Riding the wind of rebirth

Chapter 1595: one unhappy, one happy

Zhou Zhi said that moving around like this is very risky for jade, and the first batch of jade is now stored in several places in Shudu and the capital, so it will be very troublesome to reunite them.

But for the batch that has been completed in the factory, you will have no problem sending it to Hong Kong Island for display.

Yao Chong was about to cry. He said that including the batch saved by his ancestor, there were only forty or fifty items in total, and most of them were small items like chicken heart pendants and chilong rings. Overall, they were still a bit unsightly. .

Zhou Zhi smiled and said, let me give you an idea. You can bring the unfinished batch with you and the carving tools. When you get there, you can have a live display for the people of Hong Kong Island. I guess it will be more valuable than just displaying the works. more popular.

"Still...can it still be like this?" Yao Chong was a little doubtful.

"Believe me, this is called jade carving craft. It is a proper intangible cultural heritage. Hong Kong people have never seen this before, and they will definitely be surprised. If you don't believe me, call the organizers and ask them if they are happy."

Yao Chong called the phone anxiously, and heard wow, there is still such a thing? Of course this is good! We will arrange a quota of twenty people for you and bring all the masters here!

This exhibition was very successful, especially when Zhu Qinghong used a piece of semi-finished blank with leather and used the "hairspring double hook" method on the grinder at the exhibition site to carve it out in just a few simple passes. A Han Dynasty-style "Eight-Sword Jade Cicada" is even more astounding in its skill.

Although the grinding machine is modern and its precision is much higher than that used by ancient jade workers, the process has not changed much. You still hold the jade material to touch the rapidly rotating carving grinding wheel, and then adjust the contact part. Make the cutting path you want on the jade material.

Zhu Qinghong did whatever he wanted, with skillful techniques. The double hook line was as thin as a gossamer, and the distance between the two was absolutely the same. When the completed Eight-Dao Cicada was displayed side by side with a Han Dynasty Eight-Dao Cicada from Yangyue Hall under a magnifying glass At that time, countless visitors who came to visit were obsessed with it, and they couldn't extricate themselves from going back and forth.

The other two masters and their apprentices displayed the ultimate craftsmanship, which amazed everyone. After viewing the exhibits, everyone realized a question. The craftsmanship of the founder Lu Zigang was not the ultimate. It turns out that Su Gong's carving craftsmanship has become more sophisticated in modern times. With the help of tools, it is possible to achieve such an extreme!

Prior to this, only Guangdong Province had restored the Guanggong ivory ghost ball and displayed it once at the Canton Fair, which had a certain impact. This time, Suzhou Carving has once again shocked Hong Kong Island with domestic handicrafts.

There are not so many rich people on Hong Kong Island. After visiting the exhibition, many people made a request - to buy these handicrafts brought by the jade carving factory.

A few with unique aesthetics even proposed to buy unfinished semi-finished products, feeling that there is an alternative aesthetic.

Then I realized that someone had already arrived at this batch of exhibits, and it was not even appropriate to say that. These exhibits were originally provided by the mysterious guest himself. , brought here after getting permission.

This explanation obviously did not satisfy the fans of the island country. Fortunately, Mr. Li was proud enough. After consultation with this mysterious collector, the collector agreed to put the twelve finished products from this exhibition up for auction. He resolutely No more.

At the same time, the other three collectors who provided ancient jades also agreed to distribute six pieces of ancient jades each. In this way, a total of 30 pieces of jade were collected, and a lively special auction could be held.

Nowadays, the domestic ban is not qualified to suppress the market of ancient jade. The market price of high-quality ancient jade in Hong Kong is actually similar to that of official kiln porcelain from the third generation of Qing Dynasty, with a price tag of millions.

However, what is even more surprising is the market price of twelve new jade carvings. The imitation Han jade cicada made and displayed on the spot by Guang Zhuqinghong was sought after by many big shots. In the end, it was never seen in China. The high price of 200,000 Hong Kong dollars was finally collected by Yang Yuetang.

The remaining ones also fetched high prices at the auction. Among them, an antique rhinoceros cup jointly sculpted by Lu Man and Zhang Mingyu was distinguished by its larger shape, ultimate jade quality, and extremely beautiful and ancient style. The shape of Chu bronzes and their intricate, mysterious and delicate patterns triggered the fiercest competition at the auction. This antique rhinoceros was finally sold for an "absolutely high price" of 1.4 million, which suddenly opened up the price space of modern Hotan jade.

It is said that after the auction, Lu Man and Zhang Mingyu cried together. They could never have imagined that their craftsmanship could be so valuable.

When the news reached Shu University, Zhou Zhi, who was reviewing for the exam, also wanted to cry. Although the antique rhinoceros was sold on Hong Kong Island for ten times more than the normal price in China, if it had been kept for another twenty years, it would have been ten times higher. Can't stop.

So the current auction price can only be considered a fraction at best!

The twelve pieces of jade made Zhou Zhi a total of more than 5 million Hong Kong dollars, but based on the price twenty years later, Zhou Zhi lost a little less than 100 million Hong Kong dollars.

Of course, it can't be calculated completely like this, because if Zhou Zhi relies on his own ability to hype Hetian jade to the price it will be in twenty years, he won't be able to do it even if he spends one billion more.

Therefore, the wealth that should be given up must be given up.

If this exhibition did not make Zhou Zhiduo happy, another exhibition held in the capital this month was different.

Exhibition of cultural relics of returnees from overseas in forty-five years.

Since the Opium War in 1840, a large number of cultural relics have been lost overseas, totaling no less than ten million. Among them, at least the vast majority were lost through illegal means such as robbery, robbery, theft, and smuggling.

Due to the extreme difficulty in proving evidence, the possibility of returning the cultural relics lost before the founding of the People's Republic of China is extremely small, except for repurchases like Zhou Zhi's.

However, there is one category that is completely recourse, and that is after the founding of the People's Republic of China, especially when my country joined the United Nations and formulated the "54-year Convention" and the "70-year Convention" on the protection of cultural property, and our country signed cultural, cultural relics, tourism, etc. After the cooperation agreement and the intergovernmental agreement to prevent the illegal import and export of cultural relics, such recourse will have a legal mechanism to follow.

Originally, this method of recourse was the most difficult of all ways to return cultural relics. However, after the founding of the People's Republic of China, especially after 1983, there were too many cultural relics smuggled out of the country by illegal means. Therefore, now there is a way to repatriate cultural relics. Not a small achievement.

Recently, China’s initiative on the classification of world cultural heritage and the research and protection of intangible cultural heritage was adopted by UNESCO. The world has a formally recognized classification standard for world cultural heritage. Taking this as an opportunity, in order to demonstrate the importance of cultural heritage , relevant ministries and commissions and the National Museum, the Palace Museum took the lead and organized a major exhibition.

The exhibits in this major exhibition come from several sources.

The first is the voluntary donations from overseas people. There are both overseas Chinese and foreigners. For example, Goro Sakamoto, who Zhou Zhi has dealt with, once donated a Song Dynasty sunflower-style lacquer plate and other cultural relics to the National Museum of History.

There is also a kind of repurchase by Chinese people. There are two categories here. One is to collect it by oneself after purchase, such as Zhou Zhi's six-hand scroll, and the other is to donate it to museums in various places, including the Forbidden City and the National Museum, such as the Li family's repurchase. The animal head of Yuanmingyuan.

There is another category, that is, legal recourse. There are still two categories: one is criminal cases solved in cooperation with Interpol, and the other is criminal cases jointly solved by the two countries within the framework of the agreement.

The stolen goods involved in the case returned to the embrace of the motherland after going through difficult legal procedures.