In 2012, a cultural relics fraud case tried by the Zhengzhou Intermediate People's Court attracted widespread attention from social media.
After the ancestral treasures in an old farmer's house were bought for 170,000 yuan, they were successfully auctioned at a price of 87.36 million, a premium of more than 500 times.
In China, the water in the cultural play market is already very deep, and it is not uncommon for cultural relics to be bought at a low price and sold at a high price.
There are even people who specialize in "picking up leaks" and make a lot of money.
However, what makes people indignant is that it is not someone else who sells his treasure, but the so-called cultural relics expert who identified his treasure as a fake.
The old farmer was so angry that he took the expert who "cheated" his treasure to court.
In the end, how will the court decide, and can he get his treasure back?
The popular treasure hunting column
Speaking of this case, I have to mention the treasure hunting program that was very popular more than a decade ago.
China has always had the saying that the world is prosperous and the antiques are in turmoil, and with the deepening of reform and opening up.
In the past three decades, China's social economy has developed rapidly, and with money, the once depressed antique market has gradually become active.
In particular, in October 2002, the state promulgated and implemented a new Law on the Protection of Cultural Relics, allowing individuals to collect and trade cultural relics.
The once underground trade was put on the table, and a large amount of money and private collections poured into the antique market at a time.
From time to time, the myth of getting rich overnight has greatly stimulated the public's enthusiasm for literature and play.
In this context, the treasure program has also gradually emerged, and in 2003, the CCTV Economic Channel took the lead in launching the "Treasure Hunting" column.
Many people with collections in their homes have taken to the program to seek expert identification, and some people have hidden treasures, and their assets have soared in an instant.
Some people successfully pick up leaks and earn several times or even dozens of times the profit overnight, of course, some people spend high prices but buy fakes, resulting in bankruptcy.
Let the "Treasure Hunting" column gain a large number of viewers, and the ratings for a time are close to those golden TV series.
As a result, for a time, various TV stations have launched similar columns, such as the "World Collection" hosted by Wang Gang that year, in which the classic link of "He Yan Smashing Fake Treasure" is still fresh in the memory of the majority of audiences.
At this time, Henan Satellite TV was not willing to be left behind, and in 2004, it created a treasure TV program called "Huayu Gate", which was very popular once it was launched and continued to be broadcast so far.
Today's case is inextricably linked to this show.
The family has treasures to seek identification
Zhu Yun is a farmer on the outskirts of Zhengzhou City, Henan Province, and his family also lives a very ordinary life, living on farming and doing odd jobs.
Every night when he returned home, Zhu Yun, who had been busy all day, would turn on the TV set to watch the TV column, and with the broadcast of the Huayu Zhimen column of Henan Satellite TV, Zhu Yun gradually became a loyal fan of this show.
Henan is located in the hinterland of the Central Plains, has a long history and cultural heritage, ancient has long been China's political, economic and cultural center, the ancient capital Luoyang, Kaifeng, Anyang and so on are well-known in the country.
Therefore, Henan's folk collections have always been very rich, and there is also a strong demand for cultural relics identification.
After the launch of "The Gate of Huayu", the gimmick of free identification allowed people who had no professional knowledge but were eager to know the true value of their cultural relics collections to find a way.
They came to the program group with their own collections to find experts for identification, and this also made Zhu Yun, who looked at them every day, itch in his heart. Because Zhu Yun's family also has a collection of cultural relics, an ancient painting.
Zhu Yun also had no way of knowing the origin of this ancient painting, only that from his grandfather's generation, there was this collection in his family.
The Zhu family has also always regarded it as a thing at the bottom of the pressure box, hidden very secretly, and has never told anyone except that the family knows.
In Zhu Yun's generation, although he was also very curious about the origin of this ancient painting and how much it was worth, he had not found a suitable opportunity.
Now the experts who see Huayu Gate say that "the head is the Tao", in 2009, he and his brother discussed and decided to take the ancient paintings to the column group to find out.
Not all collections have the opportunity to be on the show, but in order to meet the needs of the public, the TV station has found a special place.
Anyone can take the collection to the free appraisal, so every appraisal day, the scene is also very lively.
When the Zhu Yun brothers arrived at the scene, those seeking treasure had already lined up in a long line. In Zhengzhou in July and August, the weather was unusually hot, but they all came, and they could never run in vain, they could only brave the scorching sun to join the treasure hunting team.
From morning to afternoon, seeing that the line was getting shorter and shorter, Zhu Yun's heart was also pounding.
Can it not be exciting and nervous that what generations have regarded as a treasure will soon be able to learn its true identity and value?
Soon, the staff made a simple registration of Zhu Yun's relevant information, and the collection was also assigned to the calligraphy and painting identification team.
At this time, he saw from a distance the information of the expert who was about to identify his collection: Liu Yan, a senior researcher at the National Museum.
Senior consultant of many well-known auction houses in China, who has served as an expert in the CCTV treasure column, and is proficient in calligraphy and painting, porcelain, etc.
This made Zhu Yun feel that he had come to the right place.
Soon, it was Zhu Yun's turn.
I saw that this expert may have been working too long, and his face was full of tiredness. He waved his hand impatiently at Zhu Yun and motioned for them to open the collection.
The expert had the temper of an expert, and Zhu Yun did not say much, and quickly handed the ancient painting to the expert with great respect.
The real thing is considered a fake
Only to see Liu Yan slowly unfold the ancient painting, a vigorous and powerful pine cypress diagram was quickly presented.
Experts who rarely see any really good goods will generally only look at it a few times and tell each other the result.
But unexpectedly, Zhu Yun's painting made Liu Yan look at it for a long time, and his expression became more and more solemn from the initial casualness.
This also made Zhu Yun's nerves tense up, could it be that this painting of his own was really something incredible.
"It's a pity, a pity"
After half a day, a few words finally popped out of Liu Yan's mouth, which made Zhu Yun feel very lost.
Immediately after that, Liu Yan changed his initial cold attitude and patiently explained to Zhu Yun.
Originally, Zhu Yun's painting was called "Songyang Hanbaitu", and it is said that there are three cypress trees that have grown for thousands of years in Songyang Academy, which is particularly huge.
When Emperor Wu of han traveled here, he came to see it, but mistakenly named the smallest one as a "great general", and the two larger ones became "two generals" and "three generals".
And this painting is the "Second General", and its author is the famous Qianlong Emperor.
The Qianlong Emperor can be said to be a well-known antique collector in history, and many famous paintings and calligraphy collected by the Palace Museum today have his seal.
But the paintings he himself left behind are extremely rare, and if this collection is genuine, the value is immeasurable.
But unfortunately, Liu Yan told Zhu Yun: "This painting of yours is a copy."
This moment made Zhu Yun's mood fall to the bottom, they were convinced of Liu Yan's words, since the experts said that they were fake, it must be fake, and they did not think that the experts would deceive themselves.
What they didn't expect, however, was that a web was unfolding for the painting.
Zhu Yun quickly asked them the question they were most concerned about: how much the painting was worth.
Liu Yan also said that although your painting is an imitation, the age is also a work of the late Qing Dynasty, and the quality of the imitation is also very good, if you sell it, you can sell tens of thousands of yuan.
At the same time, Liu Yan told Zhu Yun that his ancient painting had better be sold quickly.
Because the cultural relics market is very hot in recent years, the market still has a relatively large demand for this kind of imitation painting, which is not only easy to sell but also may sell at a good price.
In two years, the market may not be as prosperous as it is now.
170,000 people gladly sold the ancient paintings
Listening to Liu Yan's words, Zhu Yun's heart had a little comfort, tens of thousands of yuan is also a lot of income for rural people.
But where do you go to find a buyer now?
At this moment, Liu Yanjue handed over his business card in time: "I see that you are all born as farmers, my parents were also farmers in the past, if there are any difficulties, you can contact me at any time."
This feeling that someone handed a pillow when he wanted to sleep made Zhu Yun very moved, and he did not expect this expert to be so enthusiastic.
But where does he know that he is falling into the trap of others?
After sending Zhu Yun away, Liu Yan threw himself back into the work of treasure hunting. Zhu Yun and they went straight back to the hotel with the ancient paintings.
Inside the hotel, the two brothers discussed and quickly made a decision to sell the "Songyang Hanbotu" that was identified as a "replica".
In the evening, Zhu Yun dialed Liu Yan's phone: "Teacher Liu Yan?" Hello hello, I am Zhu Yun who is looking for you this afternoon to find treasure, do you remember? ”。
On the phone, Zhu Yun directly explained his intentions to Liu Yan, wanting Liu Yan to help them sell the painting, and give him a certain commission after the fact.
But unexpectedly, Liu Yan refused, saying that the column group did not allow experts to help sell paintings, which made Zhu Yun very disappointed.
But unexpectedly, things turned around again, and not long after, Liu Yan called and said that he would not help them sell paintings.
But you can help introduce a buyer friend to Zhu Yun, and they go to talk to this buyer friend themselves.
After a month of anxious waiting, Zhu Yun finally received a call from Liu Yan, the buyer found, a businessman named Cheng Gong was willing to come to see the painting, everyone agreed to meet in Zhengzhou in three days, which also made Zhu Yun's hanging heart finally fall to the ground.
When it came time to meet, Zhu Yun was very enthusiastic about Liu Yan, and he didn't expect such a big expert to be so enthusiastic about his own small farmer.
And Liu Yan also "quietly" said to Zhu Yun, this buyer is very rich, as soon as he meets the opportunity to act, I said not to get excited about anything, which made Zhu Yun even more moved, nodded deeply, and thought, This must be stable.
Sure enough, as soon as Liu Yan came up, he shouted out an offer of 200,000 yuan, and Zhu Yun was also shocked to hear it, but when he thought of Liu Yan's previous explanation, he quickly calmed his mood and remained silent on the side.
The other buyer looked at the painting and saw that it was very serious, and half a day later, he gave an offer of 150,000 yuan, and Zhu Yun was so excited that he almost stood up immediately.
Finally, under Liu Yan's personal "horse", the two sides came and went, and finally traded at a price of 170,000 yuan, and signed a sales contract, which greatly surprised Zhu Yun's own expectations, which also made him deeply impressed by Liu Yan's personality.
He decided to take out twenty thousand to thank Liu Yan, but he did not expect to be rejected by the other party:
"These twenty thousand yuan are nothing to me, but it is not a small amount for you, I have a strong rural feeling, and when I see you, I think of those uncles in my hometown, how can I collect your money?"
Finally, at Liu Yan's insistence, Zhu Yun had to invite the other party to eat a meal to give up, and in his heart, he admired Liu Yan and threw himself to the ground.
But he thought that the person he was grateful to Dade would be the trader and the biggest winner behind the scenes.
He learned that he had been deceived and went to court
The Zhu Yun brothers took the money obtained from the sale of ancient paintings and happily returned to their hometown and feasted on their respective homes.
I am satisfied with the addition of many new furniture and appliances, which has greatly improved my life.
If they hadn't seen a piece of news later, they might have been kept in the dark forever.
One day in June 2011, Zhu Yun suddenly saw a message that a genuine ancient painting of the Qianlong Emperor had been auctioned for more than 87 million yuan, which became a hot rumor for a while.
This made Zhu Yun immediately think of the painting he sold, and the expert Liu Yan at that time was also talking about the imitation of the Qianlong Emperor's work.
Zhu Yun remembered that Liu Yan also said that the authentic paintings circulated by the Qianlong Emperor were very rare, so how did they suddenly appear?
Already interested in artifacts, he immediately went around learning more about the painting.
Don't look at it, don't you know, look at it and be shocked, isn't this the ancient painting called "Songyang Hanbaitu" that I sold? It's exactly the same!
Then what shocked and angered him even more was that it was no one else who sold the painting, but Liu Yan, an expert who gave himself a treasure.
Zhu Yun's mind went blank, and he suddenly understood: He was deceived!
The painting of his own year must be the real one, Liu Yan deliberately said that it was a fake, he wanted to cheat the painting from me, no wonder he was so enthusiastic, it turned out that the weasel gave the chicken a New Year's greeting, and he did not have a good heart. All this is Liu Yan's trap!
Thinking of this, he quickly contacted Liu Yan, asked him to give an explanation, and then called over, and the other party said that he didn't know himself at all!
He went to the TV station again, and the TV station people said that they had nothing to do with them, and Zhu Yun, they were privately trading, and they were not allowed to do so.
In desperation, Zhu Yun had to sue Liu Yan in court for contract fraud, demanding that the other party compensate himself for more than 80 million.
However, in court, Liu Yan said that he was not a party to the contract, he was just a middleman.
Moreover, out of kindness and help, no fee was charged, which made Zhu Yun suddenly dumbfounded.
In the end, the court had to take the case back to the Public Security Bureau to continue the investigation because the evidence was insufficient.
In the end, after the investigation of the public security organs, this Liu Yan turned out to be just an ordinary person of the appraisal agency, and Liu Yan, an expert at the National Museum, rarely appeared in the public eye and never participated in the treasure hunting activities.
But in the end, this did not affect the formation of the contract, because Liu Yan, as an expert, the appraisal opinion he gave was only a personal reference opinion and did not have legal effect.
He was also not a party to the contract and had no direct relationship with Zhu Yun. The so-called high-priced sale of 87 million yuan is only an auction means and represents the true value of cultural relics, and the most red Zhuyun can only eat dumb losses.
epilogue
In this case, we can also see how chaotic the cultural relics market is today, and it is easy to fall into the trap if you are not careful.
Again, those who want to get rich overnight are advised to polish their eyes and not to be deceived.
For the so-called "experts" also maintain three points of vigilance, do not follow the crowd, because not every expert has a high degree of business literacy and moral conduct.