw these contents, Xue Chen felt very uncomfortable, panicked, and even wanted to curse others.
But honestly speaking, this is not Taoist Wang's fault. This person has repeatedly asked Qing officials to protect the Mogao Grottoes and repair them, and even wrote to the Empress Dowager Cixi.
Don't care about little things.
Xue Chen still had some sympathy for Taoist Wang, but he had no sympathy for Lu Qinzhai. Lu Qinzhai was a smuggler through and through.
Taking advantage of the collapse of the Qing government, when the Beiyang government came to power and people's hearts were unstable, Lu Qinzhai purchased ancient and rare treasures at low prices, and then sold them to the European market, making a huge profit. The most notorious one was "Sa", one of the six horses in the Zhaoling Mausoleum of Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty.
The stone carvings of "Luzi" and "Fisting Horse" were sold abroad, and the other four were confiscated, so they failed.
This man smuggled and sold countless statues, stone carvings, bronzes, and jades from before the Ming Dynasty throughout his life. A large number of them were stolen and excavated from the tombs of successive emperors here, causing huge losses to the country's culture, archeology, and identification.
Edward Kermain is now considered a relatively famous antique smuggler in the world, but compared with Lu Qinzhai, he is far behind.
During the national crisis, some people resold scarce supplies to make money from the national crisis, and Lu Qinzhai was like this. Later, this person settled in France and entered the upper class society. He wore suits, drank coffee, liked horse racing, lived a comfortable life, and wanted to have a son.
Inheriting the mantle and family property, but gave birth to four daughters in succession...
On the way back from the store on foot, Xue Chen still felt a little aggrieved. He couldn't help laughing and shaking his head. He secretly sighed that he was still too young and was still a bit angry. However, he couldn't help but have an idea in his heart. If he could save the money lost overseas,
It would be great if we could take back those precious antiques.
After returning to his residence, Xue Chen first went back to the room and took a shower. When he came to the living room, he saw Du Tao watching TV, and it was a Korean drama. He felt bored, so he turned around and planned to go back to the room.
"Hey, let's sit here and watch TV together for a while." Du Tao called.
"Look, I'm not interested in Korean dramas. I'll go back to my room and read a book." Xue Chen said.
"Hey, you didn't love reading so much when you were in college. Instead, you love reading after graduation?" Du Tao said with a smile.
Xue Chen stopped and turned around: "You are right, books are rarely used when they are used. Now I regret wasting so much good time in college."
This is not hypocritical. Antique appraisal relies on eyesight, which accumulates over time and increases experience, but the content of knowledge determines the upper limit. If a person cannot even understand the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, how can he do a good appraisal? It is simply impossible.
It has been more than a year since he graduated from college, but he has read almost a hundred books in this year or so, which is more than he has read in the entire college period.
Even though Yan Ruxing and Shen Wanjun are already very old and neither of them has gone to college, he often sees them reading books or even browsing some information online. This is the fundamental reason why the two of them can make Wan Rui and Daxing bigger.
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"Well, let's not watch Korean dramas anymore. Let's just find something that can increase our knowledge. I can't start work until a few days later. I'm so bored with my free time. You've been out early and come back late these days. It's hard to come back. I have to say
Two sentences, otherwise I would be worried that my language skills would deteriorate." Du Tao said helplessly.
Xue Chen walked back and sat down and searched for programs, and found one he was interested in. It was a column about appraising antiques, called "National Collection".
"I've seen this show, and it's pretty good. Let me tell you, if someone brings a baby to the show, if it's authentic, an expert will issue a certificate. If it's fake, they'll smash it with a hammer on the spot.
Yes, sometimes I have to watch more than a dozen of them in one episode, it’s fun to watch." Du Tao said excitedly.
"But it's not yours to see the damage. Of course it's fun." Xue Chen replied to Du Tao. (To be continued)