rebirth of change

Chapter 2440 Walking into the treasure house of art

The dinner at the Whitney’s is simple and sumptuous. To put it simply, it’s because they don’t prepare a large table like we entertain distinguished guests. There are dozens of dishes and dishes that can’t be eaten, or even all of them.

But he is rich because he has turkey, cod and lobster, which are only available in important festivals in the United States.Don't think that Americans will eat these things every day if they are rich. No, the daily diet of Americans is very simple in our eyes.Otherwise, McDonald's would not have developed so big in the United States.

Even if it is a state banquet at the White House, to be honest, many people will not be interested in the menu when they see the menu, and they can't find the standard of four dishes and one soup.

This is related to the food culture and history of the United States. Like China, there are so many food categories accumulated over thousands of years.In the world, China is probably the nation that cares the most and knows how to eat. Almost all animals and plants that run on the mountains, grow in the soil, swim in the water, fly in the sky, poisonous or non-toxic, will be killed by us Chefs research and mix food.

In the West, French cuisine is considered the most upscale meal.Even so, the French will drool when they see our banquet.

In order to entertain Chen Kangjie, Whitney's mother specially brought out a bottle of good champagne.

After the meal, Whitney paid Chen Kangjie to visit his father's private collection museum.

Before going there, Chen Kangjie thought that since it was a private museum, it probably wouldn't be too big, and it should just be well-maintained and refined.

However, when they walked through a forest and walked into the small white building, Chen Kangjie was still slightly shocked.

It's not that Chen Kangjie has never been to a museum. No matter before or after his rebirth, he has visited some museums, but they are not very famous.However, compared with the environment he has seen so far, the museums he has visited before are simply nothing.

As soon as the door is pushed open, countless artworks are neatly and densely arranged in the wide hall, and you will see different spaces as you walk all the way in.All artworks are categorized and placed in different spaces.For example, the hall where Chen Kangjie entered the door is filled with Western paintings, including works by Cimabue in the [-]th century, as well as works by modern masters such as Van Gogh, Repin, and Maitreya.Putting these treasures in general museums can become the treasure of the town hall.

"This work is the work of Kandinsky. After France was occupied by the Nazis in 1941, he came to the United States. During the three years in the United States, he only published two works. This is one of them. This is Corot In the 800th century, the price of this painting has risen from 23 francs to [-] francs, and this one is his "Sunset"..." Whitney was obviously influenced I have learned a lot, and I was able to accompany Chen Kangjie to visit and introduce him all the way.

"The 100th century was worth so much money. After more than [-] years, how much is it worth now?" Chen Kangjie asked curiously.

"Who knows, maybe 800 million US dollars, maybe more, or maybe less. I only know that my grandfather paid a lot of money to get this painting." Whitney shrugged.

In addition to Western oil paintings, Whitney's private collection also includes ancient Roman artworks, Persian and ancient Egyptian things, and even Russian eggs. Of course, as a cultural power, China's things are also indispensable, such as porcelain , ink paintings are also available.

What Chen Kangjie didn't expect was that there was actually a room in which there were five hundred Buddhist statues of arhats.Those are beautifully fired terracotta figurines, which are vividly placed in glass cabinets, and they are spectacular from a distance.As for whether they are ancient objects or modern imitations, as a layman, Chen Kangjie can't tell.Even the names of those Arhats look a little tingling.For example, the Venerable Aruo Kochenru, the Venerable Govanpati, the Venerable Anafanti and so on.

"Does your father still believe in Buddhism? These should only be found in Buddhism." Chen Kangjie asked Whitney curiously.

"No, my father believes in Christianity, not Buddhism."

"Then how could he...be interested in this thing?"

"It was a gift from a Japanese. When my father went to Japan and saw the exquisite and vivid set of pottery figurines, he praised them. Unexpectedly, the Japanese thought that my father liked them and gave them to him. Others have already spoken. , he couldn’t refuse, so he accepted it. Although he may not like it, there will be someone who takes care of all the items in the collection.”

"Oh I got it."

"The next room, the things in it should interest you. They are all cultural works of China. Let me show you." Whitney extended his left hand and led Chen Kangjie into another spacious room , "The five hundred statues of arhats are specially placed in this place outside because there are too many of them to fit in the small area."

"Okay." Chen Kangjie replied, but his heart tightened for no reason.

Chen Kangjie had such a psychological reaction because he didn't know what he would see inside.Although I saw these [-] Luohan pottery figurines outside, it is hard to say whether these things are antique treasures. The Japanese would just give them as gifts, and maybe they may not be too precious.Even if it is, such religious things still exist in many temples in China, and Buddhism is not our own original creation.

But Chen Kangjie knows that over the past few hundred years, especially since modern times, our country has lost millions, tens of millions of cultural relics.Among other things, there are tens of thousands of boxes of extremely precious cultural relics missing in Dunhuang, at least [-] pieces of suicide notes, and countless treasures lost in the Old Summer Palace. Even those animal heads were not spared.

Thinking of these, Chen Kangjie felt a pang of sympathy in his heart.

Cultural relics are the carrier of the source and inheritance of a country's history and culture. However, when we were corrupt and backward, these things were looted by people, plundered and plundered, and lost all over the world.It can be said that that period of history is an indelible pain in the heart of every Chinese.

Judging from the collections seen earlier, Chen Kangjie is almost sure that in this room, there must be art treasures lost in China.It's a pity that these treasures are now in other people's private museums, not in the country for ordinary people to visit casually.

Sure enough, as soon as Whitney entered, Chen Kangjie was dazzled. The first thing that caught his eyes was all kinds of ancient ceramics, from Song Dynasty, Ming Dynasty, Yuan Dynasty and Qing Dynasty. Ding of the period.

There are still many ink paintings hanging on the wall, and Chen Kangjie even saw the cow painted by Tang Dynasty painter Han Huang and the horse painted by Wei Yan. If many people are not familiar with these two people, then Yan Liben should have heard of them. One of his figure paintings is also included.

On the far wall, there is a row of bookcases. There is no doubt that there should be some books that cannot be seen in China.

"Those are Chinese books?" Chen Kangjie asked, pointing to the row of bookcases.

"Some are books, and some are scroll paintings. Because I don't understand Chinese, I rarely come here before."

Chen Kangjie strode to the bookcase, looking at those books with yellowed paper, his heart was extremely excited.

Chen Kangjie is not a historian, nor is he an expert on cultural relics, but from the paper of those books, Chen Kangjie can tell that they are definitely ancient relics from many years ago.How these books ended up here is unknown.

"Did your father buy these books?" Chen Kangjie asked Whitney.

"Some were collected by my father, and some were brought back by my grandfather from Europe. As for the value of these things, I don't know. Neither my father nor my grandfather understand Chinese. In my impression, these books are placed in the After coming here, I should not have touched much." Looking at the things on the bookcase, Whitney was a little dazed.

"Can I come down and take a look at some of them?" Chen Kangjie asked politely.

After all, this is someone's private museum, and these things are very valuable regardless of whether they can understand them or not. If Chen Kangjie wants to move them, of course he must seek the owner's permission.Even if he is Whitney's boss, he must not lose his courtesy.

"Of course. Didn't my dad say that if you like something, I'll give you one? Of course you can look for it carefully. Do you know? My father rarely gives away these things. Some he understands, some he I don’t understand, but for him, it’s something to cherish.”

Chen Kangjie understands this feeling, just like a person who likes to collect cars, even if a certain car cannot be driven, that kind of person will not easily dispose of that car or give it away.

Collection, perhaps for John Whitney, has become his greatest hobby and best sustenance.Of course, from a cultural point of view, even if he wanted to study these collections, he would probably focus on European and North American cultural relics that are closer in culture.After all, a person's energy and knowledge are limited. In contrast, one book may be enough for him to study these things in China for a lifetime.

Chen Kangjie randomly opened a book that was not too thick but wide. Before he opened it, Chen Kangjie became interested in this book.

It turned out that what he was holding was a thousand-character cursive book written by Zhang Ruitu in the Ming Dynasty.

Let's not forget that Chen Kangjie himself is also a calligraphy lover, and under the teaching and influence of Chen Qigang, his calligraphy attainment is not low.

Chen Kangjie took the copybook and read it with gusto, but he suffered from Whitney who didn't know what to do.

"Long, what is written on it? Why do they look so weird and ugly, I can't understand any of them."

"The writing on it is of course Chinese characters. These characters are not only not ugly, but also very beautiful. They are treasures left by ancient Chinese calligraphers, but his writing style is cursive script, so ordinary people will look a little hard. Our Chinese characters , there are many different ways of writing in calligraphy. The one you can recognize is regular script, which is considered the most correct. In ancient times, we all used brushes, so some people wanted to learn to write well, and they would Try to figure out and study the words in this book..."