When a dynasty is on its way to extinction, there is always a need for something to be left to prove that it ever existed. After the complete overthrow of the Qing Dynasty, people were busy dealing with the chaotic state of the country at that time, while others were busy selling the country's cultural relics. There are many cultural relics that have been passed around many times and have entered the museums of other countries, which is unbelievable.
In fact, long before the fall of the Qing Dynasty, the loss of cultural relics in Our country was already very serious. When the British and French allies burned the Yuanmingyuan, they had already taken away all the treasures that could be looted and taken away. As for those that could not be moved, they were burned in the fire.
According to historical records, after the burning of the Yuanmingyuan, at least 1.5 million pieces of various Yuanmingyuan cultural relics were lost at home and abroad. For the loss of cultural relics, people feel very heartache, and some people are keen to sell cultural relics to make a fortune, Lu Qinzhai is a typical one.
This cultural relics dealer, by illegal means, even had a cultural relics building in France. His life was also as tortuous as the cultural relics that were lost, making a fortune by selling cultural relics, marrying a 15-year-old wife, and eventually dying in a foreign country.
Founded a company selling cultural relics, owner of the "China Tower" in Paris
Lu Qinzhai was an internationally renowned cultural relics dealer and a great antique dealer in the early twentieth century. In our country, he can also be described as "notorious". Through illegal means, he sold many Chinese national treasure-level cultural relics abroad, including one of the greatest masterpieces in the history of Chinese art, "Salu Zi" in the Zhaoling Liujun. His resale has caused great losses to our country.
Lu Qinzhai's business of selling cultural relics began as early as 1902. At that time, the Qing Dynasty had not yet been overthrown, and he had already set up a company abroad, and he had opened two companies successively.
In order to better run the antique business, he also worked hard to learn the identification of cultural relics, and the final technique was very high. Foreigners trust him very much when dealing with him, and his business offers great opportunities.
As his business grew, a large number of important domestic cultural relics were smuggled overseas, and he attracted a lot of criticism at home. When he built the "Tower of China" in Paris, his reputation in France grew, but he was spurned at home. The Chinese cultural atmosphere created by cultural relics is extremely strong, and part of the first, second and fifth floors of the "Red Chamber" and the first basement floor have been listed as cultural heritage by the Paris Municipal Government, which shows how well it has been built.
Regarding the sale of cultural relics, the domestic scolding is basically one-sided. In his later years, he admitted that he had sold cultural relics, on the other hand, he felt that this was a kind of protection, and if he did not sell it, it was likely to be wiped out in the war. But in the end, what he did was a loss to our country.
He married a 15-year-old wife but had an affair with his mother-in-law, and eventually died in a foreign country
In addition to the stain on his career, Lu Qinzhai's own emotional and marriage choices are also quite strange.
In 1910, Lu Qinzhai married in Paris, the woman's name was Mary Rose, when she was only fifteen years old. The strangeness of this marriage is not only that the bride is only fifteen years old, but also that Lu Qinzhai was originally with Mary's mother, Olga, and then the mother and daughter changed marriages, so that he married an underage wife.
Lu Qinzhai and Olga met first, and the other party did not marry, but lived as a rich mistress. After the two were together, Olga both liked Lu Qinzhai and was unwilling to give up her original lover, so she arranged to marry her daughter to Lu Qinzhai.
That way, both men can have it for her at the same time. Not knowing what kind of plan it was, Lu Qinzhai really naturally accepted the other party's fifteen-year-old daughter and gave birth to four daughters with her.
For Lu Qinzhai and Olga, this marriage seems to be a win-win situation, but it hurts young Mary. After all, her husband had an affair with her mother, and Olga had intervened in their family affairs many times. Married for many years, she was a daughter, which also brought great pressure to Mary, and over the years, she had a certain mental threat.
Despite the extreme twists of the marriage, Lu Qinzhai and his young wife came to the end. After the outbreak of war, the couple also supported the National Salvation Movement together.
In October 1937, Lu Qinzhai went to Geneva to participate in the charity sale organized by the local Chinese Women's Federation, providing a total of 9 auction items, and all the proceeds from the charity sale were donated to the Red Cross Society of China for the relief of war victims. Since then, it has raised funds and materials for the people many times.
In the second half of his life, Lu Qinzhai seemed to be remedying something. He campaigned for the salvation of the country many times, and at the instigation of the scholar Chen Mengjia, he also donated to the cultural relics exhibition room of Tsinghua University the Warring States bronze "Heir Pot" excavated in Luoyang, Henan Province. In the past, he was a reseller of cultural relics, but later he donated cultural relics, and his life was so contradictory, but in the end he repented.
From his trip to Paris in 1902 to his death in Switzerland in 1957, Lu spent most of his life in a foreign country. As a Chinese, what he did was undoubtedly criticized by his countrymen. But as he himself said, he was extremely contradictory. Having lost the country's cultural relics and running for the country many times, the one-sided evaluation method still does not apply to him.
brief summary
Cultural relics are part of history, and while selling cultural relics, the traces of the country's history have also been forcefully erased. Even if he so-called "preserving cultural relics", it is also damaging the significance of cultural relics to the country. A patriotic person should cherish everything in the country!
Reference: A Collection of Chinese Bronzes scattered in the United States