The second emperor of the Tang Dynasty, Tang Taizong, was one of the founding fathers of this prosperous dynasty, and he fought on horses for many years and went to countless battlefields, and in these battles, it was his war horse that accompanied Tang Taizong. Horses are a very important resource on the battlefield, just like today's tanks, so Tang Xuanzong also cared for his horses, and after laying down the Tang Dynasty, Tang Xuanzong asked the craftsmen to make stone carvings of his six war horses in this way. These six horses were painted by Yan Liben and carved by Yan Lide, these two people were very famous folk artists in the Tang Dynasty, after the completion of the carving of these six horses, they were treasured by Tang Taizong, and finally Tang Taizong died, he brought these six horses into Zhaoling, and later generations called these six horses Zhaoling Liujun.
Cultural relics dealers set up companies in France to sell Chinese cultural relics
Later, the tomb robbers went to Zhaoling and stole the cultural relics in Zhaoling, they set their sights on Zhaoling Liujun. However, the stone carvings of the Zhaoling Liujun were too big for them to transport, so the tomb robbers broke the Zhaoling Liujun, and the huge stone carvings shattered into several petals. Subsequently, Zhaoling Liujun was taken to the market for sale, and in 1914, the antique dealer Lu Qinzhai saw the stone carvings of Zhaoling Liujun, and he bought the stone carvings of two horses, spending thousands of yuan. Lu Qinzhai was an apprentice in an antique shop, and he went to Paris in 1902 to open a Yuntong company with Zhang Jingjiang, when the Zhengyi Qing government was about to be destroyed, and it was also the time of cultural relics loss, they opened such a company in France in order to sell Chinese cultural relics.
Their purpose of selling cultural relics is very simple, to make money and support the revolutionary cause, and they have contributed a lot of money for the Xinhai Revolution, but these funds are obtained by selling cultural relics. The stone carvings of Zhaoling Liujun were sold under such circumstances, and after the stone carvings of Zhaoling Liujun were taken to France by Lu Qinzhai, they were favored by an American antique dealer, so the antique dealer spent $125,000 to buy the two stone carvings, and now the two horses are hidden in the Museum of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, USA. This is only one-tenth of the cultural relics sold by Lu Qinzhai, and when Lu Qin sold cultural relics, it was the peak period of domestic cultural relics smuggling.
He made a fortune by selling cultural relics and married a French lady
After the end of the Xinhai Revolution, Zhang Jingjiang returned to China, lu Qinzhai remained overseas, he opened an antique shop, and constantly sold cultural relics brought from China. Half of the treasures lost from the Forbidden City and the treasures stolen by domestic tomb robbers were sold to foreigners through Lu Qinzhai's hands, and this business lasted until 1949. Lu Qinzhai ended his business, but he had become a rich man in France by this time. Some experts estimate that Lu Qinzhai has been selling cultural relics for decades, and the profits obtained have long exceeded 10 billion.
brief summary
In his later years, Lu Qinzhai confessed his contradictory heart to people, although he sold a lot of national treasures and cultural relics, but because these cultural relics were sold overseas by Lu Qinzhai, he did not disappear in the war, and he also felt lucky. However, it is an indisputable fact that he sold cultural relics, cultural relics are not the property of Lu Qinzhai, although he found a suitable excuse for his own practice, but he sold the essence of China's culture for thousands of years, so that China lost a lot of precious cultural relics, he should be full of guilt for the motherland. After Lu Qinzhai finished selling cultural relics, he never returned to China, he died in a foreign country, and was finally buried in France.