The Treasure Hunt of an Antique Dealer

The girl in the photo seems to have an ethnic-style musical instrument in her left hand, while her right hand rests on a cute dog's head. Eight? One? Chinese? Network ≤≈=≥=≈≤≈=

It's just a cute dog head, but it's not alive: what Zhang Nan bought was not a photo at all, but the image of the dog's head in the photo.

"A dog's head, I can't see what material it is made of."

Xiang Weirong took a few glances and distinguished it: the photo was colored by hand, but the dog's head was not colored, it was black and white.

"It should be bronze. It's probably the royal faucets in the Old Summer Palace. There are already five of them in my house on Long Island."

The bronze statue of the twelve zodiac animals in the Old Summer Palace was originally part of the fountain in front of the Haiyan Hall of the Old Summer Palace. It was designed by the Italian Jesus-Society member and Qing court painter Lang Shining, built by the French Jesus-Society priest Jiang Youren, and made by the Qing court craftsmen.

In 186o, the British and French allied forces invaded China and burned the Old Summer Palace, and the bronze statues of beasts began to be lost overseas.

Just a few days after the New York stock market crash, Zhang Nan asked Paul and Davis to come forward and bought the monkey and pig from the twelve zodiac bronze beasts in the Old Summer Palace at Sotheby’s in New York. These are also the twelve royal faucets. The first public appearance after the robbery.

Their starting price is not high, only 50,000 US dollars, until the end, the transaction prices were only 180,000 US dollars and 160,000 US dollars.

This is because there is a guy from the Wanwan Collection Organization who usually competes, otherwise the price can still be cheaper.

And just three days before Xiang Weirong and the other five came to New York on this trip, Jackson and Davis acted as antique dealers and bodyguards, from an antique dealer named Charles, with a total of 50,000 US dollars in cash. Bought three bronze beasts: bull, tiger, and horse.

50,000, that Charles made a profit, because he bought these three faucets from other people two years ago and spent 45oo US dollars.

In 1985, this Charles bought three Chinese bronze beasts of bull, tiger and horse from a retired policeman in Palm Springs, California, at a price of $15oo each.

The three faucets that Charles bought were originally decorations in the villa of the retired policeman: It is said that “the earliest owner of the villa once entered the Chinese palace and sat on the dragon chair of the Chinese emperor”.

The horse and the tiger among the three bronze beasts are placed by the pool in the backyard of the villa, and their old skills are used as faucets; the cow is hung on the wall of the bathroom as a hook.

It is said that when the Charles subscribed, a bath towel was hung on the cow.

Zhang Nan had been asking Davis to investigate where Charles was, unfortunately, there was no clue before. However, after the monkey and pig were auctioned off, someone in the New York antiques circle mentioned where they had seen a few similar ones.

Davis did a great job in this, and soon found out what kind of guy that Charles was.

When Davis and Jackson approached the man under false identities, the other party refused to sell at first: He also knew that the monkey and the pig were selling for a good price, so he wanted to hold on to the sale.

But Davis had a way: for $1oooo, he called one of his informants when he was a policeman, and asked the gangster to go to Charles for a cup of tea, and the deal was quickly concluded.

Charles is not at a loss at this price, but he just can't make it out!

He is an ordinary antique dealer, and the police cannot protect him 24 hours a day. Davis is a strong buy.

"This thing is very valuable?" Xiang Weirong asked.

"Generally, this was fired up by the Huaxia people themselves, especially when there was a particularly annoying collection company in Wanwan, which was just hyped up for selling dog meat.

In fact, they are just a few beautiful royal faucets. I plan to move them back and use them as faucets. "

If it weren't for Zhang Nan's move, Wanwan would buy these beasts everywhere, and if they had been hidden for more than ten years, they would have been auctioned at a price of tens of millions, and they would make money in the name of collection!

This is Paul coming back, "Boss, drive."

Zhang Nan was waiting for him and stood up and walked towards the elevator: "Jack, come to me."

Once back to the suite, Zhang Nan handed the picture to his security supervisor.

"For this thing, Davis is not there. You will change your clothes later and go to the photo studio to ask if this old prop is still there."

"I understand the boss, if you are still there, take it back. I think it's similar to the previous ones. But boss, my clothes are not suitable for this trip."

"Jack, this is Italy. Go and buy a set. I'll be reimbursed."

This Jackson has gained experience in buying things: it would be better if Davis was there. That guy has been a plainclothes policeman for 20 years, and he pretends to look like everything.

But Jackson didn't leave for the time being, but thought for a while and said: "Boss, I'm worried that the antique shop and the photo studio know people. If things are there, it will be easy to wear them with a phone call. I want Miss Jenny to cooperate."

After a few people discussed it, there was no need to buy the clothes: Jackson was still a bodyguard, and Paul would also go with him. Jenny took the photo as the protagonist and went to the photo studio.

Go to a play.

Jenny came back more than an hour later, Jackson at the back was holding the royal faucet in his hand, and Paul was carrying a bag of clothes.

"Good job!" He took the dog from Jackson's hand: very heavy, about twenty kilograms.

Upon closer inspection, this bronze dog statue is very similar to the pictures contained in the documents and materials of the Haiyantang Dashuifa copperplate in the Forbidden City. It is about 4o cm high, dark in color, engraved with fine hairlines, and the bronze statue is intact.

Both the water diversion hole under the base and the water outlet of the dog's mouth are there-it can't be wrong, it is one of the royal faucets snatched by the British and French robbers from the Old Summer Palace.

"That photo studio has a lot of old props. As soon as I went in, I took a photo and said that I wanted to take a picture that was exactly the same. It had to be completely restored. The price was not a problem."

Rich people have a lot of quirks, and the photo studio shouldn't be offended-there are people who want to disguise themselves as Audrey Hepburn, and there is no deviation in a small detail.

Jenny is doing her performance, she is holding a tambourine in her hand, and it has been decades since Zhang Nan discovered the instrument in the photo of the girl in the left hand, which should be of this kind of western orchestra. Important percussion instrument.

Because of the angle problem, I didn't recognize it in the antique shop at first. In fact, there are quite a lot of this kind of musical instruments in China.

"The photo studio temporarily borrowed one from the antique shop. I changed my clothes and said that the dog in the photo also needs his head. I absolutely must restore the old photo shooting method. It turned out from the storeroom, and the next thing is Jackson’s business. NS."

When a few people looked at Jackson, the head of the bodyguard smiled and said, “It’s easy to handle things when they are there. When Miss Jenny is finished filming, she changes back to her clothes. I ask Paul to pack all the costumes, plus all the props that Miss Jenny has been in contact with NS."

"The other party has no opinion?" Zhang Nan asked.

"Paul said that all the things Miss Jenny had touched would never be reused by others, and the other party said to pay. I listened to these tens of thousands of liras and hundreds of thousands of liras, and finally gave us $2ooo."

The scene must be very interesting, a bunch of things were taken away directly, and the other party didn't understand what was going on. I really thought it was the quirk of the rich lady.

Several people in the living room passed to each other and looked at the big royal faucet. Guan Xingquan replied: "The royal things are different. A faucet costs 20,000 US dollars, but the workmanship is really good."

"20,000? If you let those guys who speculate on antiques in Wanwan take over, you can get tens of millions of dollars in at most 20 years!"

Zhang Nan cursed inwardly.

Even the bronze dog statues that hadn't appeared before the rebirth were found by myself, and I already had 6 of them. The rat and the rabbit should be in the hands of the same French collector, and the dragon is probably in the hands of a certain collector in Wanwan.

Sooner or later, the rats and rabbits will also be their own, as long as they find out who is in their hands, it won't be a problem.

Zhang Nan can't do it if he spends tens of millions of dollars to buy a big faucet. Five of the seven beasts that have been auctioned in his memory are in his own hands. The price of this playfulness is hyped up in the hype auctions.

I do not participate in ~www.readwn.com~ It is estimated that the two in the hands of the French will not be very expensive.

As for the unaccounted snakes, chickens, and sheep, there is no way for them. If the dragon can know who is in his hands, he will have a way to get them back.

When the time comes, copy the missing one and use it as a fountain tap.

The royal faucet is a national treasure, Haihua bought it with huge sums of money. The buyers are patriotic, but Zhang Nan feels that he was robbed by the robbers twice!

The most hateful thing is: Among them, several robbers-his-mothers are also Chinese!

Pass the heavy dog ​​to Jackson, and the bodyguard will put it in storage, and then bring it back to New York first.

"Ellen, how can you thank me for this trip?"

When Zhang Nan heard Jenny's words, he said to Paul: "Go back and get four Oscar statuettes. They must be solid copper and gilded! You are one of you, plus Davis, and I will give you awards at that time."

The living room suddenly burst into laughter. (To be continued.)