golden ear

Chapter 247 King John
"East of England and Lincolnshire?"

Wu Tianyuan and Sun Yuyao originally came to Bonhams to hold a general meeting of shareholders today. After Ross's struggle, another 20.00% of the shares were acquired by Wu Tianyuan.

It's okay to come to the warehouse to look at the next batch of auction items, and overheard a clue provided by a necklace, about the lost jewelry box of King John of England!

"After the death of Richard I in 1199, his younger brother John succeeded to the throne. It is said that John's greatest specialty is jewelry appreciation, and his collection of jewelry is countless."

"History records that on October 1216, 10, King John, who had signed the British "Magna Carta", was preparing to lead his troops across Wash Bay, and his luggage cart was loaded with a lot of medieval treasures."

"However, as they advanced, the tide suddenly rose, and the entire luggage cart and its load of jewels were swallowed into the sand. When the tide went out, they never recovered the lost treasure. For the next 700 years, This royal treasure was lost in the swamp."

After listening to the description of the necklace, Wu Tianyuan was going to take it to treasure hunting tomorrow, and he had been looking for British treasures to exchange for the animal-faced dragon-patterned square statue from the British Museum.

Two days later, Wu Tianyuan and his party came to Lincolnshire and started treasure hunting by a small lake in the wilderness. Three hours later, they finally found King John's lost jewel box.

"Such a big diamond!"

Wang Hong was amazed, the first thing a woman saw was a shiny diamond, and a huge loose diamond appeared in front of her eyes.

"At least 50 carats, right? It's so beautiful!"

Wu Tianyuan was also amazed by such a huge and beautiful diamond, looking at the other top-level gemstones in the box, he was very satisfied with this harvest.

"Fortunately, it's jewelry this time, and the box is full of sand. If the calligraphy and painting are all destroyed."

Wu Tianyuan washed all the jewels with lake water, a king's scepter, two crowns, and the rest are precious stones, at least thirty or forty.

"I will keep this big diamond and give it to Yuyao as an engagement gift, and help me contact the British Museum with the others. We finally have a chance to meet!"

More than half of the Jiuding has been collected, leaving only the Metropolitan Museum of America, the British Museum, and the National Palace Museum in Taipei.The whereabouts of the last one is unknown, but Wu Tianyuan has a feeling that as long as the other eight get together, it will naturally appear.

"Our British Museum has more than 600 million collections. Due to space constraints, there are still a large number of collections that have not been publicly displayed. Including the Sculpture Hall, the White Wing Hall, the Edward VII Hall, the DUVEEN Art Gallery and the New Wing Hall. There are 12 Collection departments such as Ancient Egypt and Sudan, Coins and Medals, Ethnography, Greek and Roman Antiquities, etc.”

Curator David took Wu Tianyuan to visit the museum in person. He had long been interested in this famous treasure hunter. Today, he received a call and finally had the opportunity to cooperate.

"Dear Wu, this is Hall 33. It mainly displays Asian cultural relics, but most of them are Chinese cultural relics. In fact, human cultural heritage belongs to all human beings. It's the same everywhere, don't you think?"

Wu Tianyuan smiled coldly, and looked at the Chinese showroom, which occupied several halls. The exhibits ranged from bronzes from the Shang and Zhou dynasties, to porcelain from the Tang family, and gold and jade products from the Ming and Qing Dynasties. There were more than 2 rare treasures from China alone!
Most of them are priceless treasures, such as paintings and embroidery of various dynasties in China, unearthed cultural relics of various periods, calligraphy and paintings of Tang and Song Dynasties, porcelain of Ming and Qing Dynasties, etc. Among them, the most valuable ones are "Nvshi Zhentu" and the three-color portrait of Luohan in Song Dynasty , Dunhuang scriptures and famous paintings of Song and Ming Dynasties.

The bronze statue of the Shang Dynasty in front of us is two conjoined sheep, with a round cylinder in the middle, with a very beautiful and exquisite shape.There is also a porcelain jug from the Song Dynasty, with a lotus flower around the base and lid, and a lion sitting on the lid, which is even more rare and rare.

David proudly flaunted: "Look, this is the Chinese artist Sui Jianguo. The sculpture "Clothing Texture Study of the Discus Thrower" specially dressed in a Chinese tunic suit for the original Greek sculpture "The Discus Thrower" is undoubtedly the most relevant artwork. He Recreated the work in cast bronze and plaster specifically for the British Museum and donated it to the British Museum."

Wu Tianyuan stared at the nondescript so-called sculpture in front of him speechlessly, shook his head, there was no way, and it was useless to say anything.Now the treasures are in other people's hands, except for war, the only way to get them back is through exchanges!
David saw Wu Tianyuan staring at a Northern Qi Buddha statue, and said with a smile, "I bought it from Lu Qinzhai at a high price in the early years, but it's a pity that I lost both feet, an arm and a left palm."

"Nonsense, this is the treasure that the traitors stole with explosives!" Wu Tianyuan cursed secretly: "Lu Qinzhai will definitely not lose if he gets retribution in his later years!"

"Is this one of the three-color arhat statues in Liao Dynasty?"

"Not bad!" David said proudly, "There are sixteen three-color Arhats in Liao Dynasty in Bafowa, Yixian County, Hebei. Liao Dynasty.

"This group of Arhats were all lost to overseas museums before the liberation of China. Few people in your country know about them, but they have been receiving strong attention overseas because of the combination of high realism and religious beauty of this group of Arhats. It is a pity in the early 20th century. At least three statues were destroyed during the process of being smuggled out of the country, and so far there are only 11 statues in the world."

Wu Tianyuan hated his teeth itching. In 1912, two antique dealers in BJ sold a life-size three-colored Arhat statue from Yizhou to German sinologist Belczyski. He immediately marveled at the superb realistic charm of the statue.He rushed to the site without stopping to investigate, and lived in Yongfu Temple in the Western Mausoleum of the Qing Dynasty, which is only 20 miles away from Bafowa, under the pretext of "recovering from illness".

贝尔1912年11月间的八佛洼之行，亲眼目睹或确知下落的罗汉造像共6尊，当地原住民提供的讯息中所涉及的罗汉像则多达9至10尊！
Soon all the arhat statues in Bafowa were stolen and sold out. It is extremely regrettable that at least three extremely precious arhat statues were ignorantly broken during the process of the villagers smuggling the statues down the mountain at night.

According to Bayesian, the first statue of an Arhat that he learned of the hiding place has been broken into at least six pieces!A mountain resident of Baihua Mountain once told Bell that he himself tried to carry an Arhat down the mountain, but the statue was smashed to pieces!
One piece in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, USA, with a remodeled head.

One in the collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art.

Two in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA.

One is in the collection of the Nelson-Arkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, USA.

1 in the collection of the Museum of Archeology and Anthropology, University of Pennsylvania, USA.

One in the collection of the Royal Ontario Museum in Canada.

One in the British Museum, London, UK.

One piece is in the collection of National Museum of Asian Art, Guimet, Paris, France.

One old collection of Japanese private collector Kojiro Matsukata.

David sighed: "It's a pity that you don't have one in China!"

(End of this chapter)