Who is Lu Qinzhai?
In the eyes of many Chinese, Lu Qinzhai is an out-and-out traitor. During the war, he resold a large number of precious cultural relics of ancient China, including bronzes, jade, Buddha statues, And Tang Sancai, to Europe and the United States. It is said that at least half of the Chinese cultural relics lost overseas before 1949 were transferred through his hands.
But in the eyes of Westerners, Lu Qinzhai is the messenger of Chinese culture, it is he who has given the West a new understanding of Chinese art, and it can even be said that from his beginning, the West has an appreciation for Chinese art.
Lu Qinzhai's life is extremely legendary, and in the turbulent historical context, it has become a microcosm of the world's artistic activities in the 20th century. His life is also highly controversial, whether he is a master collector or a traitor?
Lu Qinzhai, whose real name is Lu Huanwen, a native of Huzhou, Zhejiang, was born in 1880 in a local civilian family, due to the death of his parents when he was young, Lu Qinzhai was fostered in the family of his distant uncle, and after living in his uncle's house for a period of time, at the age of 15, he went to the Nanxun Zhang family to make a living as a servant.
Here Lu Huanwen met Zhang Jingjiang, the second young master of the Zhang family, who was three years older than him, and was later promoted to the personal servant of the second young master of the Zhang family. In 1902, Zhang Jingjiang served as the commercial counselor of the Qing Dynasty government in France, and the only domestic servant he brought with him was the 22-year-old Lu Huanwen, who followed the owner Zhang Jingjiang in Paris, starting from an apprentice in an antique shop, and gradually became a pivotal figure in the company.
Later, the 28-year-old Lu Huanwen decided to set up his own portal, set up a "Laiyuan" company, the meaning of picking up goods from afar, and he also gave himself a new identity, replaced the original name of the rustic, changed his name to Lu Qinzhai, and later became known as C.T. Loo。
Between 1912 and 1915, Lu Qinzhai collaborated with Shanghai antiques dealer Wu Qizhou, and later became the most "cattle" private antiques export company in modern Chinese history. When World War I broke out in 1914 and the antique business plummeted, Lu Qinzhai immediately set his keen eye on the United States, opening a branch on a street corner in New York, which apparently made him more money.
In the 1920s and 1930s, domestic art archaeology entered a peak period. Many cultural relics were excavated, a large part of them entered the market, and Lu Wu had the wealth to preempt the good goods circulating in the market, including bronze, ancient jade, porcelain, calligraphy and painting, etc., and then sent them to Paris or New York. At the same time, they also purchased a large number of cultural relics from tomb robbers, such as murals, Buddha statues, bronzes, etc.
Using clients he had previously worked with in Europe, he opened up a market for his sale of artifacts in the United States. In the final analysis, Lu Qinzhai's company could become the largest export antique company at that time, and it had an inseparable relationship with Zhang Jingjiang, relying on Zhang Jingjiang's strong backing, and for more than thirty years, the then National Government turned a blind eye to Lu Qinzhai's smuggling activities.
The key to Lu Qinzhai's business success not only includes extensive domestic contacts, well-informed international market news and shrewd minds, but also actively holding and participating in exhibitions. For example, in 1934 and 1935, Chinese bronze and antique exhibitions were held in Paris and London respectively to promote sales.
When Lu Qinzhai was 40 years old, he had a new idea: to build a completely Chinese-style building to display and sell treasures from China. Under his planning, the Red House was built into the most authentic Chinese-style building in Paris, used to sell the unique collection from China, and buyers could be in the gorgeous classical pavilion even if they had never arrived in China, so it was called "China's Louvre".
Through Lu Qinzhai's superb operational ability, Western buyers' interest in Chinese cultural relics has changed suddenly, and countless Westerners have come here to evaluate and appreciate cultural relics, but Lu Qinzhai knows how to recommend the goods they are interested in to different objects. Many rare treasures from China have briefly lived in the Red Chamber in Paris, but in the end it is difficult to avoid the fate of running away.
It was not until after the founding of New China in 1949 that a large number of important cultural relics of Lu Qinzhai's Shanghai branch were confiscated, and his "accomplices" distributed throughout China were either imprisoned or executed. Lu Qinzhai sadly told his friends: "The transaction of Chinese cultural relics has come to an end, and my fun will be completely deprived!" ”
In 1950, Lu Qinzhai announced his retirement in the United States, and then liquidated the Antiques Branch in New York and was taken over by his colleagues, while the Antique Shop in Paris, France and the famous "Louvre in China" were taken over by his younger daughter until it was auctioned by the family in 2006.
From entry to retirement, Lu Qinzhai galloped the antique market for more than 30 years, how many national treasures he sold, no one can say clearly, only Lu Qinzhai personally held two auctions in New York, sold more than 2,800 pieces of Chinese cultural relics; in an exhibition in Paris, he sold more than 3,000 pieces of bronze, sculpture and jade.
Among the Chinese cultural relics sold by Lu Qinzhai, the most famous is the Zhaoling Liujun stone carving, the story of Zhaoling Liujun and Tang Taizong we have heard, Zhaoling Liujun contains the cultural genes that we Chinese common, is a treasure that can not be bought by any money, this matter is still difficult to let go Chinese of, as a great destruction and blasphemy of traditional Chinese culture, and even compared it to the looting of the Yuanmingyuan by the British and French forces.
In that year, Lu Qinzhai even prepared to break these six exquisite stone carvings out of the country in order to transport them abroad, but fortunately the Beiyang government seized them during the customs clearance, so that the precious cultural relics could avoid the doom of losing overseas. Unfortunately, the "Sali purple" and "fist hair" in the Six Juns were smuggled by Lu Qinzhai to the Museum of the University of Pennsylvania in the United States, and after the founding of New China, the government repeatedly begged for it, but in the end there was no result.
During the Republic of China period, the statue monument, which was known as the first in the sea, was robbed by warlords in Beijing and sold to the Americans. Today, it is placed in a corner of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, USA, and the influence from exotic cultures reflected in this monument is of great significance, becoming an important influence on chinese Buddhist art creation in the late Southern and Northern Dynasties. That's right, this is what Lu Qinzhai sold, and Rockefeller, the oil king, bought it.
There is also a Shang Dynasty bronze fangjiao body, this bronze shape is exquisite, intricate ornamentation, is the peak of the Shang Dynasty bronze, showing the superb bronze smelting and manufacturing technology of china's ancients, this Shang Dynasty Fangwei is a typical representative of bronze at that time, representing the culture of our nation, containing our cultural genes. Fortunately, this cultural relic was later repurchased by heavy money and eventually returned to the motherland.
In 1957, Lu Qinzhai died of pneumonia in a Swiss clinic at the age of 78 due to long-term paralysis in bed. In his later years, Lu Qinzhai did feel very conflicted about his life, admitting that he had caused many national treasures to be lost overseas, but he also felt lucky to keep these national treasures from war. For domestic accusations, Lu Qinzhai believes that many national treasures and famous products will not survive the forty years of stolen chiseling and selling before and after the Republic of China, and scatter them overseas.
Lu Qinzhai is such a contradiction, some people say that he is a "cultural relics dealer", some people say that he is an "art messenger", these two completely different evaluations, accompanied by the second half of his life.
This is not the only contradiction in him: Every day of Lu Qinzhai's life, he tells his French family that China no longer has relatives and friends, but in fact, he secretly sends money to his village every year, $2,000 a year, until the year before his death.
When the Japanese invaded China in 1937, he did everything he could to give money to encourage people to fight. In January 1938, he sponsored an exhibition of Chinese cultural relics in London, and all the proceeds were donated to the American Medical Aid Association. In 1947, at the instigation of the scholar Chen Mengjia, Lu Qinzhai donated to the cultural relics exhibition room of Tsinghua University the Warring States bronze "Sizi Kettle" excavated from Luoyang, Henan Province.
He confessed that he loved the motherland and also ransacked the motherland for 50 years. #卢芹斋 #
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