Chapter 1772 Consultation
"Lao Ma is an expert in literature and history who grew up from the underground party. He is second to none in the appraisal of bronze cultural relics in contemporary China. He is known as the 'first person in bronze appraisal'. He once used his own eyesight to collect for the Shanghai Museum. He has bought tens of thousands of precious bronzes, and his monographs "Research on Chinese Bronze" and "Chinese Bronze" have created a new "The Chinese bronze staging system." Mr. Wang said with a smile: "This is a skill that has been developed over many years. Why didn't Xiong Chuanxin have any doubts about it?"
Everyone in the studio felt a sense of admiration. Even though Zhou Zhi already fully knew the ins and outs of the matter, he still felt the same as everyone else.
"Later, according to Lao Ma's account, he relied on three aspects to make this inference. First, the inscriptions on the cover and the body were basically consistent; second, the shape characteristics of the cover and the body It matches; thirdly, the pattern of Danfang Lei is very distinctive, and the animal mask pattern on it is extremely special.”
“After getting the news, we entrusted many friends at home and abroad to conduct research on Danfang Lei. After collecting clues about the circulation process, a scholar from the island country named Umehara Sueharu also recorded this vessel in the "China Bronze Essence Yi Ware" published in 1933, saying that it was collected by the Lu family in Paris. We began to look back at this record, and finally determined that Panfang Lei was successively handed over to Bao Erlu, Yao Shulai, Lu Qinzhai and other well-known antique dealers in the early twentieth century. ”
"The first collector of Pan Fang Lei from Changsha to Shanghai was the British businessman and collector Paul Erlu. This man was a Chinese-German mixed-race person born in Shanghai. While doing business, he also acquired a large amount of Chinese art. He bought the body for 800,000 US dollars. After learning that the cover was still in Hunan Province, he asked Shi Yuzhang to buy it for 140,000 silver dollars. "
"Shi Yuzhang couldn't stand the temptation of money, so he ventured back to Taoyuan. Unexpectedly, he was caught by He Yaozu's army at that time. Not only was he imprisoned for one year, but he was also fined 12,000 silver dollars before being released. It was considered retribution. ."
"After Shi Yuzhang's failure, Bao Erlu did not give up. Not long after, he asked someone to find Zhou Qing directly and wanted to give him twenty. Ten thousand silver dollars were paid for the square lid, but Zhou Pan was not willing to accept it. The lion opened his mouth and asked for half a million dollars, but the deal was not completed. "
"Around 28 years, this device was collected in a house. In the hands of Yao Shulai and Lu Qinzhai. Both of them are closely related to Zhang Jingjiang, one of the four great elders of the Republic of China. Yao Shulai is Zhang Jingjiang's brother-in-law, and Lu Qinzhai is Zhang Jingjiang's servant."
"Zhang Jingjiang first opened the 'Express' company in Paris to sell Chinese antiques and use the income to fund the Revolution of 1911. After the success of the revolution, Zhang Jingjiang returned to China, while Lu Qinzhai stayed in France and became an internationally famous cultural relic dealer. The most famous thing he did was to sell 'Sa Lu Zi' and 'Fan Mao Jun' among the Six Horses of Zhaoling abroad. ”
"In troubled times, there is no way to deal with it. Because the prosecution and punishment lacked restraint on him and had no basis in law, he not only escaped legal sanctions, but also became more emboldened. He even became arrogant with a clear conscience and claimed to be an overseas envoy to promote Chinese civilization. We are here Today, many overseas have no way to trace it, and Lu Qinzhai is the chief culprit."
"Then the body of the Saragata Lei was transferred to the Japanese collector Asano Umekichi through the Lu family. There. According to Nitta's self-report, he saw this instrument in Asano in 1950 and couldn't put it down, so he bought it for a lot of money. "
"In order to make up for the lack of cover, he also went to England. Christie's bought a square vessel cover from the Spring and Autumn Period, but the size, decoration, and color of the cover did not match the original body, so it had to be placed next to it."
The next thing is that the two parties naturally started to contact.
Xintian immediately wrote to Xiong Chuanxin and asked for the relevant dimensions of the lid. After Xiong Chuanxin received the news from Ma Chengyuan, he was already ready and reported the dimensions of the lid to Xintian. .
After checking, Xintian found that the Fang Lei cover in the Xiang Museum could just cover the Fang Lei body in his private collection, so he immediately flew to Hunan Province. When the eighty-year-old Xintian saw the Fang Lei lid with his own eyes, he immediately confirmed that it was the Fang Lei lid.
Next, Nitta invited the two directors of the Xiang Pavilion, Gao Zhixi and Xiong Chuanxin, to visit the island country. During more than a week at Nitta's house, they carefully inspected the inscriptions, patterns, and casting techniques on the body of the vessel. , and recorded the size, etc. The host and guest talked all night long, and the topic always revolved around the same theme - this Danfang Lei, which has been separated for more than half a century, should be reunited as soon as possible.
But how to reunite? Xintian repeated the idea that he could spend a lot of money to buy the Fang Lei cover, and Xiang Guan mobilized Xintian to donate the Fang Lei body to the provincial museum. Nitta hopes that the body and body will be unified. In Japan, the people of Hunan hope that Fang Lei will return to his hometown as soon as possible. The two sides were never able to reach an agreement.
At the farewell table, Nitta picked up the tea cup and made an analogy, saying that it is like a covered cup. The lid is in the Xiang Pavilion and the cup body is here, but the cup body is the main thing and the lid is secondary. He wanted it, so it was Xiang Guan who sold the lid to him.
This is also the sequelae of the country selling cultural relics in exchange for foreign exchange. In order to exchange for foreign exchange, the country dumped a lot of bronze wares from the National Museum to Gongmei, who disposed of them. Most of them ended up in Taiwan and island countries.
Xiong Chuanxin made it clear that today is different from the past. The state has become more and more strict in the management of various cultural relics. Bronze and jade items have long been no longer allowed to be exchanged, and things in museums are not allowed to be exchanged. May be sold.
So Nitta came up with another idea and was willing to donate 200,000 US dollars to the Hunan Pavilion to build a new building for display. At the same time, he also donated the exquisite square cover of the early Western Zhou Dynasty purchased from Christie's in exchange for The dish has a square lid.
Xiong Chuanxin was really tempted at that time. After all, the museum is now in a state of poverty, and the exhibition conditions are even more stretched. So he agreed to report to his superiors after returning to China.
Next, Nitta submitted a "Petition and Letter of Love" to the lake hall, expressing his hope for San Fang Lei's "body and cover to be unified", and said that donation is not an investment. Although two hundred thousand US dollars is insignificant, However, due to the tax laws of the island country, we can only donate so much.
This matter was reported to the Provincial Department of Cultural Heritage and the State Administration of Cultural Heritage through the Hunan Museum, and the matter finally reached the top.
At the same time, Xiang Guan and Nitta continued to maintain contact. Both parties had the desire to combine the Safang Rei for display, but various restrictions made it very difficult.
First, Hunan Province proposed that the exhibition could be held at the Shanghai Museum, which is the museum where Ma Chengyuan is the director. However, Nitta was worried about whether the body could return to the island country, and the body was not cleared during the clearance process. It largely complied with the relevant legal provisions and therefore died young.
Subsequently Nitta proposed a joint exhibition at the Niijima Museum. This time the Xiang Museum’s report was submitted, but it was not agreed because the cap of the Pangata Lei is also a first-class cultural relic, a first-class cultural relic. Exhibiting cultural relics is not that easy nowadays.
Whether it is national conditions or laws, there are many restrictions, which are difficult to solve in a short time.
So Nitta had no choice but to put the rubbings of the lei cover given to him by Xiang Guan and the body together to comfort themselves.