China has a history of thousands of years, during which our industrious ancestors have left us countless treasures, which not only witness the rise and fall of various dynasties in China, but also have very extraordinary artistic value.
So many treasures have become cultural relics today, some buried in the ground, some circulating in the folk, but some cultural relics have been sold abroad by criminals and become a trick in the hands of foreigners.
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, in order to better protect cultural relics, many museums have been established, some of which are national, some are local, and of course, some are self-employed.
The duty of museums is not only to allow the world to see the cultural treasures of our ancestors at close range, but also to protect cultural relics, so they often haunt the people and some auction houses, and sometimes go abroad to buy back the national treasures belonging to our country.
And those cultural relics circulating in the folk, generally through the way of ideological education, let the owner take the initiative to hand over, of course, sometimes will also fund the purchase of folk national treasures, but in the end whether it can succeed is also to see the attitude of the treasure owner.
For example, the story we are going to tell today, there is a precious ancient painting that has been sold to experts for 5 million yuan, but in the end it was auctioned back by the museum for nearly 20 million yuan from the auction house.
So what is this painting? Why is it so valuable?
The ancient imperial palace has always been a storage warehouse for various treasures, and although the dynasties will change, the treasures are still there and have never changed.
After the fall of the Ming Dynasty, when the Qing Dynasty counted the remaining items of the Ming Dynasty, it found the rooms where the treasures were stored, and the emperor was very happy, so he ordered these rooms to be renovated and painted to make these treasures have a better storage environment.
Later, with the development and growth of the country, there were more and more treasures in the room, and in desperation, the emperor could only order expansion, which solved the storage problem.
However, with the decline of the Qing Dynasty, there were fewer and fewer treasures in the storage room, because the country needed money and needed to give our Empress Dowager Cixi a big birthday, and the national treasury had no silver, so it could only be used to use these precious cultural relics to make silver.
However, these national treasures failed to preserve the decaying Qing Dynasty, and eventually under the persecution of Yuan Shikai, the Qing Dynasty collapsed.
Although the Qing Dynasty collapsed, Puyi, as the last emperor, still lived in the imperial palace. Puyi, who is usually accustomed to being generous, how can he endure the days when there is no money to spend, and he can't move these national treasures, so he thinks of a way to let his younger brother Pujie secretly take away a large number of treasures on the grounds of rewards.
However, he did not last long for such a day, and was eventually expelled from the Forbidden City.
Puyi, who had not yet woken up from the emperor's dream, immediately threw himself into the arms of the Japanese and established pseudo-Manchuria under the control of the Japanese, and these national treasures he brought out of the imperial palace were hidden by him in the so-called puppet Manchu palace.
With the victory of the War of Resistance, Puyi once again became a street rat, but this time he could not care about these treasures, and finally brought out only a small part, most of which were missing.
Among them, there is a northern Song Dynasty Zhang Xian's ink treasure "Ten Yong Tu", which also disappeared with Puyi's escape.
Pictured: The full picture of the Ten Arias
At the end of the last century, there was an old farmer in the northeast of our country who hurried to the local cultural relics department, according to him, the changes in his home urgently needed a sum of money, and there was nothing valuable in the home, only an ancestral treasure, he came this time to sell this treasure to experts, so as to go back to emergency.
When the old farmer took out the cultural relics, the experts present were very shocked, this is the long-lost "Ten YongTu".
This "Ten Yong Tu" was created by Zhang Xian in the fifth year of Xining, and he used a unique silk color to paint a different style of Chinese landscape painting, which is a very rare masterpiece.
It should be known that when Xi Ning was five years old, Zhang Xian was already 82 years old, as a literary scholar and lyricist, he dedicated his life to literature, in his words, "no poetry and music house, until the old age.".
Pictured: Portrait of Zhang Xian
Although Zhang Xian has a persistent pursuit of literature, when people look back on the past in their old age, they can't help but be touched, and this "Ten Arias" is a collection of what he has seen and heard about his life.
Therefore, this painting is not only his proud work, but also a treasure of Chinese culture.
When experts saw this painting, they could not help but be brought in by its vivid pictures and made a high evaluation of this painting.
Then the expert asked the old farmer how much money he wanted to sell? And the old farmer said that this is an heirloom, at least 5 million.
Experts think it is too expensive after listening, they can only give ten thousand yuan.
When the old farmer heard that he had only given ten thousand, he suddenly stopped doing it, and the gap was too big, so he rolled up the painting and went home without saying a word.
Picture: Partial drawing of ancient painting
The value of the treasure, but the old farmer's family was in urgent need of money, and the next day the old farmer rushed to Beijing with ancient paintings and found a professional cultural relics appraisal center.
After the expert appraisal of the appraisal center, he learned how precious the painting was, but the painting was supposed to be in the Qing Dynasty Imperial Palace, and then disappeared for no reason, but somehow it was obtained by his ancestors.
Then the appraisal center told the old farmers that they are not good at estimating the value, and if they want to get more money, it is best to take it to auction, so that the income will be greater.
After the consent of the old farmer, the appraisal center helped the old farmer contact the auction house and contacted several well-known cultural relics appraisal experts at the Palace Museum.
However, before the auction began, the appearance of this painting exploded the collection circle, and many collectors wanted to see the true appearance of this famous painting and rushed to the auction site.
Finally, after several rounds of fierce bidding, this long-lost "Ten YongTu" was auctioned by the Palace Museum for 18 million yuan, plus commissions and other expenses, and the final price reached 19.8 million, which made the old farmer happily close his mouth.
This auction not only allows the old farmers to get the highest income, but also allows the national treasure to get better maintenance, after all, the Palace Museum has a very advanced cultural relics protection technology, which can be regarded as the best of both worlds.
References: Biography of Zhang Xian, Draft History of the Qing Dynasty