Sure enough, after hearing Qu Guanwen's words, Ran Wennian was moved.
It's not because of money, but just as Qu Guanwen thought, it's simply because he wants to show off his skills.
He walked to the front of "Appreciating Orchids at Midnight" and looked at and pondered it from top to bottom and from left to right, bit by bit.
It took Wang Fugui a total of ten minutes from the appraisal to the end.
And Ran Wennian...
Even though he was secretly speculating while Wang Fugui was making the appraisal, he still looked at it for nearly an hour.
Finally, Ran Wennian raised his head.
Qu Guanwen quickly came over: "Professor Ran, this painting..."
Looking at Boss Qu, whose face was filled with longing, Ran Wennian asked, "Do you want to hear the truth or a lie?"
"Ah?" Qu Guanwen was stunned.
He hadn't expected that to happen.
You should know that from the perspective of identification, there are only two situations when evaluating an antique: authentic or fake.
As for truth and lies...
Isn't that just a little joke between friends?
After thinking for a moment, Qu Guanwen carefully asked, "How do you tell the truth? And how do you tell a lie?"
Ran Wennian is not his friend, so his "truth" and "lies" must have other deeper meanings.
Sure enough, Ran Wennian smiled faintly: "If it's a lie, it's a fake."
Qu Guanwen was stunned for a moment, then he was overjoyed: "You mean, if you're telling the truth, it really is Mr. Yongxiu's authentic work?"
Ran Wennian shook his head: "No, even if it's true, it's still a fake."
Qu Guanwen: “…”
Wang Fugui beside him said, "Professor Ran, could you have seen it wrong?"
His face looked a little ugly.
You have to know that I just swore that this painting was made by Yang Shen.
As a result, the other party not only said it was a fake, but also accused me of double fakes.
Are you thinking the slap in the face wasn't light enough?
Ran Wennian looked confident: "I absolutely cannot be wrong!"
"you……"
"Professor Ran, I still don't quite understand what you said about 'truth and lies are all fakes'. Can you explain it again?" Qu Guanwen finally came to his senses.
Ran Wennian said: "It's very simple. If you want to hear lies, I will tell you directly that it is a fake. This appraisal is over.
If you want to hear the truth, I can prove why it's fake, but it will damage the painting.
So you better decide for yourself!"
So that's how it is...
Although he understood the whole story, Qu Guanwen couldn't be happy at all.
You know, he was full of confidence just now, but...
After a long period of hesitation and struggle, Qu Guanwen finally gritted his teeth and said:
"Professor Ran, I want to hear the truth!"
For cultural relics collectors, it is common to have their collections overlooked.
Many times, getting hit in the eye is not scary. What is scary is that you don’t even know how your eye was hit.
If you can get on-the-spot guidance from an expert, not to mention damaging one painting, even if you damage ten, you will still make money.
Ran Wennian nodded and said to Ran Xingyue, "Give me my knife."
Ran Xingyue entered Ran Wennian's bedroom and came out with a wooden box in her hand.
Ran Wennian took it and opened it.
What caught my eye were all kinds of strange-shaped metal parts, needle-shaped, hook-shaped, curved, L-shaped...
The most exaggerated one is exactly the same as Cardcaptor Sakura’s magic wand.
Ran Wennian picked up the hook-shaped metal piece and carefully inserted the pointed hook into the rice paper layer of the ancient painting.
A magical scene happened.
He just moved his wrist slightly, and a layer of the painting "Appreciating Orchids at Midnight" was peeled off.
On the thin paper that was peeled off was a painting of "Appreciating Orchids at Midnight".
On the rice paper connected to the scroll is still "Appreciating Orchids at Midnight".
Placing the two paintings side by side, Ran Wennian asked Wang Fugui, "Do you still think this is Yang Shen's authentic work?"
“This…” Wang Fugui’s face was as pale as snow.
He has some attainments in ancient calligraphy and painting, otherwise he would not dare to open an "antique jewelry store".
That is why, when Ran Wennian uncovered the "Midnight Orchid Appreciation Picture", he also discovered problems with this painting.
Ran Wennian then asked Qu Guanwen, "Boss Qu, how much did you spend on this painting?"
Qu Guanwen smiled bitterly: "1.2 million!"
Ran Wennian nodded: "Although the loss of 1.2 million is not particularly serious, because these two fakes themselves have a certain value."
He pointed at the thin paper and said, "If I'm not mistaken, the painting 'Appreciating Orchids at Midnight' on it must have been copied by the forger by placing the paper on the original.
Although this method can restore the original to the greatest extent, it is not easy to use because the paper is too thin.
So he chose another piece of rice paper and painted directly on it, and then used exquisite skills to stick the thin paper onto the rice paper.
In this way, rice paper painting can add a bit of thickness to thin paper painting, while thin paper painting can also cover up the flaws in rice paper painting.
The two complement each other and create an effect that is so real that it is hard to tell the difference between the real and the fake."
After listening to Ran Wennian's analysis, everyone was stunned.
No one expected that such a fraudulent operation would exist.
Qu Guanwen hurriedly asked: "Professor Ran, how should we distinguish when we encounter such a situation?
To be honest, when I bought this painting, I studied it repeatedly and asked many appraisers to authenticate it, and the answers I got were all authentic.
Otherwise, I wouldn’t have spent millions to buy it.”
He thought Ran Wennian would give him some pointers, but he shook his head and said, "There's no perfect solution. If you insist on asking, I can only say to read more, learn more, and think more.
I can see that there is something wrong with this painting, not because I can see that it has a layer.
In fact, a piece of top-quality rice paper used for painting is made up of many thin papers glued together using a special method.
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