Opening the sealed file, Han Chong reached out and took out a thick stack of documents from inside, which looked a long time old. Han Chong could clearly see that the document at the top was a decree written in English and French, and at the bottom of the signature, 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.

Han Chong 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, and if it weren't for Bi Yue, who was beside him, who knew French, Han Chong really couldn't understand what was written on them, and he was really a little embarrassed.

With Bi Yue's translation, Han Chong and Wen Wan's faces became less pretty, 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 dedicated to the ancestors and emperors in Beijing, where the headquarters of the French Expeditionary Force is located." ”

Looking at these letterheads from the parties a hundred years ago, Han Chong and Wen Wan had mixed feelings in their hearts, the country is strong, the people are strong, and the country is weak. In the eyes of Han Chong and others, these things are extremely disgraceful, but in the hearts of those invaders, perhaps they are proud of them and promote them everywhere throughout their lives. They will think that they have conquered a people and got what they deserve, the spoils of war.

Shaking his head, Han Chong skipped the letter and let Bi Yue continue to explain.

After listening to Bi Yue's explanation word by word, Han Chong finally understood the whole story of the Frey family and their relatives donating some Chinese artworks, and some questions that many experts in China have been puzzled about. In these letters, there are also answers.

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 is clear that all the oil portraits are made by 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.

The Frey family donated 18 pieces of Chinese art to the Musée Guimet and the Louvre. Among the 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 oil paintings of portraits of the Qianlong Emperor and his concubines painted in the Western style by the other court painters. It is a rare oil painting of the Qing emperor in the Beijing and Taiwan Bay Palace Museum, and there are as many as 12 of them in the Guimet Museum. One can imagine how many precious cultural relics have been lost abroad.

Han Chong 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 Han Chong's eyes, among the emperors of China, except for Emperor Tang Ming, who was under house arrest by his son for several 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, Han Chong raised his head and said to Carry: "Mr. Carry, with all due respect, there doesn't seem to be any work on this list in the booth of your museum, what the hell is going on......

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

Kari smiled awkwardly, "Ahem, Mr. Han, 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......"

Carry. After hearing Han Chong's words, Jimei coughed a few times unnaturally, in fact, his words were only half of the reason, the Guimet 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 as well as jade and Buddha sculptures. It has always been highly regarded by foreign collectors, so the chances of these objects being exhibited are far greater than those calligraphy and paintings, so most of what Han Chong saw in the Guimet Museum are also these things.

These Qing Palace collections donated by Frey, to put it mildly, have been stored in the warehouse of the Guimet Museum for more than half a century, and if it weren't for Han Chong's request this time, I'm afraid it would be another half a century. I don't know if I can see the light of day? The other party didn't pay attention to it, but Han Chong was happy.

Hear Carry. After Jimei's words, Han Chong and Wen Wan 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, Han Chong turned his gaze to Kari and said, "Mr. Karry." These calligraphy and paintings, donated by Frey, were looted from our country's Old Summer Palace, and I think they could be used as part of this transaction. Also, I would like to pick out a few of the artworks on display in your museum, what do you mean? ”

Hearing Han Chong open the bargaining chips of the transaction. Kari, who originally looked relaxed, sat up straight, but with Han Chong's words. His brow furrowed tightly.

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

As soon as Han Chong 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 Carry, you know, the antiques placed in the museum for exhibition are the essence of the boutique, even if Cary 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!"

Han Chong 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, I will choose three things in the museum......

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

After hearing Han Chong's words, Kari. 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 Han Chong was only willing to give five sketches of Picasso.

This and Cary. Guimei's psychological expectations are a bit too different.

"Mr. Carry, please don't get excited, don't be in a hurry just yet, sit down, sit down and talk......"

Han Chong's bearing at this time was simply not like that of a young man in his twenties, it seemed that he and the angry Kari. Jimmy confused the age and waved his hand for Kari to sit down.

"Mr. Han, I am very sincere in talking to you about the exchange of these artworks, but unfortunately, I don't hear much sincerity from your words, five paintings, only five, I thought, can you explain?"

Carry. Half of what Jimi did just now was real, and the other half was just a fake.

Cary is in charge of the operation of the entire museum, and sometimes sells some collections at auctions, so he is no stranger to business practices, and he just used his behavior just now to show his dissatisfaction and add a little psychological pressure to the young man sitting opposite.

"Hehe, Carimo wants to exchange a sketch of Mr. Picasso for an ancient Chinese painting?"

Han Chong let out a burst of laughter from his mouth, and the disdain in the laughter clearly reached Kari's ears.

Don't wait for Cary. Jimei replied, and Han Chong then asked, "Mr. Carry, may I ask, do you know what the auction price of one of Mr. Picasso's most expensive oil paintings is?" ”

Carry was stunned for a moment when he heard this, and subconsciously said: "Of course I know, Picasso's oil painting "The Boy with a Pipe" sold for 104.16 million US dollars, which is the world record for the auction of a painting, and that painting is also the most expensive painting in the world!" ”

Not to mention Kari, who is the director of a museum, as long as you have a little understanding of art, you will know these common-sense knowledge, Cari replied very smoothly, but after speaking, I faintly felt that something was wrong. He really doesn't have much heart, which also reveals that he is not very unhappy with such a trade.

"That's right, Mr. Cary, you're absolutely right......"

Han Chong smiled, giving Kari the feeling as if he was being held by the other party's nose, which made Kari very uncomfortable.

"But Mr. Carry, you may not know that the highest auction price of a Chinese oil painting is only about 4 million US dollars, so I don't need to compare the price of a Chinese oil painting with that of Mr. Picasso, right?"

Han Chong was dumbfounded when he said this, the price difference is a bit outrageous, and the price of Chinese paintings is not more than a fraction of that of Picasso.

Indeed, this is true.

"In addition, I would like to tell you again, don't think that the price of Chinese art is high, not counting calligraphy and painting, the highest price of Chinese art in the international market is 41.5 million Hong Kong dollars, this incident happened at Sotheby's Hong Kong in 2003.

The Qing Yongzheng "Pastel Manta Olive Vase", worth more than 40 million Hong Kong dollars, already represents the highest artistic achievement in China, Mr. Carry, it is rare that you think that your museum's collection will be better than that fine porcelain? ”

Han Chong didn't wait for Kari to react, and added another fire to him, the burned Kari was a little dizzy at the moment, if it was calculated according to what Han Chong said, it seems that the other party used five Picasso sketches in exchange for more than 10 Chinese artworks, and he should still take a big advantage?

However, Carry always felt a little wrong in his heart, but he couldn't say what the problem was, suddenly Carry's mind lit up, interrupted Han Chong's words, and said: "Mr. Han, you can't calculate it like this, every work of art has its own unique place, and the Picasso works you have are just sketches, not Picasso's oil paintings......"

"No...... No, Mr. Cary, have you forgotten? Picasso's work, whether it is an oil painting, a drawing or a print, is also unique. And on this planet, there are far more people who follow the work of Mr. Picasso than those who like the old paintings that you have pressed in the warehouse for decades. I guess you must have figured this out, huh? ”

Han Chong couldn't tell this old guy to follow his thoughts, but the old man was still very stubborn, and he still couldn't seem to agree to such an exchange, but he didn't think about how to refute it for a while. (To be continued......)