Chapter 785

There are only three blue and white plum bottles in the world. One is collected in the Jinling Museum. It's the "treasure of the town hall" of the museum. It's not sold for one billion yuan. One is private. Another one is unknown to Chu Chen when he heard that he was missing overseas. Unexpectedly, it's in Vincent's treasure room.

Seeing Chu Chen's surprise, Vincent said with a smile, "Mr. Chu, this blue and white bottle is one of the three genuine ones. It took me a lot of effort to acquire it."

Chu Chen couldn't put it down and measured the bottle in his hand. Then he said, "Mr. Vincent, this blue and white bottle is one of the items in our transaction. What do you think?"

"This Mr. Chu, as you know, there are only three blue and white bottles in the world... " There was a look of embarrassment on Vincent's face.

Chu Chen first put the blue and white bottle back on the shelf, and then said, "Mr. Vincent, how did you decide the rules of our transaction today? No, among these porcelains, you only agree to trade some with low value? "

Vincent said with a smile, according to his idea, the less the proportion of these porcelain treasures, the better. But if he said so, Chu Chen would certainly refuse, so he said: "Mr. Chu, I still talked to you about the idea yesterday, and we can discuss the specific agreement on the basis of the idea I said."

Chu Chen thought about it and said, "Mr. Vincent, if you insist on doing this, I find it hard to accept it."

"Er..." Vincent saw that Chu Chen's expression was very firm. He pondered for a while and said with a bitter smile, "Chu, you should also understand that it is very difficult to find these porcelains, let alone buy them. If you choose most of them, I can't accept them!"

Chu Chen also knew that he was reluctant to accept this situation, but he would not be compassionate from now on, so he said, "Mr. Vincent, I know it's hard for you to accept, but in terms of the value of things, the performance of my Athenian School at the auction is much better than your porcelain? If you want to set up conditions, please forgive me for not accepting it! "

After all, it's still 2002. The auction market of Chinese cultural relics has not yet started. Some porcelains are still in the situation of being popular or not. The world famous works such as Athens school are not the same. With good publicity, even museums in some western countries will be attracted.

In this case, Chu Chen said that the painting is worth more than 2 billion yuan, which is actually quite conservative. Now Vincent has to set conditions. Of course, he can't agree.

Vincent also understood that Chu Chen was telling the truth. He pondered for a while, and then said, "Mr. Chu, how about this? Last time, because I was in a hurry to fax, there were some other kinds of precious cultural relics that were not written on them. Do you think the rest of them can be replaced by those relics?"

For Chu Chen, if they are all national treasures, it's not impossible, so he said:

"let's see it later, but I'm sure I'll get it."

"This..." Vincent seemed hesitant about it.

Seeing this, Chu Chen dropped another heavy bomb: "Mr. Vincent, you have a large collection, but some museums have no less collection than you. To tell you the truth, I still have a picture of Da Vinci's the Virgin Mary and the son of St. Anne and St. John the Baptist. I'm only going to exchange one of these two works. I don't know how you are going to choose?"

"What?"

Vincent was just thinking. After hearing what Chu Chen said, he almost jumped out. He asked with an incredible face: "Mr. Chu, you're not kidding, are you?"

"How could I be joking about such a thing!" Chuchen said with a smile, "and don't get me wrong, my painting is an oil painting version."

Hearing Chu Chen's affirmative reply, Vincent was shocked and doubted. He said, "Mr. Chu, do you know the value of the original work of the Virgin Mary and the son and St. Anne and St. John the Baptist?"

"Of course I know!" Chuchen nodded his head and explained with a smile: "but my painting is unfinished, so its value is much lower. I think it is similar to my painting Athens school."

When he heard that it was an unfinished work, Vincent felt a little disappointed, but he immediately reflected that as long as it was the original, even if it was not finished! This is Leonardo da Vinci's work. In terms of popularity, it's better than Rafael's. getting a hand will undoubtedly help to improve his reputation.

Thinking of this, Vincent's heart is very hot, but now the most important thing is that Chu Chen's hand must be authentic, so he can't wait to say: "Mr. Chu, I don't know if I can enjoy that painting?"

Chuchen said with a smile, "it's no problem that you want to enjoy it, but of course, I've put it in the bank for the time being."

No matter how safe Vincent is here, Chu Chen can't bring the painting here. After all, it's worth more than 2 billion RMB. He's worried that Vincent will get rich.Vincent was sure to do the same thing when he heard it. So he could only press down his impatience and said with a smile, "Mr. Chu, if your painting is authentic, I can agree to use this blue and white painting as one of the items in this transaction..."

Chuchen nodded with a smile, and then went on to appreciate the peerless porcelain next to him.

"Ming Hongwu blue and white peony dragon ear vase with twigs..."

"Qing Qianlong pastel carved open light fish play water bottle..."

In addition, Chu Chen even saw a very similar cup of mingchenghua doucai grape pattern in the capital museum.

This cup is small and exquisite in shape, delicate in texture, bright in color and exquisite in production. The grape pattern on the wall of the cup has rigorous composition, smooth lines, vivid painting and suitable color.

It takes red color as its branch, red in purple, strong and powerful. Green color for the leaves, green leaves, through the stem. Yellow color for the vine, tender tendrils seem to be growing. Purple is the fruit, just as ripe purple grapes hang on the branches. The use of these colors vividly shows the true color of the original.

Chu Chen couldn't help falling in love with such a pair of exquisite cups. In addition, there were many precious ancient porcelain. His eyes seemed to glow with red light. In his heart, there was a voice shouting all the time: "we must get them!"

At the end of the day, Chu Chen breathed a sigh of relief. These are national first-class cultural relics. If possible, he would like to bring them all back to China. However, Vincent is only willing to trade half of them, let alone all of them. It is estimated that even if he takes out both paintings, the possibility is relatively small.

Seeing that Chu Chen put down the last piece of China, Vincent said with a smile, "Mr. Chu, let's go and have a look at those other kinds of treasures."

"Yes..."

Seeing Chu Chen's agreement, Vincent took them to the other side. During this period, he also explained the layout of the treasure room to them. However, Chu Chen didn't hear much about it. He was not happy when he looked at the unclear collection, because a considerable part of these cultural relics were probably plundered from China.

In those days, the British and French allied forces launched the second war to invade China, and the world-famous Yuanmingyuan was destroyed, which became an unforgettable history in China's modern history.

When the British and French allied forces broke into the Old Summer Palace and the headquarters of the Allied forces ordered the robbery, the invading forces rushed to every corner of the garden, to the palace, to the pavilion, to the pagoda, to the library, and greedily and madly started the robbery. How many treasures were robbed and destroyed in the old summer palace can't be counted. Just two examples can show.

When the robbery was over and the invading army drove from the Old Summer Palace to the capital, the French army's vehicles full of goods walked for an hour. The British Army's thousands of vehicles, which were two kilometers long, even filled with ammunition boxes and gun bodies.

When evacuating from the Yuanmingyuan, in order to make the cannons and vehicles easy to pass, many exquisite clocks, wall clocks and ivory carvings were filled into the ditch where the vehicles had to pass. In addition to being robbed, a large number of exquisite artistic treasures such as silk, precious clothing, jade and porcelain were trampled on and destroyed.

Every soldier came back with a full bag. The gold and silver storehouses in the old summer palace were also opened and looted. It is unimaginable that Yuanmingyuan was robbed at that time.

British officer Hollis made a windfall after he returned home because he plundered a lot of precious antiques and gold and silver artifacts from Yuanmingyuan. Because he had a large number of valuable treasures, he got a nickname "China James". After he returned to England, with a large number of stolen goods, he turned into a rich man and enjoyed it all his life.

Half a century later, that is, in 1912, when he was 80 years old, he wrote "China James", which shamelessly described in detail the important treasures he had plundered and the process of robbery. His book became a confession of the invaders for robbing and destroying the cultural relics of Yuanmingyuan.

After the Yuanmingyuan was burned by the British and French allied forces, it still belonged to the Forbidden Garden of the Qing court, and there were special institutions and special personnel to guard it. However, after the Allied forces of the eight powers occupied the capital in 1900, the invading forces carried out another public robbery, and the Yuanmingyuan was damaged again.

"Haiyue Kaijin" in Chang Chun garden was originally a magnificent and magnificent building built on the double-layer white marble altar in the lake. It survived the battle of the British and French allied forces, but the battle of the eight countries allied forces was finally destroyed. The "Pengdao Yaotai" of Fuhai central government was also destroyed in the battle of the eight countries. In Wanchun Garden, the "solemn Dharma Realm" and "weizaotang" were also destroyed at this time.

A scholar once made a rough statistics. Among the precious antiques lost abroad, a considerable part of them were collected in the Yuanmingyuan. Chu Chen had seen a data before, which said that the number was at least more than 1.5 million.