Riding the wind of rebirth

Chapter 1773 Lobbyist

On the other hand, the country has also begun to think of ways to discuss the possibility of allowing the Fang Lei to return.

The first thing that comes to everyone’s mind is to use legal means to recover the money, as there have already been successful cases.

However, the recovery of cultural relics is a rigorous legal process and is not as easy as the general public imagines.

Although my country signed two international conventions on the protection of cultural relics in 1970 and this year, these two conventions, as legal documents, themselves have certain defects: first, there are corresponding restrictions on the retroactive period. In theory, the law only takes effect from the date of signing and is not retroactive. In other words, the law signed in 1970 can only restrict the loss of cultural relics after 1970. It is extremely difficult to recover the cultural relics lost before through the 1970 treaty.

The second is the transfer of legal subjects. Although the state has laws stipulating that cultural relics above the ground and underground belong to the state, this can only take effect after the Cultural Relics Protection Law comes into effect. Even though the Cultural Relics Protection Law emphasizes the premise of tracing back, it can only be traced back to "after the founding of the People's Republic of China." In other words, 1949 was a watershed.

Third, the convention is only effective for countries that have signed it. It is not a "mandatory law" and therefore has little binding force. Therefore, a common phenomenon in the recovery process is that after the cultural relics have been transferred several times, some foreign museums and collectors often use the excuse of "acquisition in good faith" to prevaricate.

The Dish-shaped Lei was neither looted in war nor stolen. It was lost overseas long before the founding of the People's Republic of China and changed hands several times. Therefore, it is almost impossible to recover it through legal means.

Fortunately, when the law is unable to effectively recover the damages, the cultural, museum, business and collecting communities can still take action.

Therefore, when Mr. Wang found Zhou Zhi and Lin Wanqiu and mentioned this matter, the two began to work out a response plan.

First, Lin Wanqiu discovered evidence that the Fanglei was once collected by Lu, and found that he eventually sold the cultural relic through the China Guardian Auction House.

In France, there is an expert on Lu Qinzhai, sinologist Ms. Laura, who happens to be the senior vice president of China Guardian and international director of the Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art department.

When Ms. Lola and Zhou Zhi were preparing for Christie's Four Seasons Auctions for An Siyuan, they were recommended by Sir John Belling, the behind-the-scenes boss of China Guardian, and had a close collaboration with Zhou Zhi.

Lola and Guardian’s branch in Hong Kong Island, Yuan Shuhua, the president of Swire Guardian, are also close friends. Yuan Shuhua has received great favors from Zhou Zhi. Zhou Zhi not only helped her win the An Siyuan Chinese Art Four Seasons Auction, but also spent a large sum of money to buy Zhang Daqian’s representative work “Wuxia Clouds and Mountains” at the opening auction of Swire Guardian, setting a record for the day. Although Zhou Zhi did not have the possibility to go to Guardian, the relationship between the two sides has always been relatively harmonious, and the cooperation has been very pleasant.

Now the time has come to repay the favor. Lola was just preparing to publish "The Biography of Lu Qinzhai" and was very interested in the historical materials such as correspondence, accounts, orders, plates, etc. on his cultural relics transactions preserved by China Guardian, so she sent all those materials to Zhou Zhi.

Zhou Zhi found the catalog of the Dish-shaped Lei in it. Ironically, the business vouchers that Lu Qinzhai had at that time have now become the solid evidence of his guilt.

In the chain revealed by these materials, Lu Qinzhai not only grasped the needs of Western museums and major collectors at the time, but also established a highly efficient procurement and smuggling network in the country, making the trafficking of cultural relics a transnational business.

Other cultural relics are not so bad, but the Fanglei had defects from the beginning when it flowed into Shi Yuzhang's hands. After that, local governments have always listed him as a criminal and pursued the Fanglei. Although the government has changed several times, the new government's legal constraints cannot restrain the crimes committed in the old government, but one thing is clear, that is, in public opinion, or in the hearts of the people, in the hearts of everyone with basic public order and morality, they all feel that the outflow process of the Fanglei is flawed, "illegal", or "procedural error".

This is slightly different from "good faith acquisition".

Next, Zhou Zhi used these reasons to find his acquaintances and "persuade" Xin Tian one after another.

The first one was Lola. Lola told Nitta Dongyi frankly that this collection now seemed to have unknown risks. Once its dispersion process was made public, even if it was not subject to any legal constraints, it would be labeled as a "stolen cultural relic." Any truly respectable collector would stay away from it, and any truly powerful auction house would also be wary of opponents using this as an excuse and would not dare to easily take over the promotion of the collection.

In other words, in the future, the Fang Lei can only be auctioned by some less famous auction houses, and the strength of potential buyers will be greatly reduced.

To put it another way, after the news of the Dish-shaped Lei spread, this collection might end up in vain. Even if one wants to sell it in the future, it might not be sold for a good price.

Then it was Fujita's turn.

Fujita became famous for the "Seikado Chinese Classics Digital Library" he recently developed with Clover Company. Not only did he get rid of the museum's business crisis, but he also earned a large amount of income and gained a great reputation. For a time, there was an endless stream of visitors, and even the Maki-e lacquerware and Wabi-sabi Kukuchi-yaki porcelain brought from China's mysterious Daliang Mountain were sold at skyrocketing prices.

He was acting as a lobbyist for Zhou Zhi, and he told Nitta Dongyi in a roundabout way that China's reform and opening up had brought up a group of people who had "gotten rich first" and they were the real rich people.

  Look at the Hunan Provincial Museum that has been in contact with you. They were already very excited when you offered to donate $200,000 to them. But do you still remember the mysterious Chinese collector who was competing with us for the Kūkai calligraphy scroll?

The Chinese collector pushed for HK$23.5 million to buy the Dainichikei, but he still refused to give in. In the end, Mr. Ataka and Mr. Sakamoto resorted to a lot of tricks and finally joined forces with several banks on the island to buy it for HK$29 million.

Now there is a very powerful Chinese seller who knows that you have the body of the Dish Fang Lei vessel in your collection. He hopes to buy it at a price that both parties find suitable and donate it to the Hunan Provincial Museum.

At the same time, the other party also promised that if Mr. Nitta agreed to transfer the collection and combine the Fang Lei into one, the other party would use their influence to facilitate the exhibition of the Fang Lei in Japan. At that time, Mr. Nitta, as an important person who has properly preserved the important Chinese cultural relics, would also accept the invitation and accept the honor bestowed by the Chinese side.

This is the opposite of what Lola said. The underlying meaning is that whether you become a hero or a criminal in everyone's eyes is just a matter of your thoughts.

If Lola and Nitta no longer have much business relationship and are insignificant, and Fujita is now a person who only hopes to preserve the glory of his ancestors and is not worth discussing, then the weight of the other two lobbyists is too heavy.

Eiichi Anzhai, Goro Sakamoto.