"Can I not let you go, don't you just ask, okay, I'll invite you to dinner, let's fill our stomachs first." Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo”

"Can I have my fill then?" Wu Lisa said.

"Of course, I can afford it."

"Okay."

I didn't think about it, Lisa Wu really had a big appetite.

At noon, Xi Qing was slaughtered by Lisa for a French dinner, and after a short rest in the hotel, they got into the car arranged by the hotel, and the three of them went to the direction of the Guimet Museum together.

"Mr. Xi, welcome ......"

Eun, who received the call in advance, was already waiting at the door of the museum, and this time when he entered the Guimet Museum, the 8 pounds of admission money was saved, and Xi Qing and his party entered the office on the second floor of the museum under the leadership of Eun.

Eun's office is about seventy or eighty square meters, very spacious, and at the door is a small reception room, at this time, Xi Qing and the others are sitting on the sofa in the reception room, looking at the furnishings in the director's office.

"Damn, it's really extravagant, this place looks high-end......"

With Xi Qing's eyesight, it is natural to see that the antiques on the shelves are all genuine, including Egyptian wood carvings of pharaohs inlaid with precious stones, bronze Buddha statues from Thailand, precious blankets from Persia, and of course, Chinese porcelain.

Xi Qing was feverish when he saw these things, and he couldn't wait to get all these objects in his pocket.

"Mr. Ewen, let's see if there are any artworks in your museum that I like......

After a cursory look at the furnishings in the office, a female secretary with a hot figure came in and asked a few people what they wanted to drink, and after Xi Qing ordered a cup of coffee casually, he directly asked Yuen, and he didn't want to go around in circles.

Thinking of the precious cultural relics that were snatched away a hundred years ago, Xi Qing felt a little excited at this time.

The catastrophe a hundred years ago, there is no way to count how many precious antiques have been plundered abroad, at this time, seeing those national treasure-level cultural relics that only exist in the collection catalog, Xi Qing and Wu Lisha's faces can't help but show excited looks.

"Okay, Mr. Xi, all the materials donated by our French Frey family, including the original materials such as the decree signed by the French president at that time to accept his gift on behalf of the country, are all in this, you can take your time to see, if you have any questions, you can call me ......"

After hearing Xi Qing's words, Ewen picked up a large sealed brown paper envelope from his desk.

Xi Qing found that on the desk, there was the same envelope placed there, which must be the collection of the Asian Department of the Louvre.

Ewan. Jimei handed the thick kraft paper document bag to Xi Qing and said, "Mr. Xi, the list of items donated by the Frey couple to the Guimet Museum and the Louvre Museum are all here, you can take a look first......

Ewen asked people to rummage for a long time at noon before he found this information from the archives, and he didn't have time to look through it himself, when Xi Qing and the others arrived.

Xi Qing took the kraft paper bag, and felt that there was still a thin layer of dust left on the surface of the kraft paper, presumably this large bag of files had been sealed in dust for a long time.

Taking a deep breath, Xi Qing slowly opened the brown paper bag, and at this moment, Xi Qing felt as if he had opened a door, a gate 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 Xi Qing 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.

Xi Qing's eyes even turned a little red, how many Chinese children's feelings were tortured by that catastrophe, I must restore that history and see what it is.

Opening the sealed file, Xi Qing reached out and took out a thick stack of documents from inside, which looked a long time old. With the light shining through the bright glass windows, Xi Qing could clearly see that the document at the top was a decree, written in English and French, and at the sign below, it 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.

Xi Qing 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 Tao Xiaoman, who was beside him, who knew French, Xi Qing really couldn't understand what was written on them, and he was really a little embarrassed.

With Tao Xiaoman's translation, Xi Qing and Wu Lisa's faces became less beautiful, because in 1914, Frey wrote in a letter to the then director of the Guimet Museum: "These oriental works of art in my possession are all from the main hall of the Shouhuang Palace, one of the palaces of 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, Xi Qing and Wu Lisha had mixed feelings in their hearts, the country is strong and strong, the country is weak and weak, in the eyes of Xi Qing 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. They will think that they have conquered a people and got what they deserve, the spoils of war.

Shaking his head, Xi Qing skipped the letter and let Tao Xiaoman continue to explain.

After listening to Tao Xiaoman's explanation word by word, Xi Qing finally understood the whole story of the donation of some Chinese artworks by the Frey family and their relatives, and some questions that many domestic experts have been puzzled about are also 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 these 18 pieces in the collection, three are Lang Shining's oil paintings, and the three are the four volumes of Lang Shining's "Mulan Map", the first volume of "Kazakh Gongmatu" and "Kangxi's Southern Tour".

In addition, there are nine portraits of the Qianlong Emperor and his concubines painted by the Western-style painting method of the rest of the court painters, which are rare oil paintings of the Qing Emperor in the National Palace Museum in Beijing and Taipei, and there are as many as 12 in the Guimet Museum, and how many precious cultural relics have been reduced to foreign countries.

Xi Qing sighed in his heart, 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, 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 Xi Qing'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 inspecting the list, Xi Qing raised his head and said to Youen: "Mr. Youne, I take the liberty of asking, there doesn't seem to be any work on this list in the booth of your museum, what the hell is going on......

Although Xi Qing has not seen the physical objects of these things yet, but in his heart, these objects can all be called priceless treasures, Xi Qing 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.

Ewen smiled awkwardly: "Ahem, Mr. Xi, you must know that there are tens of thousands of artworks from the East in our museum, but there are not so many booths, and it is impossible to display everything, this ...... So there are a lot of collections that don't have a chance to be in the museum......"

Ewan. After hearing Xi Qing's words, Jimei coughed a few times unnaturally, in fact, his words were only half of the reason, the Jimmy 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.

They were willing to put it away, not to put it on the shelf, but not to think that it was good at all.

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 have a far greater chance of being exhibited than the calligraphy and paintings, and most of what Xi Qing saw at the Guimet Museum was 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 Xi Qing's request this time, I'm afraid it would be another half century, and I don't know if I can see the light of day? The other party didn't pay attention to it, but Xi Qing was happy.

Hear Ewen. After Jimei's words, Xi Qing and Wu Lisha 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, Xi Qing put his eyes on Ewen and said, "Mr. Eun, 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 also want to pick out a few pieces, what do you mean?" ”

Hearing that Xi Qing opened the bargaining chips for the transaction, Youen, who was originally relaxed, sat up straight, but with Xi Qing's words, his brows also furrowed tightly.

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

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

He had to fight for his greatest weight so that he could discuss the matter.

"Five!"

Xi Qing 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, in the museum, I will choose three things......

"Oh, no...... This is impossible, my God, Mr. Xi, your proposal is simply a robbery, this is absolutely impossible, I can refuse you very directly......"

After hearing Xi Qing's words, Eun. Ji Mei stood up from the sofa violently, with an incredible expression on his face, although he intended to sell those Frey's donations, but he never thought that Xi Qing was only willing to give five sketches of Picasso.

This and Ewen. Guimei's psychological expectations are a bit too different. (To be continued.) )