The "Biography of Lu Qinzhai" said of Lu Qinzhai: "He was the first antique dealer to understand the globalization of the market; he was the first antique dealer to go directly to China to find goods, and then take them to the United States and Europe to sell." Before him, antique dealers were just looking for goods locally. He was the first to learn that goods are in China, but money is in the West, and he must go to the source of the goods to find things and take them to the rich places to sell. So he soon opened semicolons in Beijing and Shanghai, and there were people all over China to find supplies, contact him, and reserve supplies for him. He goes to China once or twice a year to see, pick up, order, take them to the West to sell, and learn about the latest market in China. His activities span three continents: Europe, the United States and Asia. ”
Lu Qinzhai: China's largest cultural relics dealer
In the history of the exchange of cultural relics in the modern world, there is a person's name that is inevitable. This person is Lu Qinzhai, the largest cultural relics dealer in modern China.
Lu Qinzhai was born in 1880 in Lujiadu, Huzhou, Zhejiang Province, and during the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the family moved to Shanghai for refuge. By the end of the 19th century, Lu was sent to France by his family in search of business opportunities.
In 1902, Lu Qinzhai and his friends opened the first Chinese antiques import and export company in the Place Madeleine, the "Orient Company".
Lu Qinzhai saw this opportunity and cooperated with Wu Qizhou to establish the most famous private antiques export company in modern Chinese history in Shanghai, Lu Wu Company. At that time, the antiques acquired by Lu Wu Company Group were all fine products, including bronze, ancient jade, porcelain, calligraphy and painting.
According to relevant records, from the beginning of the Republic of China to the founding of New China, in less than 40 years, the treasures and national treasures that flowed into foreign countries through the hands of Lu Qinzhai were more than 500,000 pieces.
Among them, Lu Qinzhai also sold the "Salu Purple" in Tang Taizong's "Zhaoling Liujun" stone carvings at a low price of 125,000 and 80,000 US dollars.
According to the Old Book of Tang and the Biography of Qiu Xinggong, when Li Shimin was fighting on Luoyang Mountain, because he was shot by an arrow from the enemy army on the war horse "Salu Zi", the accompanying general Qiu Xinggong turned his horse's head and shot several arrows at the enemy soldiers, so that the enemy army did not dare to come forward, and also pulled out the arrow that Wasu Zi had hit. Later, in order to praise Qiu Xinggong's battle exploits in desperately escorting the car, Li Shimin specially ordered people to carve the situation of Qiu Xinggong pulling out arrows on the stone screen, and at the same time inscribed the poem: "Purple Swallow Super Leap, Bone Tengshen Jun, Qi Qi Sanchuan, Wei Ling Eight Arrays." ”
In addition to this treasure and cultural relic, Lu Qinzhai also sold a series of rare fines such as portrait bricks from the Han Wudi period, bronze Buddhas from the Sui Dynasty Emperor period, stone lions from the Tang Dynasty, and handmaiden stone carvings.
In his own words, it would be "enough to fully witness the whole process of China's 5,000-year history..."
Construction of the Red House in Paris
When Lu Qinzhai was 40 years old, his antique business was in full swing, so he had an idea: to build a Chinese-style building in a foreign country to display and sell treasures from China.
This idea was very strict in Paris at that time for municipal planning, and it was impossible to cope with it. However, Lu Qinzhai bought a mansion built during the time of Napoleon III and, with the help of French designers, converted it into a 5-storey Chinese-style building.
This is the most Chinese Chinese building in paris, the Red Chamber.
The "Red Chamber" serves as the center for Lu Qinzhai to exhibit his own collection of cultural relics, and is also known as the "Louvre of China" by locals.
In Lu Qinzhai's network of chinese art transactions, the "Red Chamber" is not only a display space and warehouse, but also a base camp for Lu Qinzhai to balance and mobilize resources between France and the United States in China.
Lu Qinzhai's antique trading career is full of legends and criticisms, and his love life has added a lot of slots to it.
Complex emotional relationships, and eventually death in a foreign land
In 1910, the 30-year-old Lu Qinzhai married a 15-year-old Parisian woman, Marie Rose.
The age difference is not much of a problem, the problem is that Lu Qinzhai actually knew Mary Rose's mother, Olga, first.
Olga grew up working as a nanny in an upper-class family in Paris, but her husband seduced her and made her pregnant, so Olga gave birth to an illegitimate daughter, Marie Rose, at the age of 19.
Fortunately, the man was not desperate for her, and has always maintained a lover relationship with her, and at the same time paid for her to open a hat shop.
Mary Rose, who was only 15 years old at the time, was naturally ignorant of the world and had no financial resources, so she could only listen to her mother.
After marriage, Mary Rose became a housewife, and her married life was always managed by her mother Olga. Her mother was able to sign for her as a "guardian" and held the key and password of the safe in Lu Qinzhai's shop. Therefore, it is said that Mary Rose's mother, Olga, is the real hostess of the Lu family.
Mary Rose gave birth to 4 daughters to Lu Qinzhai in her lifetime, because they are of mixed blood, so Lu Qinzhai's daughters are all very beautiful. However, because Lu Qinzhai did not have a son, a large share of the family business he earned for most of his life could only change hands easily after his death.
In his later years, Lu Qinzhai lived in Switzerland in his later years and later died of pneumonia at the age of 78. At the time of his death, he was not accompanied by a family member.
Before his death, in an interview with foreign reporters, although Lu Qinzhai showed a hint of remorse, he still believed that he had made a great contribution to the understanding of Chinese antiques in the Western world and forcibly defended himself.
brief summary
It is undeniable that Lu Qinzhai's life is extremely legendary, and in the turbulent historical context, he is undoubtedly a microcosm of the world's artistic activities in the first half of the 20th century. But as to the question of whether he was a master collector or a traitor, it can only be said that the merits were commented upon.
References: "Biography of Lu Qinzhai", "Old Book of Tang , Biography of Qiu Xinggong"