With the continuous increase of residents' wealth, more and more people have begun to invest in antiques, holding antiques is very conducive to the preservation and appreciation of wealth, but there is a type of antiques that must not be touched, that is, cultural relics. Different from ordinary antiques, cultural relics have special cultural research significance and are the treasures of our Chinese nation, and any cultural relics for resale should be punished by law. However, in the special era of the late Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the People's Republic, some people used the sale of cultural relics for private interests and disregarded the interests of the state, causing hundreds of thousands of precious cultural relics to be lost overseas.
Lu Qinzhai is definitely a big boss in the field of selling cultural relics in China's modern history, and the cultural relics lost overseas through his hands are not 10,000 but also 8,000, and later generations call him a sinner in the Chinese cultural relics industry. He stole cultural relics to please European and American imperialists, not only made money, but also maneuvered around American high society, doing business with Rockefeller, Morgan, Vanderbilt and other giants, which can be described as selling his ancestors to the extreme, and he was a "traitor" without compromise!
Born into poverty, he forgot his ancestors
Lu Qinzhai was born in 1880 in Lujiadu, Huzhou, Zhejiang Province, to a solid family, initially named "Huan wen"; later renamed "Qinzhai "Qinzhai". The small village where he was born has been inhabited by a lu surname for hundreds of years since the Song Dynasty. When he was young, he suffered a change in his parents and was sent to a distant uncle's house for foster care, and later sent to Zhang Jingjiang's house as a servant.
This period of birth changed under the fabrication of Lu Qinzhai, claiming that his ancestors had been born in the past and listened to the heavens, but all this could not be proved by facts, and finally had to be taken by the phrase "the family is no longer there". It shows that he feels inferior to his origins, is ashamed to speak, and has been hiding his life for a lifetime.
In the days when Zhang Jingjiang's family was a slave, Lu Qinzhai embarked on the road of wealth from then on. At that time, the Zhang family was not only rich in Nanxun, but also one of the richest families in the country, sitting on a large amount of land, in addition to good land, they also owned a number of properties in Jiangsu and Shanghai. In the 1920s and 1930s, many of Shanghai's most famous buildings were under the zhang family's name, such as the Apricot Blossom Building, the Great Shanghai Cinema, the Great Shanghai Dance Hall and the Great World Amusement Center.
After entering the Zhang family, Lu Qinzhai was assigned to serve zhang jingjiang, the second young master of the zhang family. Although Zhang Jingjiang has a physical illness and is unable to move, he has a bright future. In 1902, the Qing court appointed commercial counsellor in France, and Lu Qinzhai had the honor of going to France with his attendant Zhang Jingjiang, laying the foundation for his later development.
However, this experience was also beautified by Lu Qinzhai as going to France to study, and the acquaintance with Zhang Jingjiang was also interpreted as "coincidentally met at the Qing government's envoy to France", without mentioning his experience as a slave. Such a person who completely denies his origins is not difficult to understand why he can do such a few things as selling cultural relics and forgetting his ancestors.
Makeovers, flying yellow Tengda
With his back to the big tree of Zhang Jingjiang, Lu Qinzhai came to France, and unlike the qing dynasty that fell at that time, he saw an unprecedented technological take-off and social development in France. He began to make a makeover, cut off his braids, took off his coat, changed into the most popular three-piece suit in Paris, put on polished leather shoes, and became an employee in a business house owned by Zhang Jingjiang.
The company, called Tongyun, specializes in Chinese goods, including tea, silk, antiques, porcelain, and everything. During this period of working in the commercial bank, Lu Qinzhai seized the French people's preference for Chinese antiques with his talent and sensitive business sense, and developed antiques into the main business of the commercial bank, so that the business of the commercial bank became increasingly prosperous, and he was also appreciated by the boss, promoted to the treasurer, and became an important figure in the Zhangjia commercial bank.
Through the Zhangjia Trading Company, in addition to giving Lu Qinzhai the opportunity to contact the upper class, the biggest benefit is to give him the opportunity to contact valuable antiques, learn how to appreciate antiques, and also lay a knowledge reserve for him to sell cultural relics in the future.
Self-reliant portal, blossoming everywhere
With the start of the Xinhai Revolution in China, Zhang Jingjiang threw himself into the revolution with all his body and mind, and had no time to take care of the business of the commercial bank, so in 1908 he decided to shelve the business and return to China to assist Sun Yat-sen. Lu Qinzhai, who was not interested in politics, decided to stay in Paris to continue his antique business, opened his own trading house, named "Laiyuan", and abandoned the "Huanwen" given to him by his parents and changed his name to "Qinzhai "Qinzhai".
Coinciding with the extreme instability of China's political situation, the collapse of the government, a large number of antique treasures in the Forbidden City lost overseas, Lu Qinzhai with years of accumulated treasure hunting ability, low-cost acquisition of a lot of rare treasures, high prices in the European market, earning a lot of money. In 1914, with the vigorous development of the US economy, which led to the boom of Chinese antiques, Lu Qinzhai once again relied on his proud business foresight to turn to the United States and let his "Lu Qinzhai Laiyuan Company" take root in New York.
In an era when Easterners were widely discriminated against, Lu was able to establish long-term and stable business relations with Westerners. Inseparable from his speech and demeanor, although he has not received any orthodox education, Lu Qinzhai has shown gentlemanly elegance in the eyes of Westerners, treats people with humility, has never had a little arrogance, and treats people and things very well. Gradually in the Western high society to make a name, jumped to become a european and American celebrity, became the "Godfather of Chinese antiques" in the eyes of Westerners.
The desire for profit is smoked, and the bottom line is completely empty
Driven by huge interests, Lu Qinzhai gradually became completely bottomless. In 1916 or 1917, Lu Qinzhai led a famous tomb robbery, and he sold two stone reliefs in the Six Juns of The Tang Taizong Zhaoling Tomb, "Salu Zi" and "Fist Hair", a transaction that was also the most criticized by later generations.
The Six Horses of Tang Zhaoling is a stone sculpture of the six mounts that Emperor Taizong of Tang took when Li Shimin defeated Qunxiong and established the Tang Dynasty. They are placed between the east and west walls of the Zhaoling Beique Sanyao Stone Chamber, and are a set of monumental high-relief masterpieces. During the construction of the Zhaoling Tombs, Li Shimin ordered them to be carved into stone and erected monuments, which will be with him forever. Tang Taizong also personally composed six poems to praise his style, and ordered the great calligrapher Ouyang Ton to copy them and engrave them on this six-horse stone stele.
These six stone sculptures are one of the greatest masterpieces in the history of Chinese art, and their historical and artistic value are very high, and they have long been well-known at home and abroad. However, it was such a priceless treasure, which was sold by Lu Qinzhai to the University of Pennsylvania Museum for only $125,000, and the Chinese government had asked for it many times, but the transaction procedure was legal, which invisibly increased the difficulty of the return of the two jun.
Lu Qinzhai has been selling cultural relics for 37 years, and countless cultural relics have flowed out through his hands. It is rumored that half of the Chinese cultural relics lost overseas in the first half of the twentieth century were sold by his hands, including many national treasure-level cultural relics. In his later years, he also admitted that he had caused the loss of many important Chinese cultural relics overseas, but he believed that from another point of view, he also protected cultural relics from the baptism of fire. But no matter how much he excuses himself, he cannot wash away his evil deeds of selling national cultural relics for his own selfish desires, and in essence he is a "traitor" to the letter!