"You asked me to go to the Middle East with me?"

Just three days after the sky-high price of white gloves was sold at the Hong Kong auction, Wu Tianyuan received an invitation from a polar bear to go to Dubai for a few days.

Wu Tianyuan thought of Yuan Qinghua, the world's largest collection of Yuan Qinghua is in the Arab region, and many museums have unique pieces.

The Topkapi Museum in Turkey has a total collection of 40 pieces of Chinese blue and white porcelain, which are all in the collection of the Ottoman royal palace. For nearly 400 years, from its construction to 1854, a total of 25 Ottoman Sultans lived here.

After the establishment of the Republic of Turkey in 1923, Topkapi Palace was turned into a museum with treasures from the original Ottoman dynasty, including Chinese blue and white porcelain.

The Topkapi Museum's collection of Yuan blue and white flowers includes 19 large plates, 5 plum bottles, 4 large jars, 4 large bowls, 3 gourd bottles, 1 pan bottle, 1 jade pot spring bottle, and 1 four-series flat pot.

There are also 28 pieces of Yuan blue and white porcelain in the National Museum of Iran, which is the second largest collection of well-preserved Yuan blue and white porcelain in the world, and Yuan blue and white porcelain is regarded as a treasure by the National Museum of Iran.

Iran's Yuan blue and white ware is huge, the diameter of the plate is basically more than 40 centimeters, and the diameter of the Yuan blue and white phoenix miscellaneous treasure pattern plate now in the National Museum of Iran is 57.3 centimeters.

Many of these blue and white pieces are unique and priceless treasures in the world, such as the 41.5-centimeter-diameter white-flowered unicorn flying pheasant with a blue background, which is the largest in the world, the 70-centimeter-high peony-patterned gourd bottle is the only one in the world, and the 60.5-centimeter-high pair of multi-edged gourd bottles are the tallest in the world.

Wu Tianyuan is now mainly collecting treasures of the Yuan Dynasty, the first is Yuan Qinghua, he has studied a lot of information, and found that in the Yuan Qinghua, large pots, large bottles, large plates, and large bowls are mainly large-scale eating utensils specially produced to adapt to the habits of sitting on the ground and eating together in the Middle East. The small utensils produced in the Yuan Dynasty, such as small jars, small bottles, and small pots, were mostly sold to Southeast Asia.

There are two main sources of Chinese porcelain in Topkapi Palace: it comes from the land route to the southeast of Turkey, which is known as the Silk Road. China has had frequent trade with Middle Eastern countries in history, and through the "Silk Road", porcelain reached Iran for rest, and it became an important trade transit point. Turkey is a close neighbor of Iran, and there is certainly no shortage of it. Trade between each other, Yuan Qinghua arrived from this route, it is very likely.

There is also a sea route to the southeast of Turkey, which is the sea route between the Arab world and China and eastern Asia, which developed in the 8th century AD, which is also known as the "Maritime Silk Road". Arab and Persian merchants traveled from the Persian Gulf through the Strait of Malacca to Jiaozhou and Guangzhou. The maritime superiority of the Arabs was maintained until the 15th century. It is not difficult to imagine that a large amount of Chinese porcelain landed in the Persian Gulf by merchant ships and then landed north to Turkey.

"I remember that there was information that in 1574 the Turkish palace caught fire, and by 1681 there were only a few hundred pieces of Chinese porcelain left in the palace's registered collection. The Sultan ordered a rapid increase and replenishment of the Chinese porcelain collection. Merchants were forced to dedicate all the finest porcelain from China to the palace, thus rapidly enriching the collection. ”

Wu Tianyuan had a flash of inspiration, this is also a clue, the porcelain can't be burned, maybe it will be buried somewhere, and there is a chance to hunt for treasure.

The two met in Dubai, which is the world's most famous gold nest, Middle Eastern and Arab tycoons, who have been lying on top of the oil fields for generations, and they don't have to do anything on it, and they can earn dollars by grabbing the soil, which is capricious.

"We went to meet Mohammed Tagil, a descendant of the Saudi Arabian royal family, who has more than a dozen oil fields."

Polar Bear introduced: "But people are not losers, Harvard Business School top students, proficient in four foreign languages. In just ten years, he has tripled his net worth with his own unique vision! ”

Wu Tianyuan nodded, the children from really big families have the ability, and that kind of brainless loser can only be found by domestic nouveau riche.

"He has two hobbies, one is to play with eagles, and the other is to fly in the sky!"

Polar Bear smiled: "The A380 customized by Airbus was delivered the year before last, which is currently the largest and most expensive private jet in the world. It can fly about 12,875 kilometers with a refueling, and is known as the "Big Mac" in the air. The average Airbus A380 costs as much as $300 million, but how much the ultra-luxury airliner ordered by Tagil cost Airbus does not clearly state, but according to the design and decoration of the aircraft, it will cost at least $500 million. ”

Wu Tianyuan is a little staggered, 500 million US dollars, more than 3 billion yuan! I ran around for a long time to get this money, and I can get it with a plane, cow!

"I guess you wouldn't expect that he is one of the three shareholders of the old auction house Bonhams, with a 25% stake."

Wu Tianyuan's heart moved, this news is very interested, the majority shareholder of Bonhams?

After visiting all the way, Wu Tianyuan felt the exotic customs of Dubai for the first time, and in recent years, Dubai has begun to reclaim land in a planned way. Now it has become synonymous with luxury, home to the world's first seven-star hotel, the world's tallest Burj Khalifa, and the huge Palm Island, the World Map Island.

While driving Dubai's development, the royal family's own wealth is also increasing. Forbes estimates that Dubai's current Sheikh Mohammed has personal assets of at least £7 billion, and the assets of the entire Dubai royal family could be hundreds of billions of dollars.

Dubai's royal family also has a knack for adding value to their assets with a variety of investments, and the world-famous 7-star UAE Towers Al Arab is the work of Al Maktoum, who has decisive control over the tower.

"The Dubai royal family is also the owner of the Dubai International Capital Group, and has been investing in art all these years, especially oil paintings by top European masters. Picasso, Gauguin, Monet, etc. have at least a thousand paintings, and this wealth alone is tens of billions of dollars! ”

"In addition, the royal family owns the famous racecourse in Dubai, and the royal family's DIC Group has previously increased the value of its assets through the acquisition of Madame Tussauds in London and the high-end hotel in the United Kingdom, and also owns a majority stake in Emirates Airlines," said Polar Bear enviously. ”

"They are most passionate about horse racing, and Mohammed of Dubai initiated the Dubai Horse Racing World Cup the year before. The event has grown into a heavyweight event with nine individual events and a total prize pool of $27.25 million. The sheikh has spent as much as $1 billion on raising horses. The stable is home to more than a dozen first-class horses worth more than one million dollars all year round, and participates in all the world's famous horse races. ”

Almost all members of Dubai's royal family are athletes, with Mohammed's nephew Ahmed winning the first Olympic gold medal in the UAE's history when he won multiple men's skeet titles at Athens 2004. In order to improve his skills, Ahmed used five private jets, including the Boeing 747, to search for UFO players around the world to compete with him. ”

"Prince Rashid also won the Asian Games equestrian gold medal, and Princess Mesa loves taekwondo and has participated in the taekwondo competition at the Beijing Olympics."

"In particular, the pets raised by the Dubai royal family are also very domineering, the most popular pets are white tigers and African lions, and the most common pets are gorgeous peacocks. In a few moments, you will be able to see peacocks scattered in the grass in twos and threes in Tagil to feed, and he often basks in the sun lazily in the grass not far away, holding an African lion. ”