Whether it is Zhang Tianyuan or Gao Qianqian, if you go to prison for three or five years at this age, you will really have to be out of touch with society, which is very troublesome.

If it is an ancestral bronz, it will be fine, but if it is stolen from the tomb, then the problem is even greater, and it will be sentenced for the crime of smuggling cultural relics.

Of course, it also depends on the value of the bronze itself, if it is just an ordinary bronze, it may be a lighter sentence, but if it is a national first-class protected cultural relic, it will be miserable.

In our country, there are not many private collectors of bronzes, one is because bronzes are difficult to collect and protect, and a lot of professional knowledge is required, otherwise, once oxidized, it will completely rot.

The second reason is that the bronzes cannot be traded publicly, and can only be traded in some private ways, as long as they are not caught, then it is fine. Isn't there a saying that if you catch it, you will break the law, and if you can't catch it, you will not break the law.

There is also a provision in the law for the next year, if the case is not filed, then it is equivalent to innocence after a certain number of years, which is no different from indirectly admitting that if it cannot be found, it will not break the law.

Because of this, this kind of bronze is traded very carefully, and no one will be stupid enough to take it to the auction house to sell it, of course, foreign countries are an exception. After all, our country's cultural relics protection law does not control the affairs of foreigners.

Regardless of whether it is a first-class cultural relic or a second-class cultural relic, it is not allowed to be bought and sold, and this point is expressly stipulated by the state. The state doesn't go out and grab someone's ancestral treasures, but if you choose to buy and sell, it's different. The state can confiscate it.

Of course, this kind of thing is more difficult to define, for example, if you have a tomb robber stolen something. It was not found, and then said that it was ancestral from his own family. The state also has nothing to do with him, unless it is found out, but generally this kind of case is headless and difficult to investigate.

The police are not as magical as in movies and television, and the headless public cases that cannot be solved in reality are not the slightest.

But then again, if you're a tomb robber, once it's found out, it's going to get you into big trouble.

And according to the regulations of the state, it doesn't matter what level of cultural relics you belong to. Newly unearthed objects are also strictly forbidden to be traded, and if you are not careful, you may get into trouble.

Regarding the arrest of buying and selling bronzes, it is actually not uncommon, and Zhang Tianyuan alone has experienced it several times in more than a year.

It was probably during the Chinese New Year that there was such a person who came to the imperial capital with some fragments of bronze. If you want to find someone to help fix it, you can pay a lot of money.

He went to the antique store to find the shopkeeper of Lao Yu, and wanted the shopkeeper of Lao Yu to introduce a person, but the shopkeeper of Lao Yu did not know Zhang Tianyuan at that time. I introduced this work to a bronze restoration expert who was quite famous in the imperial capital.

The expert asked the man what the origin of the bronze was, but the man couldn't tell at all. So the expert sent him out the door. It means that this kind of thing of unknown origin does not dare to repair it lightly.

This man is not convinced. thought that this expert was disgusted with the lack of money, so he simply found a bronze restoration class in the imperial capital. There are many such training courses in the imperial capital. After a few days of study, he was almost done, so he worked hard with a few friends to restore the bronze by hand.

However, the trouble came out at this time, and this man liked the bronzes very much, and did not intend to sell them, so he thought of taking them back and storing them at home. But who knew that when he got on the train, he was stopped by the imperial capital police, because he really couldn't tell the legal origin of this thing, and he was taken to the police station.

Fortunately, at that time, the shopkeeper invited an acquaintance to intercede and explain the matter clearly, and this person was released, but he had already missed the train from the imperial capital, and the most depressing thing was that the bronze was also confiscated, and he really wanted to cry without tears.

Zhang Tianyuan didn't want to cause such trouble, he didn't dare to accept the bronzes, but there must be a reasonable and legal origin, even if the origin was actually forged, it didn't matter, the key was to have it.

He likes bronze very much.

Since ancient times, bronze ware has been regarded as the "important instrument of the country", and it is the quintessence of China that can be compared with Western oil painting and sculpture. However, because of the stipulation in the Law on the Protection of Cultural Relics that "only cultural relics unearthed before 1949 and clearly recorded are allowed to circulate", many old bronze products have been blocked from the field of legal circulation, so that bronzes are rare in the current art market. Its market price is more low-key than that of ancient calligraphy, painting, and porcelain, which are often hundreds of millions.

But everything is developing, the East is not bright and the West is bright, today is not bright and tomorrow is bright, you can't trade in China, you can go to the international trade ah, as long as there are legal procedures, even if you get it back openly through the customs, no one dares to do anything to you.

Besides, everything is slowly progressing, and now it is not allowed to trade, and the relevant laws of the state are intended to be kept by the state, not by private collections. In addition, there is another very important reason for banning the circulation of this part of the cultural relics, which is to crack down on tomb robbery and protect the existing tomb sites.

However, if it is found that this will not be able to crack down on tomb robbery, but will cause more frenzied smuggling, causing the outflow of bronzes, the state will definitely change this strategy.

You know, despite the strict laws and regulations, in reality the trade in bronzes never really stopped. Because of the "gap" between domestic and foreign countries in the tightening of control procedures, a considerable part of the bronze trade has shifted from domestic to foreign, from public to private.

Compared with the strict regulation of bronzes in the domestic market, the auction policy in the overseas market is obviously much looser.

"From the end of the Qing Dynasty to the Republic of China, due to social turmoil, many bronzes were scattered overseas, and since the reform and opening up, some unearthed bronzes have also been smuggled out. The overall quantity is staggering, and some of them are of very good quality and are not even available in domestic museums. When Zhang Tianyuan first discussed these bronzes with Dong Lao and Li Lao, he heard a lot of information about this from the two predecessors, and Li Lao told him: "Overseas, if it is a bronze that was circulated before 1949, of course, it is correct, but if it is smuggled out after 1949, unless the state can produce very conclusive evidence to prove that it is an unearthed cultural relic, or it is stolen, the auction house can also conduct an auction, and the state cannot exercise the right of recourse." ”

It's ridiculous that the world's largest collector of bronzes is an American!

According to Dong Lao, the quantity and quality of bronzes collected by this American exceed that of any museum in China. A few years earlier, he had wanted to produce a catalogue of his collection, but the plan was shelved when Greece sought to recover lost artifacts from the British.

What is he afraid of?

Naturally, I am afraid that my country will pursue these bronzes, and if there is no catalog, I don't know the details, and I don't know how to recover.

When he heard this, Zhang Tianyuan was really excited, and threatened to take these bronzes home one day.

But if you think about it now, is there something wrong with our country's collection law? If domestic collectors are allowed to collect bronzes, it will not lead to the fact that the people who collect the most bronzes in the world are Americans.

There are still some things that Zhang Tianyuan learned from Wang Zhengjun and Wang Lao.

Over the years, Wang Zhengjun often went to Europe, America, Japan, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan to search for the bronze treasures lost in his early years. He told Zhang Tianyuan that there was a turbulent undercurrent in the private trade of bronzes overseas. There is a "Japanese Chen" specializing in bronzes on Hollywood Road, Antique Street, Central, Hong Kong, and the owner has many bronzes that were scattered overseas in the early years.

"Japan Chen" told Wang Zhengjun that at present, there are only three people in the world who really know these fine bronzes, Cao Xingcheng of Baodao, "Giselle" of Belgium, and "Ess Kennache" of Britain.

Except for the Poly Art Museum, there are no private collectors in Chinese mainland who are powerful enough and understand the fine bronzes.

"What I'm worried about now is that if Chinese collectors lose the good opportunity in front of them, it may be difficult to buy back these national treasures in the future at a cost of billions or tens of billions. Wang Zhengjun told Zhang Tianyayuan at the time: "Until I saw you, I felt that what this Japanese Chen said was wrong, you are a person who really understands these bronzes, and you must get these things back." ”

Zhang Tianyuan said at the time: "Elder Wang, you also know, our national law clearly stipulates that bronzes after 1949 are not allowed to circulate, and I can get other things, but this bronze is really a bit difficult to do." ”

Wang Lao shook his head with a smile and said: "Actually, it's not true, although there are policy obstacles, I don't think that domestic collectors have nothing to do in the field of bronzes." If you want to talk about obstacles, in fact, there are all kinds of ages. In the seventies and eighties of the last century, not to mention the buying and selling of bronzes, that is, the buying and selling of coins, calligraphy and paintings, and official kilns of the Ming and Qing dynasties were all reselling cultural relics, but there were people like Ma Weidu who dared to buy them. ”

"Haha, you're telling the truth. Zhang Tianyuan said with a smile.

"Anyway, I absolutely believe that the bronzes that have been scattered among the people will sooner or later obtain legal status, and there are not a few people who have the same belief as me. In recent years, China Guardian and the imperial capital Poly have been shooting bronzes. In the overseas bronze market, I often meet the owner of a large auction house in Shangpu, who has been quietly buying bronzes since a few years ago. He told me that the bronze market will open sooner or later, and if you don't buy it now, the auction policy for bronzes will really be liberalized in the future, and there may not even be a supply of goods. The number of bronzes is incomparable with ancient calligraphy, painting, and ceramics, and it is rare to buy. When Wang Lao said these words at the time, he really wished that he could be dozens of years younger and also engage in bronze collection.

Zhang Tianyuan agrees with these words, as society becomes more and more enlightened, he has absolutely reason to believe that the collection of bronzes will definitely be legalized, just as it is a truth that porcelain, calligraphy and painting can be legalized at the beginning. (To be continued......)