"The junction of East England and Lincolnshire?"

Wu Tianyuan and Sun Yuyao originally came to Bonhams today to hold a shareholders' meeting, and after Ross's maneuvering, another 20% of the shares were acquired by Wu Tianyuan, and now he is absolutely controlling and making a promise.

I came to the treasury to look at the next batch of auction items, and I accidentally heard a clue from a necklace about the lost jewel box of King John of England!

After the death of Richard I in 1199, his younger brother John succeeded to the throne. John's greatest specialty is said to be the connoisseurship of jewelry, and he has collected countless jewels. ”

"History records that on October 12, 1216, King John, who had signed the Magna Carta of England, was about to lead his men across Worth Bay, and his luggage cart was loaded with a large amount of medieval treasure."

But as they were advancing, the tide rose suddenly, and the whole cart and its jewels were swallowed into the sand, and when the tide receded, they never recovered their lost treasure. For the next 700 years, the royal treasures were forgotten in the swamps. ”

After listening to the story of the necklace, Wu Tianyuan is going to take it to treasure hunting tomorrow, and he has been looking for the British treasure to exchange for the beast-faced Kui Dragon Pattern Fang Zun in the British Museum.

Two days later, Wu Tianyuan and his party arrived in Lincolnshire, began a treasure hunt by a small lake in the wilderness, and finally found King John's lost jewelry box three hours later.

"Such a big diamond!"

Wang Hong exclaimed, the first thing a woman saw was a sparkling diamond, and a huge and incomparably large loose diamond appeared in front of her.

"At least fifty carats, right? It's beautiful! ”

Wu Tianyuan was also surprised by such a huge and beautiful diamond, and looked at the various other top gems in the box, and was very satisfied with this harvest.

"Fortunately, this time it's jewelry, and the box is full of mud and sand, if the calligraphy and paintings have been completely destroyed."

Wu Tianyuan cleaned all the jewels with lake water, a king's scepter, two crowns, and the rest were precious stones, at least thirty or forty.

"This big diamond is left and given to Yu Yao as an engagement gift, and the others help me contact the British Museum, and I finally have a chance to meet!"

Jiuding has collected more than half of it, leaving the American Metropolis, the British Museum, and the National Palace in Taipei. The whereabouts of the last one are unknown, but Wu Tianyuan has a feeling that as long as the other eight are together, it will appear naturally.

"We at the British Museum have more than 6 million pieces in our collection, and due to space constraints, there are still a large number of collections that are not on public display. THESE INCLUDE THE SCULPTURE GALLERY, THE WHITE WING PAVILION, THE EDUARDO VII ROOM, THE DUVEEN ART GALLERY AND THE NEW WING HALL. There are 12 collection departments, such as Ancient Egypt and Sudan, Coins and Medals, Ethnography, Greek and Roman Antiquities, etc. ”

Curator David took Wu Tianyuan to visit the museum in person, and he had long been interested in this famous treasure hunter, and he received a call today and finally had the opportunity to cooperate.

"Dear Wu, this is the 33rd museum, which mainly displays Asian cultural relics, but most of them are Chinese cultural relics, in fact, the cultural heritage of mankind belongs to all mankind, and it is the same there, right?"

Wu Tianyuan smiled coldly, looking at the Chinese showroom, it occupied several halls, the exhibits ranged from the bronzes of the Shang and Zhou dynasties, to the porcelain of the Tang family, the gold and jade products of the Ming and Qing dynasties, and there were more than 20,000 rare treasures from China alone!

The vast majority of them are priceless treasures, such as the paintings and embroidery of various dynasties in China, the unearthed cultural relics of various periods, the calligraphy and painting of the Tang and Song dynasties, the porcelain of the Ming and Qing dynasties, etc., among which the most precious ones are the "Female History Atlas", the three-color statue of the Song Arhat, the Dunhuang scriptures and the famous paintings of the Song and Ming dynasties.

In front of me, a bronze statue of the Shang Dynasty is two conjoined sheep, carrying a round tube in the middle, the shape is very beautiful and exquisite. There is also a porcelain wine pot of the Song Dynasty, the base and the responsibility are surrounded by a lotus flower, and a lion sits on the lid of the pot, which is a rare treasure.

David boasted a little proudly: "You see this is the Chinese artist Sui Jianguo, who specially put on a tunic for the original Greek sculpture "Discus Thrower", and the sculpture "Clothing Pattern Research Discus Thrower" is undoubtedly the most relevant artwork. He specially recreated the work for the British Museum in cast bronze and plaster, and presented it to the British Museum. ”

Wu Tianyuan looked at the nondescript so-called sculpture in front of him speechlessly, and shook his head, no way, it's useless to say anything. Now the treasures are in the hands of others, except for the war, only by exchanging a little bit to get it back!

David saw that Wu Tianyuan had been staring at a Northern Qi Buddha statue, and said with a smile: "In the early years, it was purchased from Lu Qinzhai at a high price, but unfortunately he broke his feet, an arm and a left palm. ”

"Nonsense, this is the treasure stolen by traitors with explosives!" Wu Tianyuan secretly scolded himself: "Lu Qinzhai has retribution in his later years, and he will definitely not lose!" ”

"This is one of the Liao Sancai Arhat statues?"

"Not bad!" David said proudly: "Hebei Yi County Eight Buddha Wa Liao Dynasty three-color Arhats, a total of sixteen. The size of each statue is slightly larger than that of the real person, and the scholars initially determined it to be the Tang Dynasty, thinking that it was Tang Sancai, and now it is recognized as the Liao Dynasty.

"This group of Arhats was all lost to overseas museums before the liberation of China, and few people know about it in your country, but overseas it has always been strongly concerned because of the combination of high realism and religious beauty of this group of Arhats. Unfortunately, at least three statues were destroyed in the process of being smuggled out of the country at the beginning of the 20th century, and only 11 have survived to this day. ”

In 1912, two antique dealers in Beijing sold a life-size three-color Arhat statue from Yizhou to the German sinologist Berczyski, and he was immediately amazed by the superb realism of the statue. He rushed to the scene non-stop for field investigation, and lived in the Yongfu Temple of Qingxi Ling, which is only more than 20 miles away from the Eight Buddha Valleys, in the name of "recuperation".

During Bell's trip to the Eight Buddhas in November 1912, he saw or knew the whereabouts of a total of 6 Arhat statues, and as many as 9 to 10 Arhat statues were mentioned in the information provided by the local aborigines!

Soon the Arhats of the Eight Buddha Valleys were stolen and sold, and it is extremely regrettable that in the process of the villagers smuggling the statues down the mountain at night, at least three incomparably precious Arhat statues were broken in ignorance.

According to Pei, one of the earliest Arhat statues he learned of his hiding place had been broken into at least six pieces! A mountaineer in Baihua Mountain once told Bell that he himself had tried to carry an Arhat down the mountain, but the statue was shattered!

1 statue in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, USA, with a plastic head.

1 statue in the collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art.

2 statues in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA.

1 statue from the Nelson-Agens Museum of Art, Kansas City, USA.

1 statue in the collection of the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Pennsylvania, USA.

1 statue in the collection of the Royal Ontario Museum in Canada.

There is one statue in the British Museum in London, England.

1 statue from the collection of the Guimet Museum of Asian Art in Paris, France.

1 statue from the collection of Kojiro Matsukata, a private collector in Japan.

David sighed and said, "It's a pity that you don't have any of them in China!" (To be continued.) )