My identity as a collector was exposed by the village flower

Chapter 401

Regarding his suggestion, Fang Xing thought about it, but he didn't refuse. Isn't it just a trip to New York?

According to Xu Qing and the others' plan, they originally had the idea of ​​going to New York.After all, the city known as the most prosperous in the world has come all the time, so it's a bit unreasonable not to take a second look.

So, Fang Xing called Mr. Zhao and told them to fly directly to New York from San Francisco.

"Brother Jackie Chan, aren't you going?" Yuanyuan asked.

Jackie Chan smiled wryly: "You guys go! Have fun. I still have an event to attend here."

In fact, it is mainly a movie, maybe this is the last Hollywood movie he participated in, so he attaches great importance to it.

……

A day later, Fang Xing and others came to New York.

The Metropolitan Museum arranged accommodation, and specially invited two people who can speak Chinese to do the reception work.After all, the exchange of 10 crystal skulls is no small matter!

In fact, they are also very anxious.

In this short period of time, Fang Xing and the others received calls from other museums, cultural relic institutions, and super collectors one after another. It was obvious that they were all about the Crystal Skull.

It was those calls that put a lot of pressure on the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

They just want to complete this treasure exchange ceremony as soon as possible and get the crystal skull in their pockets.

Elder Zhao and the others had been waiting for a long time, a few hours earlier than Fang Xing and the others.

"Is this the crystal skull?" The experts surrounded those crystal skulls and appreciated them for a while.However, the interest soon faded away.

The quality of the crystal is good, and the age is also very old. It can be traced back to more than 1000 years ago, which is probably the era of the Shang Dynasty in China.

However, the engraving is really not superb.But it is also understandable. After all, the level of technology and productivity were relatively low at that time, and it was not bad to be able to produce such works of art.

"Brother, I want this Buddha statue." Xia Yu finally picked out her favorite.

For a day, he was entangled.Originally, he had difficulty in choosing, but what was in front of him was a pile of rare national treasures, which made his eyes dazzled.

"Sit on a Buddha statue with dried lacquer? Good eyesight." Fang Xing praised.

Mr. Zhao also nodded. The country has always wanted to get that Buddha statue back to the country, but after talking for many years, there was no progress.

The Buddha statue has a history of nearly 1400 years. It is a seated Buddha made of dry lacquer and folder craftsmanship in the Tang Dynasty in the early 7th century.

The statue is vivid and delicate, just like a real person, with bright eyes, peaceful expression, sitting in cross-legged posture, wearing cassock, baring the right shoulder, the folds of the clothes are natural and realistic, smooth and vivid, and the exposed chest muscles are smooth and full of elasticity.The surface of the cassock still has traces of color application, and the exposed skin of the Buddha statues can be seen with more obvious traces of gold application, and the surface of the cassock remains bright red and blue color application.

"Hey! This Buddha statue was originally a group of four." Mr. Zhao told everyone.

Then, he told the story of the Buddha statue.

100 years ago, Japanese antique dealer Yamanaka Sadajiro saw four Buddha statues from a Chinese antique dealer. Yamanaka Sadajiro, who is familiar with Chinese and Japanese culture, saw that these old Buddha statues were by no means ordinary objects. ancient craft.

Yamanaka Jojiro believed that the four dried lacquer Buddha statues in front of him had extraordinary origins, so he bought them all at a high price without hesitation.

"After Sejiro Yamanaka obtained these Buddha statues, he kept one of them, and shipped the other three to the New York branch of the United States for public sale, which attracted the attention of major museums in the United States. The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York quickly bought one of them at a high price. , and two were bought by the Freer Sackler Museum of Art in Washington and the Walters Museum of Art in Baltimore.

One of the experts also smiled wryly: "Yes! The best one is still in the hands of the Japanese.

This group of Buddha statues has a very important cultural relic value in the history of Chinese Buddhist statue art. It is important because the Buddha statues are made using the dry lacquer lamination process thousands of years ago. "

"Dry lacquer lamination technique?" Xia Yu listened humbly.

"Dry lacquer clipping is now popularly known as bodiless lacquerware. The dry lacquer clipping process is an ancient handicraft. It uses dry lacquer, ramie, multicolored stone powder, etc. as raw materials, and undergoes 48 processes such as drying, polishing, and clipping. Finish.

Since there were few large-scale production of dry lacquer Buddha statues in history, it is rare to see dry lacquer Buddha statues handed down.The ones that have been handed down from the Tang Dynasty to the present are almost even more difficult to see.

Let's put it this way!We have not seen such a well-preserved bodiless lacquerware Buddha statue in any major museum in China. ’ explained the expert.

When using this technique to make Buddha statues, first make a work tire as a wooden Buddha statue, then use hemp, and then paint it. After the paint dries to a certain extent, take out the wooden tire to make it a completely empty shell. .

After the dry lacquer lamination process, the Buddha statues are brightly colored, showing a smooth and shiny texture, and are not suitable for cracking and deformation, and can better preserve the original charm, delicate lines and smooth clothing patterns of the Buddha statues.

To put it simply, the dried lacquer and ramie seated Buddha statue is very precious and awesome, and it can be used as a treasure in any provincial or municipal museum in China.

Fang Xing looked at Yuanyuan and Xu Qing, and asked, "What about you? I'll let you choose first."

"I don't care, Brother Fang, you can help me decide." Xu Qing said quickly.

There is no need to talk so much about her relationship with Fang Xing.

"Then I want this gold-plated belt hook inlaid with pearls, emeralds and jades, right?" Yuanyuan looked around, but still felt that things inlaid with pearls and gemstones looked better.

"Well! It's not bad."

Fang Xing said it was good, but the gold-plated belt hook inlaid with pearls, turquoise stones and jade huang picked by Yuanyuan is obviously not as valuable as the one picked by Xia Yu just now.

Even on that list of cultural relics, the gold-plated belt hook inlaid with pearls, green stones and jade huang did not rank in the top ten.

However, these things still depend on what everyone likes.Sometimes, don't want the most expensive, but want the most pleasing to the eye.

Afterwards, Fang Xing circled on the list of cultural relics "The Picture of Shining Night and White", the picture of the emperor worshiping Buddha, the bronze bell of Qin Dynasty, the three-color Arhat of Yi County, the gilded bronze Buddha statue of the Northern Wei Dynasty, the bronze sword with mixed gold and silver, and the lead and brass Guanyin of the Ming Dynasty. , and a gold-plated dragon head.

On the side of the Metropolitan Museum, after a symbolic discussion, they quickly agreed.

Mr. Zhao and the others went to the museum to inspect the goods in person, especially the "White Picture of Shining Night", the picture of the emperor worshiping Buddha, the Qin bronze bell, and the dry lacquer and ramie of the Tang Dynasty. There is no room for any mistakes.

Seeing that there are still a large number of precious Chinese national treasures in the exhibition hall, they feel uncomfortable!

However, this is already the best result.

There are more than 300 million precious cultural relics in the Metropolitan Museum, a large part of which come from China, and the exchange of ten pieces will not have a great impact on them.

It's ironic that the United States only has a history of 200 years, but its precious collections can be ranked among the top five in the world.

How did the collection come about, needless to say?
(End of this chapter)