Chapter 1768 (1/2)
“。。。 Red sandalwood inlaid with three pieces of jade, i.e. one handle, yellow thread spike and two coral beans, are well preserved.
This is a pair of copper filigree enamel cranes. The enamel base is intact...
The photos at the back of the atlas are Zhou Pan's kuiding, a bronze filigree enamel animal face double ring Zun, a blue and white half wall moon vase, a blue and Han jade hanging Bi, a pair of bronze enamel square bottles, a pair of copper enamel double tube Zun, and a pair of glass flowers. One piece of fixed porcelain, one piece of marble fairy screen, one side of Songhua stone warm inkstone, one piece of blue jade vase with halberd and square cover
Andy sits on a chair in the library of highcliff castle, his eyes squinting. He has stood beside him. Christian keeps turning over a color photo album on the table, introducing him the name of each antique.
”How many did you find this time?” Andy reached for the album and looked at the pictures above. He asked with a slight frown.
”411 pieces, 47.9 million euros...” Christian reported the figures and expenses, saw Andy look at his indifferent eyes, can not help but hastily explain.
”Boss, the reason why we spent more than 40 million yuan is that three of them are extremely precious antiques, one is the well preserved Cloisonne unicorn, the other is the bronze ware about 3000 years ago, and the kettle in the shape of a tiger. According to my understanding, even in the Chinese dynasty, there are only five. There is also an intact blue and white jade, which is engraved and filled in the jade book of the imperial pen of Jin Qianlong, with red sandalwood box attached. ”
After hearing the explanation, Andy nodded slightly. He didn't worry about Christian cheating him. After all, when Andy first asked Christian, an expert antique dealer who had a lot of research on ancient Chinese art, to set up an antique purchasing team dedicated to him, he installed financial and legal personnel to prevent and supervise.
The reason why Andy formed this team is to let them search and collect enough antiques in Britain and even Europe. This team was left in London by Andy, because London is the third largest art market in the world.
At the beginning, one of Andy's tasks for the team was to buy as many Chinese antiques as possible. Britain should be the largest collection center of Chinese antiques in Europe. There are many reasons. Of course, apart from trade, the most important one is that in the disaster prone modern history of China, the suffering caused by war is particularly severe. When the imperialist powers invaded China, they robbed a large number of cultural relics. A Yuanmingyuan made 1.5 million cultural relics lose overseas, let alone those illegally lost overseas.
Of course, the figure of 1.5 million lost in Yuanmingyuan may be too exaggerated. According to the understanding and research of the team, there are not so many, because there are less than 90000 treasures in Yuanmingyuan's record catalog. Of course, if a set of tea sets, teapots and teacups are calculated separately, the figure of 1.5 million is still very reliable.
With so many cultural relics in Europe, how can Andy let go of the chance to acquire them? Especially before the Chinese heroes have made a big move overseas and the whole world knows that the Chinese are not poor in money, they should plow first?
In a few years, the antiques in China will be more and more popular. There will be few opportunities to buy them cheaply. The descendants of these shameless bandits are eager to sell the robbers of their ancestors at a high price.
As for worry about not buying fake?
To be honest, Andy did have doubts about this, but the team of experts convinced him.
They said that the British antiques market is like a pyramid. Like the antiques market, it is only at the bottom of the pyramid. It can only buy popular things, even real antiques. The real valuable antiques are all traded in a small circle at the top of the pyramid.
To put it bluntly, that is to say, your consumption ability and professional level directly determine how the circle is. The higher the circle is, the more real the things are, and the inheritance is orderly. It's OK to talk about the price directly. The lower the circle is, the fake goods will come out.
Especially after Christian recommended an idea to him, Andy was more determined to expand the antiques team.
Christian's idea went to the descendants of the ”bandits” who had been involved in the Opium War and the burning of the Old Summer Palace. You know, in fact, overseas, especially in Europe, no one would be willing to take the initiative to disclose about the cultural relics of the Old Summer Palace in his hands.