When visiting the museum, careful people may perceive that some exhibits are not originals but replicas, because the materials of many excavated cultural relics are very fragile, and when they are not suitable for exhibition, they are replaced by replicas, which not only protects the real thing, but also achieves the effect of public welfare display and education of the public, which is of positive significance.
But the boundary between antiques and counterfeiting is so blurred, a counterfeit is facing the market, if the vendor uses it to fake the truth, fish eyes mixed beads, the purpose is to make profits, then the nature becomes a pit deception. When the benefits of counterfeiting are high enough, the rampant counterfeiting market "flourishes".
Bengbu, Anhui, although there is no jade mine, is one of the largest jade markets in China. In 1958, Bengbu Jade Carving Factory was established, training a group of skilled jade carving masters, and later the jade carving factory reformed, workers left the factory spontaneously formed the largest jade carving workshop group in Bengbu, the most famous of which is the Happiness Village located in the construction site in the northeast of the city, the beginning of the "glory" of this village, due to an "Oolong Incident".
In the early 90s of last century, two Zhejiang merchants prepared to go abroad with a piece of jade, but they were detained by Zhejiang Customs, and the staff suspected that they were "smuggling cultural relics", and the two merchants repeatedly explained that this jade was an imitation, not valuable, and was taken out to give to a friend. In order to confirm, the customs invited jade experts from the cultural relics department to conduct the appraisal.
As a result, experts determined that this jade was a relatively rare "high ancient jade" in the War and Han Dynasties, which reached the standard of "national first-class cultural relics", and then two merchants were arrested, and smuggling national treasures was a felony. During the interrogation, because of the expert appraisal, the Zhejiang businessmen were unable to argue, and one of them suddenly thought in despair that the craftsman who sold jade might help prove his innocence.
This craftsman is called Xie Yongxue, who is a villager in Happy Village and is famous in the local area for his superb antique technology. After the family of the Zhejiang businessman came to ask for help, he quickly made the same fake jade with the technology of "old oil", and then brought it to the court and asked the judge to give it to the expert for identification, and the expert said strangely: "Isn't this national treasure already appraised, why should it be appraised once?" At this time, the judge believed that the so-called national treasure turned out to be imitations, and the two Zhejiang businessmen were acquitted.
Bengbu's antique jade became popular because of this "Oolong Incident", and antique dealers came to buy it in an endless stream. The jade craftsmen led by Xie Yongxue began to recruit apprentices and expand production, just in time for the take-off of China's economy, and their products were sold throughout the country, occupying the major jade markets and becoming the pillar industries of the local economy.
Whether it is a small and exquisite jade pendant or a large jade carving weighing more than a dozen tons, the villagers do not refuse to come, as long as there is an order, they will make it immediately, and how much they want. Generally, the "workshop" is in the backyard, cutting, polishing, carving, dyeing, and making the old one-stop, and the imitations will be directly taken to the front shops for sale, and the streets of Zhihuai Road are all such jade shops.
There are only more than 400 households in Happy Village, but every household has its own jade workshop, and the entire Bengbu, after more than 30 years of development, has reached more than 5,000 jade workshops, and the annual output value reached 3 billion yuan at its peak, and the 100,000 people in the industry relied on this to get rid of poverty. In the words of a jade shop owner, the dealers at that time came directly to Bengbu with a large amount of cash to "grab the goods", and even had to increase the price to wholesale antique jade.
The reason why the business is so good is mainly due to the chaotic development of the antique market, more than a decade ago, the collection fever spread all over the country, tens of millions of collectors poured into the market, but most people lack rational cognition, only want to pick up leaks and get rich overnight. Antique dealers took advantage of this opportunity to shop antique fakes to every corner of the national antique market, making a windfall from fakes, but also causing the collapse of the industry.
Take the smallest workshop, for example, a workshop with only 3 workers, with an annual profit of 300,000 yuan, but the antique cultural relics they make can be worth the sum of the value of the city's museum jade if they are sold as genuine. Zooming in to the whole of Bengbu, what a terrible number they have produced in more than 30 years of antique jade than the total amount of jade produced in China in 8,000 years.
Moreover, it is not only a Bengbu, but also the jade markets in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Suzhou, Yangzhou, Xinjiang, Henan and other places, and the flood of fake goods cannot be stopped. They claim to be selling handicrafts, not fakes, but tibetan friends who have experienced it know that no matter which antique market they visit, most local vendors never admit that they are selling fake goods, and they want to make higher profits by pretending to be real, which is human nature and the cause of the current market chaos.
People who buy these antique jade, in addition to a few merchants used for decoration, the vast majority are irrational collectors, but one after another has been deceived, has made everyone disheartened, a false market will not last after all, after being exposed by the media many times, since 2012, the Bengbu jade market has declined rapidly, the merchants have fallen by more than half, and sales have dropped by more than 80%.
Nowadays, the local jade industry is seeking transformation, and the goods hoarded in the warehouse are sold at cost prices or even at a loss, but "the ship is difficult to turn around", generations of people have relied on this line to eat, and it is easy to break through. Most practitioners have changed their professions, and a few insist on doing more modern cultural and creative products, after all, creativity is valuable, and blind imitation will only fall into a dead cycle.