The antique business was handed over to George Berkeley and Hua Shengshi, and Xia Yu became more and more relaxed.

The employees left by the Galaxy Fund continue to operate London gold, but because the price of London gold has been rising steadily, the workload is not large, and most of the time they just watch and watch more and more funds......

And the Bright Fund does not need to be managed by Xia Yu, buying bank stocks, speculating in US dollars/pounds, etc., George Berkeley can easily deal with it.

Therefore, Xia Yu continued to devote his energy to the construction and improvement of Huashang Bank.

Before you know it, it's September.

Sotheby's finally recovered all the shares and completed the privatization.

From the very beginning to the completion of the acquisition, a total of 240 million pounds was spent.

After the acquisition, Xia Yu personally went to Sotheby's auction house, and after some understanding, he left the original general manager, Ron Eric.

Ron Eric is just a professional manager, and the information provided by the Bright Fund shows that he is a pure man with a high work ethic, and although he has a good relationship with Sam Nelson, he does not have too many other complicated relationships.

And Xia Yu found out that Ron Eric had been in the position of general manager for fifteen years, and he knew Sotheby's auction house well, and even the company was able to develop to the extent it is today, and he was indispensable.

Xia Yu wasn't worried about what he was doing, so he simply let him continue to control Sotheby's.

However, like the head of the cashier, finance and personnel department, Xia Yu was ruthlessly dismissed.

Korn Ferry has a very good business in the UK, and Xia Yu easily found satisfactory talents to fill the vacancy.

After that, Xia Yu had a good chat with Ron Eric all morning, telling him his future development direction of Sotheby's auction house, as well as the strategies available for development, and also injected 30 million pounds into the acquisition of art centers and exhibition galleries, the establishment of branches, the signing of artists, and so on.

Having just finished dealing with Sotheby's, another piece of good news came that the deal with the Eskenazi family was completed.

The equity stake held by Bright Fund is valued at £28 million.

The 6,218 Chinese cultural relics of the Eskenazi family cost 53 million pounds, with an average of less than 10,000 pounds each.

Although the good and the bad are mixed, in Xia Yu's opinion, the total value is definitely far more than 53 million pounds, this price is definitely worth it, and after 40 years of existence, these antiques are worth at least tens of billions of yuan.

However, compared to Hua Shengshi's acquisition from ordinary people or uninformed nobles, the current price must be high, after all, the Eskenazi family has been running an antique and cultural relics business, and there is still some vision and thinking.

As a result, the Bright Fund paid for its stake in Eskenazi Ltd., plus £25 million in cash, to acquire all the antiques.

Because the number of antiques is too large, even Xia Yu's country manor can't put it down.

Therefore, Xia Yu bought another manor near the manor, and asked Hua Shengshi to pull all the antiques over for temporary storage.

Thinking that he had obtained such a large number of Chinese antiques, Xia Yu couldn't help but feel itchy and drove there with Li Qian and others.

Entering the manor, Xia Yu found that the entire hall was full of old wooden boxes, many of which were rotten on the outer edges, Hua Shengshi was picking with a group of gray-haired old men, and in just five or six seconds, he heard four people wailing, all of which were unfortunately not well preserved.

"Hua Lao, old gentlemen, good afternoon!"

For this group of people, Xia Yu had a good attitude, and said with a smile after stepping into the door.

"Hello, Mr. Xia!"

......

After some greetings, Xia Yu asked these old men to be busy first, and found Huashengshi alone to understand the relevant situation.

"Hua Lao, what's the situation now?"

"Mr. Xia, because I was in a hurry, I didn't even open the box and bought it directly, so I didn't take protective measures for the antiques, these antiques were dusted in the Eskenazi family's treasure house, and some antiques caused serious damage because of the transportation, preservation and other links. ”

"Now that all the antiques have been shipped back, we are re-sorting them and taking preliminary protection measures, and it is best to wait until they are sorted out and then air to return to Xiangjiang. ”

Hua Shengshi said with a sad expression, for him, a person who takes the recovery of Chinese cultural relics as his lifelong wish, he is distressed to death when he sees one by one valuable Chinese cultural relics being damaged.

But it's been an unknown how long things have happened, and it's useless to blame the Eskenazi family and the robbers, so they can only do their best to protect themselves.

A trace of pity flashed in Xia Yu's eyes, and he comforted Hua Shengshi: "Hua Lao, this is also a helpless thing, think of something good, although some of it was damaged, but it took back most of it from the British, this is a great joy!"

"Yes, it's definitely a great event......

Hua Shengshi muttered to himself.

After sighing, Hua Shengshi cleaned up his mood and said to Xia Yu: "Mr. Xia, some of them have been selected and stored for classification now, do you want to go over and have a look?"

"Let's go!"

Xia Yu said immediately, and then Hua Shengshi led the way towards a room inside.

"Squeak......

After opening the door, Xia Yu saw neatly arranged intact boxes, all of which had been covered, and he didn't know what was inside from the outside.

Seeing Hua Shengshi walking over and wanting to open the lid of a box, Xia Yu directly stopped him and told Li Wuming to do it.

Soon, the lids of the boxes all over the floor were opened.

The box is full of bronze!

Dun, Bang, bronze knife, chime, etc., are all small and medium-sized bronzes, and heavy bronzes such as tripods are not seen.

Xia Yu walked in again, looking at the box next to him from time to time.

As he walked to the innermost, his pupils shrank sharply, and his gaze was fixed on the bronzes in the three large boxes in front of him.

It turned out to be the head of the beast of the Old Summer Palace!

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, there are seven!

It accounts for more than half of the twelve beast heads in the Old Summer Palace!

Xia Yu came back to his senses and squatted down and observed carefully.

Seeing Xia Yu's movements, Hua Shengshi thought that Xia Yu was interested, so he introduced: "Mr. Xia, these seven bronzes are seven of the twelve beast heads in the Old Summer Palace, it is estimated that it is because of the Italian court painter Lang Shining and the French designed them, and the Eskenazi family thinks that they have good value and specially picked them out." ”

Xia Yu bowed his head slightly and did not reply, and continued to observe.

Ox head, monkey head, tiger head, rabbit head, rat head, chicken head and dragon head!

Among them, the head of the ox, the head of the monkey, the head of the tiger, the head of the rabbit, and the head of the rat have been realized in their previous lives.

The whereabouts of the chicken's head have been unknown.

As for the dragon head, it is suspected that it appeared at a small auction in Paris, France in 2018, and was bought by a Chinese buyer in Taiwan Province, and it is uncertain whether it is true, because there has been no news since then.

Sure enough, these are in the hands of the Eskenazi family!

Looking at these beast heads, Xia Yu's eyes were full of emotion, every beast head in his previous life would cause a huge sensation, and even just some news could make headlines.

Western capitalists manipulate public opinion, use the national self-confidence and emotions of the Chinese people to make money, and lie on the Chinese people to suck blood, Xia Yu couldn't help but grit his teeth after seeing the news on the Internet in his previous life.

I didn't expect that in this life, these beast heads that touched the emotions of the Chinese people came to him so easily, and there were seven at a time!

"It's okay, when these beast heads are in my hands, they will no longer become tools to grab the interests of the people and hurt the feelings of the people. ”

Xia Yu secretly thought in his heart, at this moment, he had already decided that other antiques might be sold, but it was absolutely impossible for these beast heads to be sold!

And you have to do your best to collect the other five beast heads!

As for the result, it can only be said that everyone is at the mercy of God!

Xia Yu shook his head slightly, got up and said to Hua Shengshi: "Hua Lao, I like these beast heads very much, I must keep them well, and I will inquire more in the future, and try to buy the remaining five beast heads." ”

Hua Shengshi was stunned for a moment, and said with a smile: "Okay, Mr. Xia!"