Live Appreciation, Congratulations to Brother

Chapter 387 The arrogant collection method

“Where is the Buddha head of this Buddha statue?”

Chen Yanguang was startled by the headless Buddha statue at the door, and naturally wanted to find out its origin.

"I don't know, that's how it was when I bought it."

Boss Li stretched out his hand and asked everyone to take a look at their surroundings.

The entire living room in the basement is filled with stone Buddha statues. There are complete Buddha statues, many cut-off Buddha heads, and Buddha bodies with missing Buddha heads.

Those who didn’t know thought they were visiting some kind of sculpture workshop.

"Brother Yang, what do you mean, is this thing valuable?" Chen Yanguang was still paying attention to the Buddha statue at the door.

"Friend Bao, you don't want to ask about the price of the Buddha statues from the Sui Dynasty!" Zhang Yang said with a smile.

"What the hell, from the Sui Dynasty?" Chen Yanguang exclaimed.

He understands Buddhist statues and knows how precious the Buddhist statues from the Sui Dynasty are.

Basically, all major provincial museums must have Buddhist statues from the Sui Dynasty in their collections.

"Director Zhang, did you read that correctly? It's really from the Sui Dynasty?" Boss Li was also surprised.

He knew Zhang Yang's identity, so he hesitated for so long when he was considering whether to bring them to this private treasure house.

When Boss Li went to Linhai, he had no idea that the Hailin Museum was private. In his eyes, such a grand and large museum must be official, so Zhang Yang must be an official.

That is to say, he was really confident about the source of his things, and they were all bought with real money, so he dared to bring Zhang Yang over.

"There should be no doubt about this. It is probably the Buddha statue that was stolen from the Bazhong Grottoes in the last century." Zhang Yang answered seriously.

There are only a few places where Sui Dynasty grottoes have been found in China, and most of them have been in the public eye since modern times, that is, after the fall of the Qing Dynasty. There is nothing secret about them.

Although it was chaotic in modern times, people were no less enthusiastic about collecting antiques than they are now. Many stone Buddha statues were cut from stone walls at that time, and were later scattered around the world.

"It's a pity that the Buddha's head has disappeared, which has greatly reduced its cultural relic value. It is now sold at a high price because there are too few stone statues from the Sui Dynasty."

"I bought this in Thailand." Boss Li explained, "This room of Buddha statues was basically bought there."

"Isn't there a craze for Buddha statues? At that time, I went to Thailand, Myanmar, and Cambodia, and there were people selling Buddha statues everywhere."

"But I don't understand either. Many of them were replaced with porcelain salvaged from the sea, so the quality varies."

"You can tell." Zhang Yang nodded, took two steps forward, looked around at the Buddha statues, and helped to identify them all.

“This is a third-century Gandhara-style statue of King Peacock;”

"The head of the Manjushri Bodhisattva statue from the Tang Dynasty was probably accidentally broken when it was transported out of the country. The stubble is very new, just a few decades old;"

"The seated Guanyin statue from the Chenghua period of the Ming Dynasty. Pay attention to the signature of the craftsman on the back. It should be enshrined in a stone Buddhist niche in the south."

"A carved statue of Sakyamuni from Bihar in the ninth century. Bihar is at the junction of India, Nepal and China. It is said that Sakyamuni once preached there..."

Zhang Yang looked at almost all the Buddha statues in Boss Li's place. The Buddha statues stood out in a messy manner without any order.

The materials include sandstone, marble, black stone, and even Shoushan stone;

The styles cover ancient India, Nepal, Tibetan, Khmer, etc.;

The dates range from antiques from the first century AD to handicrafts from more than ten years ago.

"Boss Li, why are you putting all these things in random places?" Chen Yanguang felt strange looking at them. He had never seen anyone collecting Buddha statues like this. Even the scrap collection depot was more organized than this.

"Except for porcelain, I don't know anything else!"

"Many of these were paid for. I shipped them back to Indonesia, but no one here believes in Buddhism (less than 1% of Indonesian people believe in Buddhism), and they can't be sold. What else can I do?"

"If you two don't mind, will I sell it to you guys?"

With that said, Boss Li picked up a small Buddha head and gestured to hand it to Chen Yanguang.

Chen Yanguang actually took over the Buddha's head.

He looked at Zhang Yang expectantly and asked, "Brother Yang, what do you say?"

"How do you say what?"

"Should we take over?"

"You can take over. I remember you have a dream of collecting, don't you?"

"I'll forget it." Zhang Yang shook his head, "There are already enough complete Buddha statues in the museum. These incomplete Buddha statues, when I bought them back, were left in the warehouse to eat dust, and the cultural relics department had to come to check them every day. trouble."

"Ah?" Chen Yanguang was a little disappointed after hearing this.

But he looked around at the stone statues in the room and felt very reluctant to part with them.

At first, the fakes were bought like crazy, but now the real ones are right in front of you.

I really can’t control it!

Finally, I asked Zhang Yang for help: "Help me think of a way? I want to buy it. Where do you think it is better to put it?"

Zhang Yang thought for a while and finally gave an answer:

"Hong Kong."

"I know a boss Lan over there who is engaged in the international art trade. I can ask him to help me build a small exhibition hall for you and put all these things in it."

"Okay! Then I want all the Chinese cultural relics here!"

Chen Yanguang finished speaking with a proud face, then looked at Boss Li, only to find that his eyes were on Zhang Yang.

"Does Director Zhang still have Xiangjiang's resources?" Boss Li asked with great interest.

"Oh? Boss Li, do you also have research on the art trade?" Zhang Yang asked with a smile.

To be honest, with the fake foreign paintings I just saw, it’s hard to believe that Boss Li has research on art.

It's not even arty, it's more like an oil painting version of the National Treasure Gang.

"I understand a little bit, I understand a little bit."

"My strongest area is Asian cultural relics, especially those from China and surrounding civilizations."

"Hey, Boss Li?" Chen Yanguang felt that the topic had gone astray, and repeated what he had just said, "I said, I want to buy all the Chinese Buddha statues you have here!"

"I heard that. Thank you, Mr. Chen, for supporting us!"

"But this matter is not urgent. There is no need to be in such a hurry." Boss Li smiled and shook his head.

"What do you mean?" Chen Yanguang frowned. He felt like the other person was teasing a child.

"Boss Li means that he has better things, so you don't have to decide so quickly to just buy these stone Buddha statues."

"Hehe, Director Zhang is an expert at first glance."

Boss Li gave Zhang Yang a thumbs up, and then pointed to a finely decorated iron door behind him.

The entire basement is very large. Zhang Yang and the others have just walked around the living room now.

In fact, there are many small rooms hidden behind the Buddha statue.

Compared to the basement, which only has a large locked iron door, the security of the small room inside has obviously been upgraded and even requires facial recognition.

"How about it? This is a high-tech piece I bought from Germany a few years ago." Boss Li pointed at the smart lock and said proudly, "It has to be my face to open it. Even a human skin mask is useless."

"Well, this thing is now available in all domestic supermarkets. You can pay with your face."

"I know that, but mine is a lock, and the security is different."

"As for face locks, the cheap ones only cost more than a thousand yuan." Chen Yanguang, who had just finished renovating his new house, said.

"..."

"Forget it, forget it, the lock is not important, we don't understand high technology." Boss Li waved his hands and pretended that nothing happened, "Let's go, let's take a look first."

"This place is my special room for collecting jade."

"Everyone can take a look." In the entire jade collection room, the most conspicuous thing is the large glass display cabinet in the center of the room.

Like a showcase of precious jewelry, under the warm light, there is a square booth covered with red brocade cloth, with a jade-carved carriage placed on it.

The jade is green and yellowish, suspected of being earthy.

This is a four-horse carriage. The two horses in the middle are connected to the carriage body through the carriage beams, and the two horses on the sides are tied with jade-carved chains.

An old man who looked like an emperor was sitting on the carriage.

The first time Zhang Yang saw this thing, he recognized its origin.

"I blanch it, made in Pizhou!"

"Director Zhang, what did you just say?" Boss Li asked Zhang Yang in confusion.

"I said, this is an ancient jade craft made in Pizhou, made of inferior Hetian green jade and white jade."

"Is the thing fake?" Boss Li scratched his head, his expression a little awkward.

After all, he lives abroad and is not very adaptable to Zhang Yang's straight-to-the-point way of speaking. For him, the impact of Zhang Yang's words is a bit too great.

After a few seconds of mental construction, he spoke again:

"When I bought it, people said it was the emperor's four-horse carriage from the Han Dynasty."

"Fake ancient jades are generally said to be from the Han Dynasty, because there are many burial objects in Han tombs and there are many jades unearthed." Zhang Yang explained simply.

"That's it..." The expression on Boss Li's face clearly didn't believe Zhang Yang's words.

He turned around and made a gesture of invitation.

"Director Zhang, take a look at this again."

The display cabinet next to it originally had no lights on. At this time, Boss Li went over and turned on the light in the cabinet, and Zhang Yang could clearly see the contents inside.

Another carriage.

This time it was even more outrageous than the previous one, with four horses, two in front and two in the back, connected by jade-carved chains in the middle.

Anyone who has seen a carriage knows that without the carriage beam, the two horses in front would not be able to control it at all.

Those who found it difficult to make fakes also made chicken bone white and blood red qin for Hetian Qingyu, which wasted a lot of chemical pigments.

"Boss Li, do you like carriages so much?" Zhang Yang asked curiously.

"That's right." Boss Li nodded with a smile, "The jade carriage is my proud work."

"When I collect things that I don't know much about, I have one idea: buy more."

"My over-buying is not just a general purchase. I buy watermelon today and sesame seeds tomorrow. I am very focused and only buy one thing."

"In this room, except for the two white marble bowls over there, the rest are ancient jade carriages, which are said to be more precious than bronze carriages."

"I see." Zhang Yang nodded, "Then let's go take a look at the white marble bowl."

"Wait a minute." Boss Li suddenly felt something was wrong, especially when he saw the suppressed smile on Chen Yanguang's face, "Director Zhang, I'm inviting you here as a guest. It's boring to hide it."

"You tell me what's wrong with these things!"

"Do you really want to know?" Zhang Yang asked, looking directly into Boss Li's eyes.

"I really want to, otherwise why would I invite you, Director Zhang? I also want your help to sell these jade-carved carriages to the Saudis!"

"That really doesn't sell..."

Zhang Yang reluctantly took out a photo of Qin Shihuang's four-horse carriage and explained the structural characteristics of the four-horse carriage.

Ancient carriages used the shaft to transmit the pulling force of the livestock, the crossbar to keep the livestock moving on a horizontal line, and the yoke to control the neck of the livestock.

But the two items that Boss Li just showed...

The first one simply had no crossbar, and the second one had the crossbar placed directly on the horse's back. This was no longer a violation of ancient carriage regulations, but a problem with the forger's mind.

If a horse can be tied up with a chain, the ancients were so full that they invented so many carriage parts.

"If it were built like the first carriage, if it really started running, it would be torn into pieces by four horses." Zhang Yang said helplessly.

"Pfft~" Chen Yanguang burst out laughing.

"This..." Boss Li touched his chin, and the word "uncomfortable" was written on his face.

He said "tsk" several times, and then walked around the surrounding display cabinets.

He lit up the lamps in each display cabinet, revealing various jade-carved carriages inside.

They are basically three- or four-wheel carriages, and almost all of them have a common feature, which is that they use chains instead of shafts.

"Two horses divided the body, three horses divided the body, six horses divided the body..."

Chen Yanguang was enjoying himself while watching it. In the end, he laughed so much that he hugged his belly and squatted on the ground.

Zhang Yang himself was also very curious: "Boss Li, where did you get these things?"

"Isn't it possible that someone set you up?"

"That shouldn't be the case. There are several pieces here that I bought at auctions in Singapore, including the one in the middle. The time span before and after is almost ten years."

Zhang Yang understood, it was just a fake one, so he could just buy one.

Many auction companies in Singapore are leather goods companies, the kind that disappear after selling fake goods.

Only in a place like this can there be a wealthy businessman like Boss Li, who is good at food and loves to play. If you move to China, when you buy the first one, the knowledgeable people around you will probably find it to be a fake.

I guess people who make fake carriages are also wondering, why have they made so many and not even one is circulating in the market?

It turns out that they were all hidden by Boss Li Jinwu.

"What's the price of these carriages?" Zhang Yang asked.

"Nothing less than four million."

"Then if you come down to this room, wouldn't it be..."

Zhang Yang felt that he might have met the most exploited collector in history.

And it's the kind of person who takes the initiative to give money.

"That's right, the total is almost...about 200 million." Boss Li folded his arms and leaned against the display cabinet, sighing.

The depression is visible to the naked eye on his face.

Zhang Yang praised Boss Li's mentality from the bottom of his heart. If it had been anyone else, this place would have been smashed to pieces.

Such a mood is obviously not suitable for continuing to look at antiques later, so Zhang Yang proactively suggested:

"How about we take a look at the white marble bowl you bought."

"Okay, I bought those two bowls from China." Boss Li introduced them proactively.

"Cultural relics from the Han Dynasty are not allowed to leave the country. I smuggled them out. Director Zhang, you won't report me, right?"

"No, no." Zhang Yang, who had already seen the bowl, shook his head. He turned to look at Chen Yanguang, who was still laughing, "Old Chen, if I were you, I wouldn't laugh now."

"Come and take a look."

"What's wrong?" Chen Yanguang hurriedly came up.

When he saw the white marble bowl of the same model from the Hedong Group in the cabinet, Chen Yan's back was filled with light.

"Boss Li risked going to jail to smuggle this out." Zhang Yang reminded in a low voice.

"Boss Li, don't say anything anymore. Brother, let me kowtow to you." Chen Yanguang turned around and bowed deeply to Boss Li.

(End of this chapter)