Looking back at China's modern history, it is a humiliating history, such as the Opium War, the Eight-Power Alliance's war of aggression against China, the Sino-Japanese War, the War of Resistance Against Japan, and so on. All these brought deep disasters to the Chinese nation at that time, and in addition to the scars on people's bodies, there were countless treasures that belonged to us that were lost overseas. Data have shown that in the more than 100 years after the Opium War, millions of Chinese cultural relics lost overseas due to war, looting, theft and other reasons.
Among the well-known museums abroad, there is not a single cultural relic that cannot see China, and the collection totals more than 1.6 million pieces. These, coupled with the collection of non-governmental organizations, have lost more than 17 million Chinese cultural relics overseas, and how many of them are really bought back by them? I am afraid that more are still snatched back, the loss of cultural relics is also a disease in the hearts of the chinese people, and for several years, there have been patriots who have actively purchased from abroad and donated back to China free of charge.
Zhao Tailai is one of these people, the difference is that he is a cultural relic obtained after inheriting the British manor. Zhao Tailai was born in 1954, and at the age of fifteen, he had to go to Hong Kong to join his aunt because of the death of both of his parents. Eight years later, her aunt secretly told Zhao Tailai that the family had a number of inheritances in Hong Kong and Europe that he would inherit in the future. And explain to him, can not leak a word to the outside world, here we have to talk about Zhao Tailai's family.
His family is a famous family in Dongguan, Guangdong Province, his grandfather and father practice medicine in Hong Kong, his uncle Zhao Yuxiu is a justice of the peace, and his great-grandfather is the famous modern diplomat Wu Tingfang. Starting from Wu Yanfang to Zhao Tailai, three generations of the family have been painstakingly operating and constantly collecting supplementary cultural relics. For the family's collection, Zhao Tailai's great aunt was never married, so the heir was him. In 1979, his aunt told him about his first estate, tens of millions of dollars in property, a two-story collection, and a treasure map of London.
In 1981, Zhao Tailai's great aunt died, and he also received a notice to go to the outskirts of London to accept the inheritance. It was a huge manor on the outskirts of the city, which his family had purchased more than eighty years ago, and looking at this mysterious figure, he was a little nervous at that time. When he opened the long-sealed cellar, he was completely destroyed, only to see that it was full of wooden boxes, and when it was opened, there were ancient calligraphy and paintings, ceramics, jade and other cultural relics covered by straw and cotton.
He didn't know how big the cellar was, but estimated that there were at least tens of thousands of these artifacts, and this cellar was a splendid historical picture. For the treasures that his family had treasured for many years, he gave up his beloved painting career and moved to London in 1992 to become an overseas Chinese in the UK. Next, it took ten years to carry the treasures out of the cellar one by one. He didn't dare ask anyone for help, nor did he dare to tell his wife to work alone.
In order to protect the safety of cultural relics, four very fierce hounds were raised to guard it, because Zhao Tailai did not dare to ask for security. In the past ten years, he has gradually moved from middle age to old age, and has also sorted out more than 60,000 antiques. A man's work is not only lonely, but also dangerous, and he once caused a crushing fracture of five toes in order to move a Warring States period bronze. But Zhao Tailai insisted that this was left by the ancestors, and as a descendant, he must protect them.
In fact, with these antiques, he can live a very rich life, and even buy a small city in England. Zhao Tailai did not think so, and he planned to ship all antiques back to China and donate them to the motherland. More than 50,000 pieces have been donated one after another, with an estimated value of more than 800 million yuan, and it is conceivable how valuable his cultural relics are. Among them, there are more than one hundred and fifty pieces of the national third level or above, and even cultural relics such as golden jade clothes and prince Noonding, and 800 million is only the first batch of valuation.
For the sake of freight, Zhao Tailai did not hesitate to sell four villas, and when others asked him if it was worth it, he just said: This is a national treasure, and I only collect it temporarily. It has to be said that he is great and is a hero of an alternative. In fact, he could have had a better life, at least not in a hut for decades. In 1971, Zhang Daqian saw his paintings and personally inscribed the future of everyone to express praise.
Because of those treasures, he undoubtedly delayed the opportunity to become everyone, but he let these artistic treasures of the Chinese nation return to the motherland.