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Chapter 640: Strange Goods (5)

Bas Guimet handed the thick brown paper document bag to Zhuang Rui and said, "Mr. Zhuang, the list of items donated by the Freys to the Guimet Museum and the Louvre respectively is here, you can take a look first......

At noon, Ba asked people to rummage for a long time before he found this information from the archives, and he didn't have time to look through it himself, Zhuang Rui and others arrived. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

Zhuang Rui took the kraft paper bag, and felt it in his tentacles that there was still a thin layer of dust left on the surface of the kraft paper, presumably this large bag of dossier had been sealed in dust for a long time.

Taking a deep breath, Zhuang Rui slowly opened the brown paper bag, and at this moment, Zhuang Rui felt as if he had opened a door, a door to the Old Summer Palace that was burning with fire a hundred years ago!

The burning of the old site of the Old Summer Palace has made many historical events unverifiable, and the antique cultural relics of the Chinese dynasties lost in it have become a mystery.

But now Zhuang Rui feels that he has touched the history of that year, although it was only a country that invaded China at that time, but the conclusion inferred from this is believed to be more accurate than the speculation of those experts in China.

Opening the sealed file, Zhuang Rui reached out and took out a thick stack of documents from inside, and through the light shining through the bright glass window, Zhuang Rui could clearly see that the top document was a decree, written in English and French, and at the sign below, was the famous General de Gaulle.

After carefully checking the content of this decree, it was the original file of Charles de Gaulle, who was the president of France at the time, who accepted Frey's donation of Chinese cultural relics, and the time span of the donated items was from 1914 to 1934.

But the decree was signed during the reign of Charles de Gaulle, after 1945, probably when the Louvre handed over the file to the Musée Guimet, with the signature of Frey's widow.

Not to mention anything else, just this slightly yellowish piece of paper can already be regarded as an antique, these things that have recorded a certain time in history, in the eyes of historians, are extremely valuable for research and collection.

Just like the ancient Chinese holy decrees, all of them that have survived to this day are precious cultural relics of great value.

Zhuang Rui carefully put aside the decree signed by de Gaulle, and continued to look down, and the seven or eight pieces of paper behind it were all letters, including Frey's correspondence with the director of the Louvre and the Musée Guimet at that time.

However, these letters were all written in French, if it weren't for Qin Xuanbing, who was beside him, who knew French, Zhuang Rui really couldn't understand what was written on them.

With Qin Xuanbing's translation, Zhuang Rui and Huang Fuyun's faces became not very good-looking, because in 1914, Frey and the then director of the Guimet Museum wrote in a letter: "These oriental works of art in my possession are all from the main hall of the Shouhuang Palace, one of the palaces dedicated to the ancestors and emperors in Beijing, where the headquarters of the French Expeditionary Force is located." ”

Looking at the letterheads of these parties a hundred years ago, Zhuang Rui and Huang Fuyun have mixed feelings in their hearts, the country is strong, the people are strong, and the country is weak, in the eyes of Zhuang Rui and others, these things are extremely disgraceful, but in the hearts of those invaders, it may be something that they are proud of and preach everywhere all their lives.

Shaking his head, Zhuang Rui skipped the letter and let Qin Xuanbing continue to explain.

After listening to Qin Xuanbing's explanation word by word, Zhuang Rui finally understood the whole story of the Frey family and their relatives donating some Chinese artworks, and some questions that many domestic experts have been puzzled about have also been answered in these letters.

Since the 80s of the last century, the oil portraits of the imperial concubines of the Qing Dynasty in China have appeared in international auctions, and their origins have always been very mysterious and unknown to the world, and there have been many speculations about their origins.

But through these letters, it can be clearly known that all the oil portraits are from the Frey family, in addition to the ones they donated to the museum, there are more than 10 portraits of the Qing emperor's concubines, which have flowed into the international auction market.

There are a total of 18 pieces of Chinese art donated by the Frey family to the Guimet Museum and the Louvre, and among the 18 pieces in the collection, three of them are Lang Shining's oil paintings, namely Lang Shining's "Magnolia Map" four volumes, "Kazakh Gongma Tu" and "Kangxi Southern Tour Map" Volume 1.

In addition, there are nine portraits of the Qianlong Emperor and his concubines painted by Western-style paintings by several other court painters, which are rare oil paintings of the Qing emperor in Beijing and the National Palace Museum in Taiwan, and there are as many as 12 in the Guimet Museum.

Zhuang Rui sighed in his heart that because the Qing Dynasty oil paintings are too scarce, domestic scholars and experts who study such works have almost no information to refer to and compare, and if he can bring these paintings back, he must be able to fill a gap in the history of domestic art.

Some of the remaining artworks on the list are also mostly ancient Chinese paintings, but the author on it is written with ominous words, and there are also 12 groups of jade seals of "Peiwenzhai" used by Emperor Kangxi and the seal of "Treasure of Emperor Taishang" of Qianlong.

These things are also precious in Zhuang Rui's eyes, among the emperors of China, except for Emperor Tang Ming, who was under house arrest by his son for a few years, Song Weizong's two living treasures father and son, the rest of the emperor, only Emperor Qianlong remained, and his seal should be more collectible.

After reading the list, Zhuang Rui raised his head and said to Bass: "Mr. Bass, with all due respect, there doesn't seem to be any work on this list in the booth of your museum......

Although Zhuang Rui has not seen the physical objects of these things now, but in his heart, these objects can all be called priceless treasures, Zhuang Rui does not know why the Guimet Museum does not exhibit them, if they have appeared in the museum, I believe that they will have been spread in China a long time ago.

"Ahem, Mr. Zhuang, you must know that there are tens of thousands of artworks from the Orient in our museum, but there are not so many booths, this ...... So there are a lot of collections that don't have a chance to be in the museum......"

After hearing Zhuang Rui's words, Bas Guimet coughed a few times unnaturally, in fact, his words were only half of the reason, the Guimet Museum is indeed rich in collections, but the main reason why these oil paintings and jade seals are not displayed in the museum is that the museum does not attach great importance to it.

Europeans have never appreciated ancient Chinese paintings, and in their opinion, those more abstract paintings have no beauty at all, the characters are the same, and the facial expressions are not clear, and the landscape paintings are also vague and unrecognizable, far less comfortable than the European realist paintings.

Therefore, in the early years, the price of ancient Chinese paintings in the international market was not very high, and foreign collectors did not pay much attention to the collection of Chinese paintings.

It is not until recent years that some Chinese oil painting masters, such as Chen Yifei and others, have emerged in the international market, so that ancient paintings have also been admired by some people, and have been speculated by speculators in the international art market.

On the contrary, Chinese bronzes, jade and Buddha sculptures have always been highly prized by foreign collectors, so these objects are far more likely to be exhibited than the calligraphy and paintings, so most of what Zhuang Rui sees at the Guimet Museum is these things.

Like these Qing Palace collections donated by Frey, to put it mildly, they have been stored in the warehouse of the Guimet Museum for more than half a century, if it weren't for Zhuang Rui's request this time, I'm afraid it would be another half a century, and I don't know if I can see the light of day?

After hearing Bas Guimet's words, Zhuang Rui and Huang Fuyun glanced at each other, and their hearts were like mirrors, these actions of the Guimet Museum fully showed that these cultural relics did not occupy a very important position in their hearts.

After thinking for a while, Zhuang Rui turned his attention to Bass and said: "Mr. Bass, these calligraphy and paintings donated by Frey were looted from our country's Old Summer Palace, I think, they can be used as part of this transaction, in addition, among some of the artworks on display in your museum, I would like to pick out a few pieces, what do you mean?"

Hearing Zhuang Rui open the bargaining chips for the transaction, Bass, who was originally relaxed, sat up straight, but with Zhuang Rui's words, his brows also furrowed tightly.

"Mr. Zhuang, can you take out a few Picasso works for this exchange?"

As soon as Zhuang Rui opened his mouth, he wanted to exchange all the Frey's donated items, and also asked to select a few pieces of art in the museum's collection, which was unacceptable to Bath, you know, the antiques placed in the museum for exhibition are the essence of the boutique, even if Bath is willing, I am afraid that there will be different voices in the board.

"Five!"

Zhuang Rui stretched out a slap and said, "I will take out five sketches of Mr. Picasso in exchange for these 18 pieces of Chinese art donated by Frey, and in addition, I will choose three things in the museum......

"Oh, no...... Impossible, my God, Mr. Zhuang, your proposal is simply a robbery, this is absolutely impossible......"

After hearing Zhuang Rui's words, Bas Gimé stood up from the sofa with an incredible expression on his face, although he intended to sell those Frey's donations, but he never thought that Zhuang Rui was only willing to give five Picasso sketches.

This is a bit too different from Bas Guimet's psychological expectations.