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Chapter 662: The Tsaress's Shipwreck Treasure

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"The story of this treasure began more than 200 years ago. In 1771, at the height of the Russian Empire's vast territory, Tsarina Catherine II sent an emissary to buy a large collection of precious porcelain, gold, silver and bronze objects, as well as 27 paintings by Dutch masters, at an auction house in Amsterdam at the end of July of that year. The treasures were carefully selected and at great prices and were prepared for the Tsar's collection in the newly built Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg. Loaded with precious porcelain, gold and silver, and famous paintings and works of art, the schooner 'Lady Maria' departed from Amsterdam!" Li Yan said.

"This ship can't be sunk, right?" Fang Zhonghua, who was sitting next to Liu Dong, said.

"That's right, 28 days after leaving Amsterdam, the Maria Woman ran aground in the vicinity of Julm Island in a storm off the coast of Finland (then part of Sweden)!"

"Stranded? Didn't it be salvaged after that? This is a shipload of treasures!" Liu Dong said.

Hearing this, after glancing at him, Li Yan continued: "Of course, the Tsar will not give up her treasure ship, after the sinking of the Lady Maria, Catherine II organized several salvages, but unfortunately each time it was in vain, and then the matter was over!"

"It's just a few hundred years past. People have never forgotten the wreck of the Tsar's wealth. So the search for the exact location of its sinking has not stopped for hundreds of years. It was not until 28 June 1999 that sonar surveys found the 'Lady Maria' in Finnish waters. All the measurements were in good agreement with the data, and the 43 meters of deep-sea water formed a protective layer that allowed her to sleep peacefully for 228 winters without being damaged by ice. The fully loaded cabins are piled with antiques and works of art! According to the information left behind at that time, the relevant organizations estimate that the wealth on board the Madame Maria is worth at least 1 billion euros!"

"Hey, it's worth so much money?"

Li Yan nodded, with a hint of longing on his face: "Yes, and it's a conservative estimate! Although most of them are mainly based on the identification of domestic cultural relics, I think I am no stranger to oil painting masters such as Rembrandt and Hoyen!"

Of course, it is no stranger, Rembrandt Halmannsson Van Lein, who studied under P. Rastmann in his early years, opened a studio in his hometown in 1625, and painted a wide range of genres, specializing in portraiture, landscape, genre painting, religious painting, history painting, etc. In his paintings and prints, Rembrandt demonstrated his perfect grasp of classical imagery, while adding his own experience and observations, thanks to the power of this empathy. Known as the "Prophet of Civilization", he was one of Europe's greatest painters of the 17th century. He is also the greatest painter in Dutch history.

Hoyen, one of the founders of Dutch realist landscape painting in the 17th century.

These two Liu Dong are very familiar with each other, and each of their paintings that appear at auction is often sold for tens of millions of dollars, especially Rembrandt, none of his fine oil paintings are less than 20 million pounds! Obviously, the auction items that can be valued by Tsar Catherine II must be the best of the best!

In addition, according to the newspaper, among the 27 paintings on the shipwreck of the Lady Maria, one of the oil paintings created by a Dutch court painter caused a competition between the two royal families of France and Tsarist Russia, and the transaction price set a record at that time. Madame Pompidou wanted to buy the painting and give it to her lover, King Louis XV of France, but it was snapped up by Catherine II, the Empress of Russia, for 15,000 guldings (gold coins), which is an incredible price even now for 100 million euros in current currency. From this, you can also imagine how valuable this wreck is!" Li Yan said.

When everyone sighed, Liu Dong was also surprised in his heart, but he still had a question, "Secretary Li, this shipwreck of the Lady Maria has been buried deep in the sea for more than 200 years, even if these oil paintings are valuable, they should have turned to ashes long ago!

After listening to Liu Dong's words, everyone reacted immediately, and as antique appraisal experts, they quickly realized this problem.

"Hehe, don't worry about this, before loading the ship, the oil paintings were packed in a lead box and sealed with wax, and the location of the wreck was only 43 meters, which is not too deep, so according to expert estimates, these precious oil paintings were not damaged by the sea!"

"If that's the case, then this wreck is so tempting!"

"Of course, if it weren't tempting, I'm afraid there wouldn't be this parade in front of you!"

Listening to the surrounding discussions, Li Yan nodded and continued: "Although the wreck of the Lady Maria has just been found, the wealth is still at the bottom of the sea, and many countries involved in it have disputes over it. The site of the wreck of the Lady Maria was located 43 metres off the coast of Sweden at the time, which is now part of Finland. According to Finnish law, anything that has been in Finnish waters for more than 100 years is officially owned by Finnish authorities. ”

"However, the Russian Empire purchased the treasures with 'real evidence' - a contract that determined that the ship's contents belonged to Russia. At the time of the signing of this agreement, Finland was still part of the Russian Empire. The Dutch, on the other hand, believed that the treasure on board belonged to them in the end, because the 'Madame Maria' was a Dutch merchant ship. So now the three countries are arguing about this matter, and as for the salvage, I don't know when it happened!"

After Li Yan finished speaking, Liu Dong's eyes lit up, and he hurriedly said: "Secretary Li, do you mean that the ship is still sinking on the bottom of the sea and no one has salvaged it?"

Although he didn't understand why Liu Dong was so eager in his tone, Li Yan still nodded.

"What?, Xiaodong, are you still going to dig for treasure?" Fang Zhonghua said with a smile.

"Isn't it okay?" Liu Dong asked rhetorically.

Such a treasure ship, and it is still sunk in the sea, and it is not a thing of his own country, how can Liu Dong not covet the reason, it is 'Tianyu does not take it, but suffers from it'!

"Hehe, now the location of the wreck has been monitored by the Finnish police, although private exploration is not prohibited, but the salvage ship can't get by!" Li Yan said with a smile.

Hearing this, Liu Dong nodded and didn't say anything, unless it was more than 300 meters deep in the sea, he wouldn't need any salvage ship at all, but with his strong body and long-term breath-holding ability, as well as the storage of relics and mustard seed space, he would be able to scavenge any shipwreck!

However, although Liu Dong has rowed this wreck into his bowl, now he is acting collectively with everyone, and he has to think about the long term when to plan this wreck!

After waiting for more than ten minutes, the procession on the street finally passed, and the street was restored to smoothness, and soon the group came to the hotel booked in advance.

This treatment envied Fang Zhonghua, who originally slept in a two-person suite with him, so to put it mildly, after sending this guy away with the promise of three big meals, Liu Dong took out the newspaper he had just bought in the hotel lobby.

Looking at the above special introduction to the wreck of the 'Madame Maria', Liu Dong's heart became more and more hot.

27 masterpieces by Rembrandt, Hoyan and other contemporaries, and it is even possible that there are hidden works of the masters that have not been handed down!

In addition, there are hundreds of bronze sculptures, hundreds of porcelain and countless gold and silver coins.

"If I can get these priceless antiques, then it will lay the foundation for the Western Pavilion of the Old Summer Palace Museum in the future, and I think that when the time comes, with them as a foundation, the application for the reconstruction of the Old Summer Palace will be easier to be approved!" Liu Dong said secretly in his heart.

In addition, Liu Dong wants to build the Old Summer Palace Museum into a world-class large-scale museum comparable to the British Museum and the Louvre Museum.

……

In order to reverse the jet lag, everyone rested in the hotel on the first day of arriving in the Netherlands, although Liu Dong didn't feel anything, but he didn't go out because he was too new to Amsterdam.

Early the next morning, as soon as Liu Dong had breakfast, Fang Zhonghua came to the door, "Xiaodong, let's go, take you to a good place!"

"Didn't you say you couldn't go out today?" Liu Dong said in surprise.

Because, most of the people in the collection association are old men in their fifties and sixties, and their bodies are obviously not comparable to those of these young people, so they don't rest for two more days, and their bodies and spirits are not restored!

"Do you want to stay in the hotel all day? Let's go, let's move freely today!" As he spoke, Fang Zhonghua pulled Liu Dong's arm, and the two went out.

As the capital of the Netherlands, Amsterdam is so famous in the eyes of any man, and even yearns for it, because it is the most open sex capital in the world, but Fang Zhonghua and Liu Dong's destination is not De Wallen, where the red light district is located, but Museumplein, located in the heart of Amsterdam.

There are more than 60 large and small museums, including the Rijksmuseum and the famous Van Gogh Museum, which houses a variety of artworks from the Dutch Golden Age, including gold and silver products, sculptures, glassware, porcelain, etc., as well as famous paintings by world-famous painters such as Rembrandt, Van Gogh, and Gauguin.

However, the plan to visit the museum will have to wait until tomorrow, and today Liu Dong and Fang Zhonghua came to Museum Square mainly because it also has the largest number of antique shops in the Netherlands!

Anyone planning to travel for the purpose of picking up spills, come here is the right place!

………………………………………………………………………… (To be continued......)