Riding the wind of rebirth

The photo shows a warrior with a sturdy build, strong limbs, broad shoulders and a thick waist. His expression is very serious, and his staring eyes and inverted eyebrows reveal a majestic aura.

The warriors wore a dou-mian, which was a helmet with two flaps on both sides that looked like hat wings. They were integrated with the helmet and were called "dun-xiang". They mainly served to protect the neck.

The warrior is wearing armor with a breastplate on each side of his chest. He has a shoulder cape outside the armor. He holds a sword in both hands, with the blade pointing downwards and inserted into a lotus. In addition, a dragon is lying on the warrior's shoulder, with a pearl in its mouth, and a sika deer is under his feet.

The entire relief is finely carved, whether it is the patterns on the warrior's armor and helmet, or the scales on the dragon, they are all carved to look like the real thing.

This is a white marble sculpture, which is made entirely of extremely high-quality white marble and has undergone a special coloring process.

Ancient stone carvings are generally not painted, or even if they are painted, they are easily peeled off due to erosion over time, such as the famous Six Horses of Zhaoling Mausoleum and many cave statues.

However, this warrior deep relief statue is painted with various colors according to the needs of clothing, the most common color is dazzling red, and others include black, brown, blue, etc. Gold powder is also applied to the helmet, breastplate and some parts, indicating that the warrior is wearing golden armor.

Judging from the warrior's clothing and facial features, they all reflect the style and appearance of people in the Tang Dynasty. The image is plump and the shape is majestic.

Just by looking at the photo, Zhou Zhi can conclude that this is an extremely rare and typical Five Dynasties period statue-style work of art. As for its status, based solely on the colored marble deep relief craftsmanship, it is almost a unique piece, filling a gap in archaeological history, and should definitely be classified as a first-class cultural relic.

Grade A is the highest level of cultural relic. To put it in terms that everyone can understand, it is a "priceless treasure."

"After the tomb was robbed, the police immediately organized an investigation, and in the subsequent rescue excavation, archaeologists cleaned and excavated the king's tomb, only unearthing the remaining six zodiac signs and two serving and music reliefs and a small number of small cultural relics."

"Now these cultural relics have arrived in Hong Kong Island?"

"We have to thank Ms. Wanqiu for her timely discovery." Liang Pingyi glanced at Lin Wanqiu and said, "This batch of cultural relics arrived in Hong Kong Island half a month ago. They were first sought for auction under Hanhai. The collector claimed that they were inherited from his ancestors and had been collected for 30 years, but Ms. Wanqiu saw the clues."

"It's also because these cultural relics are colored." Lin Wanqiu said: "The red color at the bottom of the stone statue combined with the moisture on the ground and the salt in the soil to form soil flowers, which are flaws."

After that, he said to Zhou Zhi, "Didn't you discover the fake Five Dynasties tomb figurines case that happened in the capital a few years ago through fake earth flowers? Later, we specifically discussed the counterfeiting method of earth flowers, remember?"

"Yes." Zhou Zhi nodded: "At that time, Mr. Wang gave us a lesson on the formation of soil flowers."

Lin Wanqiu nodded. "If it is an artifact that has been preserved for a long time after being unearthed, the dirt will turn into powder due to water loss and other reasons, and eventually disappear and become soil stains. If this warrior relief statue has been collected for thirty years as the collector said, there should be no dirt at the bottom, but soil stains."

"But this soil flower is still quite 'fresh', which is enough to prove that it was unearthed not long ago!" Zhou Zhi made a special analysis of the red color at the bottom of the warrior statue in the photo, and couldn't help but feel a little lucky: "It's fortunate that there is this little bit of red color. If it was pure white marble, the soil flower accumulation would not be so obvious."

He looked up and asked Liang Pingyi, "Can the person be controlled?" "No, he can't be controlled." Liang Pingyi sighed.

"Why?" Zhou Zhi couldn't help but be surprised.

"Although we took out six zodiac animals and two servant and music reliefs found during the rescue excavation, hoping to prove the relationship between the stolen cultural relics and Wang Chuzhi's tomb, it takes time to determine the details. Secondly, the buyer pointed out that the styles of the zodiac animals, servants, and music reliefs are very different from those of the generals. In addition, although the relief fragments we found were colored, the colors became blurred due to being soaked in stagnant water, which is different from the bright colors of the warriors. For these reasons, the seizure measures we proposed were rejected."

"In other words, this warrior statue is still in the hands of the thieves?" Zhou Zhi's brows suddenly frowned.

"You can't call him a thief, but he's our colleague." Lin Wanqiu said, "He's also somewhat famous in the international ancient art market, but he's also notorious in the industry for his dirty tricks. Lu Lirong from Xinbaozhai, have you heard of him, Elbow?"

Zhou Zhi shook his head: "There are too many antique collectors and brokers in Hong Kong..."

"I'll pass on his information to you later." Lin Wanqiu said, "As a colleague on the island, this is all I can do. Otherwise, we will be collectively targeted by others. The rest is up to you."

After saying that, he looked at his watch and said, "According to the information I received, Lu Lirong has already known that we are applying for legal preservation measures for his batch of goods, so he is urgently contacting Christie's Auction House in the United States and preparing to send the artworks to the auction and resell them through the auction."

"How can this be possible?!" Zhou Zhi was anxious: "Mr. Li's word is law in Hong Kong Island, and he can't interfere in this matter?"

"I am still sitting here, which is already an interference!" Lin Wanqiu said: "Hong Kong Island is a place that adheres to the rule of law. This is not a place where you can do whatever you want!"

"What should we do now?" Zhou Zhi asked, "Why did you ask me to come here to talk about the rule of law? I'm not a lawyer!"

"You are not a lawyer, but you can provide the lawyer with background knowledge and relevant details, and you are proficient in both English and Cantonese, so there will be no communication barriers," said Lin Wanqiu.

Seeing that the siblings were beginning to get heated in their conversation, Liang Pingyi quickly interrupted them and said to Zhou Zhi, "Since the Hong Kong side said that our evidence is incomplete, then we will start from several points and prepare relevant evidence. The Hong Kong side requires us to provide a case filing report, case notification and other materials. Some of them even specify that they need to be in English. I'll have to trouble you for this."

"In addition, the country is also urgently investigating and trying to complete the criminal chain as soon as possible and ultimately bring the criminals to justice."

"The third and most important thing is to find the connection between this warrior relief and Wang Chuzhi's tomb and make sure it was stolen from Wang Chuzhi's tomb!"

"Since the relief is still on Hong Kong Island, can we go take a look?" Zhou Zhi asked, "I'm afraid we won't be able to grasp many details just by looking at the photos..."

"I'm not stupid." Lin Wanqiu sighed and said, "Now that I know you're plotting against him, why don't you hide your things? When he sent these photos to me for auction, I asked someone to take them under the pretext of making an auction album. Young Master, just bear with me." (End of this chapter)