Manager Guan was still introducing himself:
"President Lin, look at this! This is a large, huanghuali (Huanghuali) chest of drawers with phoenix and peony patterns. It was an imperial item from the Ming Dynasty. And these two chairs are called huanghuali cross-legged chairs. Don't be fooled by their simple workmanship; they were the special chairs used by Ming Dynasty emperors when traveling.
In addition, the bookcases and carved wood boxes in our store, including the row of plum blossom tables over there, are all classic pieces of Ming and Qing furniture, all of which were used by the imperial family. We scavenged them piece by piece from the Forbidden City warehouses."
Lin Sanqi almost spit out a mouthful of salt soda.
The things that come out of the Forbidden City are definitely authentic, but the garbage that the Forbidden City doesn’t want is definitely national treasures. If I took it there in 2014, would I be taken out and shot?
After all, some things cannot be touched. Although Lin Sanqi has a G car, he cannot drive into the Forbidden City because he does not have the background.
Manager Guan didn't know what Lin Sanqi was worried about, and continued to introduce himself:
"Dean Lin, come over here and see this majestic chair? Its full name is the Golden Nanmu Carved Eight Treasures Cloud and Bat Pattern Water Wave Cloud Dragon Throne. Our experts speculate that this throne may be the real dragon throne that was lost from the Hall of Supreme Harmony.
But this chair was found in the Grand Theater of Dehe Garden in the Summer Palace. Many experts say it is not the dragon throne, but they don’t even look at the regulations of this chair.
Its backrest is a "round chair" style, with four columns supporting the armrests, all of which are carved with exquisite five-clawed dragon patterns and lacquered with gold. This dragon throne was probably completed during the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty.
The experts said it was a Ming Dynasty chair, so how could it possibly be a Qing Dynasty dragon throne? Well, the Palace Museum didn't want it, so it ended up in our cultural relics store, ready to be sold for foreign currency.
Comrade Lin, I'll be honest with you. What do those experts at the Palace Museum know? We have inherited the craft from our ancestors. We've seen it through and it's definitely not wrong. It would be a shame to sell it to foreigners like this. Dean Lin, you're Chinese, so just buy it.
Lin Sanqi swallowed his saliva. Punishment, extraordinary punishment. Even the dragon throne in the Hall of Supreme Harmony was brought out.
As for those so-called experts who are high and mighty, Lin Sanqi also understands their level.
The silk fabrics were all oxidized and not protected. When I finally managed to get some residue, it was mixed up with the front and back, and stuck to the paper and I couldn't get it off.
The emperor and empress's coffins were all made of golden nanmu wood, but they were all thrown away as waste. They were picked up by nearby villagers and burned as firewood. In the end, they could not be recovered.
A total of more than 3,000 cultural relics were unearthed from Dingling, and nearly 2,000 of them were eventually damaged, including the dragon robe of Emperor Wanli.
The excavation of Dingling was a disaster, and it also exposed the true level of the experts in the Palace Museum, who were simply messing around.
Therefore, Lin Sanqi has reason to believe that the things in front of him, such as Emperor Kangxi's wardrobe, Emperor Qianlong's table, and Emperor Jiajing's chair are all real.
This is where the problem lies. They are all true. What should we do?
Especially this authentic dragon throne from the Hall of Supreme Harmony. If you take it out, you will die. But if you don't take it out and just sit on it at home, who can be so strong-willed?
Thinking of this, Lin Sanqi asked weakly:
"Minister Tian, Manager Guan, these pieces of furniture are national treasures. Are you sure I can buy them? That there won't be any accidents in the future? That there won't be retribution later?"
Minister Tian was afraid that Lin Sanqi would not buy it, so he would not be able to get the foreign exchange. As for whether it was legal or not, he didn't care. Besides, there was no cultural relics protection law now.
"President Lin, don't worry. As long as the items are sold from the Antiques Shop, we can issue invoices, as well as collection certificates and export certificates. With these certificates, you are the legal owner, both now and in the future."
Yeah, can you issue an invoice?
Lin Sanqi remembered an unspoken rule of an auction house that he had once inquired about.
As long as you don’t have evidence of “orderly inheritance”, formal auction companies will not accept private collections from the public.
Guardian, Poly, Xiling Seal Society, Rongbaozhai, Hanhai, Christie's, Sotheby's, etc., have not opened the door to accepting private collections.
Of course, if the auction house were so disciplined and law-abiding, it would not be a holy place for making money.
But if you cannot provide evidence of "orderly inheritance", the auction price will be pushed very low and it will not be worth buying at all. In the end, you can only go to an underground auction house.
Now these antique furniture have invoices from antique shops as proof, which is actually a kind of evidence of "orderly inheritance".
Then Lin Sanqi pointed at the suspected dragon throne and asked:
"Manager Guan, what's your price for this Eight Treasures Cloud Dragon Throne?"
Manager Guan obviously remembered the prices of all the goods in his mind, so he said without hesitation:
"Dean Lin, this is a golden nanmu throne with eight-treasure cloud and bat patterns and water waves and dragons. Our current price is $2,000."
Lin Sanqi thought, if I took this dragon throne to an auction house in 2014, it would fetch at least hundreds of millions of yuan, which would be a huge profit.
So he quietly asked, "Old Tang, look at the artifacts in this furniture section. Are there any fakes?"
Old Man Tang also replied softly: "They are all real things. Furniture is rarely faked because it is not valuable and inconvenient to transport. We didn't make fake furniture back then."
Lin Sanqi understood, and said with a smile:
"Manager Guan, how much are all the Ming and Qing Dynasty furniture in your store?"
Leader Jing knew Lin Sanqi's style, and wanted to laugh when he heard this, thinking that this kid was starting to clear out his inventory again.
But Director Tian and Manager Guan didn’t know this, and were shocked when they heard:
"Dean Lin, are you going to buy all the furniture?"
"Yes, I'll buy them all, leaving nothing behind. Please give me the total."
Manager Guan couldn't stop laughing:
"President Lin, this is our exhibition hall. We actually have even more Ming and Qing furniture in the warehouse behind us. And don't worry, they are all top-quality. The rest go to trust stores or scrap collection stations."
Lin Sanqi waved his hand and said, "Then include the warehouse money as well. How much is it? Give me a figure quickly."
Manager Guan was delighted: "Xiao Wang, quickly bring the roster over. Xiao Zhang and Master Li, can you immediately calculate the price of all the Ming and Qing furniture in our store?"
In an instant, several staff members came over and started counting on the abacus in front of Lin Sanqi.
Lin Sanqi didn't understand, but Old Man Tang did, so he stood by and did the math in his head.
Finally, the accountant looked up and gave the final figure: "A total of $290,000."
Old Man Tang continued to nod slightly, indicating that the number was correct.
(The attitude of state-owned stores may not be very good, but their integrity is absolutely no problem, and they will not sell fake goods to cheat customers)
Lin Sanqi thought to himself, it only cost less than 300,000 to buy so many pieces of furniture. Antiques and cultural relics these days are really worthless. A dragon throne that has been sat on by more than a dozen emperors only costs 2,000 US dollars.
Lin Sanqi stretched out his hand:
"Come, give me the list, and then you can pack all the furniture according to the list, load it onto the big truck at the door, and immediately transport it back and forth to my exclusive warehouse in Tianjin Port.
Minister Tian, Manager Guan, don't worry. Leader Jing is my witness. I have $10 million, and your foreign exchange won't be shortchanged. Let's write it down first, and we'll settle the accounts at the end, okay?"
Minister Tian and Manager Guan were so excited that they wanted to clap their hands.
In the past, when we brought foreign guests to antique shops, they would at most pick out a few pieces as handicrafts to take away, and the selling prices would be only a few hundred or a few thousand dollars.
Because these oriental artworks do not conform to the aesthetic tastes of developed countries in Europe and America, even the poor brothers in Asia, Africa and Latin America do not know how to appreciate them.
If people don't like it very much, they naturally won't spend a lot of money on it.
Foreigners may still prefer handicrafts such as silk.
Only the Japanese are more interested in our domestic cultural relics, but at that time China and Japan had no diplomatic relations, so it was impossible for ordinary Japanese tourists to come to China.
How many cultural relics can be sold by just a few Japanese people from the China-Japan Friendship Association?
Lin Sanqi's arrival was the first generous customer the antique shop had encountered since its establishment. He came with a cash check, and instantly Lin Sanqi became a VIP customer.
Lin Sanqi was just trying his hand at it. He cleared out an entire floor for less than 300,000 US dollars. What else is there to say? He is confident and will continue to buy.
Manager Guan brought everyone to the second floor again.
"President Lin, the second floor is mainly for porcelain, but the relevant state departments have regulations that porcelain is limited to the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties. Porcelain from the Tang and Song dynasties is not for sale."
Lin Sanqi felt very sorry when he heard this. After all, the peak of our country's porcelain was in the Song Dynasty, and the five famous kilns were very expensive.
If you can only buy products from the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties, then of course you would choose Yuan blue and white porcelain first.
According to estimates made decades later, there are only about 300 complete pieces of Yuan blue and white porcelain in existence in the world, of which more than 200 are abroad and more than 100 are in domestic state-owned collections.
The flow of more than 200 pieces of Yuan blue and white porcelain abroad was related to the robbers such as the Eight-Nation Alliance in the late Qing Dynasty, but many of them should have also flowed out from cultural relics shops.
The rarer the item, the more expensive it is. The fewer the quantity, the more expensive it is.
"Manager Guan, do we have any Yuan blue and white porcelain in our store?"
"Yuan Dynasty blue and white porcelain? Of course we have it. We currently have 28 pieces on display. Dean Lin, please, they're in the display case over here. How about this plum vase with dragon pattern?"
Lin Sanqi's eyes lit up at the sight. Yuan blue and white porcelain, this kind of thing would easily cost hundreds of millions, and it was all decorated with dragon patterns. (End of this chapter)
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
