Hello everyone, I take the time out of my busy schedule today to bring you the following article, welcome to taste it together!
There is a saying that can describe the improvement of the living standards of the contemporary people: "Buy gold in a chaotic world, and collect in a prosperous world." "This means that in the war-torn era, buying gold can preserve value, but in the Taiping Dynasty, collecting antiques is more of an investment.
However, as with investments in stocks and real estate, collecting antiques also carries huge risks.
The antique market can be said to be "chaotic", and it is really difficult to look at the world's most unique treasures from the dazzling, true and false antiques.
It is also true that disputes related to antiques are not uncommon, and even turning into lawsuits is not a common thing. Some experts who are called "authoritative" in the industry will also be fishy because of this.
The Zhengzhou brothers heirloom sold for 170,000 yuan, and two years later it was found that tens of millions of auctions were made
In September 2009, zhu Yun, then 64 years old, paid a 100 yuan registration fee and came to the audition of the treasure show "The Gate of Huayu" held by Henan Satellite TV with his brother Xia Lin.
Zhu Yun is a native of Zhengzhou, and he often watches the program "The Gate of Huayu".
In the process, he suddenly remembered that he had left an heirloom on his ancestors, which was now sealed in a box and idle on the top of the wardrobe.
This heirloom is a calligraphy and painting, which is said to be the original work of Qianlong, called "Songyang Hanbaitu". But Zhu Yun never knew whether it was true or not, and "The Gate of Huayu" gave him this opportunity.
At the scene, there were thousands of people in Wuyangyang, and the treasure hunter at the scene was a fat, middle-aged man with glasses, called Liu Yan.
Liu Yan was born in 1957, and after graduating from university, he engaged in cultural relics appraisal and collection in various important cultural relics institutions.
His most famous deeds are that in 2000, on behalf of Poly Group and Beijing Cultural Relics Company, he went to Hong Kong to auction the famous cultural relics three animal heads and Qianlong pastel six-square bottles returned to the Yuanmingyuan.
Perhaps with this layer of "winning glory for the country" factor, Liu Yan was invited by a number of treasure hunting programs to serve as a treasure hunting guest, in addition to "The Gate of Huayu", as well as CCTV's "Treasure Hunt", "Treasure Hunting" and other columns.
According to Zhu Yun, when Liu Yan saw this painting, he specially removed his eyes and carefully observed it. After that, the two communicated further at the hotel where Liu Yan was staying.
Liu Yan took out a book entitled "Beijing Pearl Shuanglong's 2009 First Auction of Fine Calligraphy and Paintings", saying that another similar painting only had a market value of 50,000 to 80,000.
Therefore, Liu Yan believes that the market value of this painting is estimated to be only thirty or forty thousand, and he can help Zhu Yun find a buyer and sell it for an additional thirty or fifty thousand yuan.
Zhu Yun met with Cheng Gong in Beijing under Liu Yan's assurance and lead, and at first held a conservative mentality, Zhu Yun said "seventeen or eighty thousand" when asking for a price, Cheng Gong expressed dissatisfaction with this, and finally negotiated a deal of 170,000 yuan.
When signing the contract, both parties indicated that if a dispute arose between the two parties, the court at the place where the contract was signed, that is, the Zhengzhou Municipal People's Court, would have jurisdiction.
But I didn't expect that it would really become a slur.
In 2011, zhu Yun was watching the news and found that at the auction of Beijing Poly Company in December 2010, the painting actually sold for 78 million yuan. Together with the commission, the total is 8736 yuan.
Zhu Yun was shocked by this incident, he said: "We have always trusted the experts, and at that time we thought it was selling value. ...... On closer reflection, I found that this was a scam. ”
The suspected deceived brother took the expert to court, and the details of the two accounts are inconsistent
In August 2011, Zhu Yun and Xia Lin filed a lawsuit against Liu Yan and Cheng Gong, claiming that they were "singing double reeds" and were suspected of fraud. Ask the court to rule that the transaction is invalid, and Liu Yan returns the Songyang HanBotu (also known as": "Qianlong Yubi Huasong And Title"), or compensate 87.19 million yuan.
Subsequently, Zhu Yun applied to transfer the case to the public security organs for investigation.
However, the court rejected his claim, and the public security organs also believed that the case was not an economic crime, so the case was never filed.
In this regard, Zhu Yun was naturally indignant, he exposed the matter to the media, and told the details of the incident. However, what I didn't expect was that Liu Yan's statement on his side was completely different from his.
The first contradiction came from whether Liu Yan intended to invite Zhu Yun into the game. Zhu Yun said that after Liu Yan identified the painting, he took the initiative to let Zhu Yun come to the hotel where he lived to talk about the painting.
Liu Yan, on the other hand, said that there were too many people tasting at that time, and he also coped with two sentences to say". As a result, Zhu Yun really came to the door.
The reason why Zhu Yun was able to find his address was not that he told him, but that the residence of the hotel was public, and there were many people who were tasting there at that time.
The second contradiction comes from Liu Yan's remarks when tasting "Songyang Han Baitu".
Zhu Yun believes that Liu Yan has been suggesting that the painting is a "fake" and "not the original work of Qianlong" and has no collection value.
But Liu Yan disagreed, and he made it clear that he only said that it was an "old object" at that time, and did not explain whether it was true or false. More importantly, when Zhu Yun and Cheng Gong signed the contract later, they did not trade the painting as a fake.
The third contradiction is whether Zhu Yun voluntarily sold the paintings. Zhu Yun said that he did not propose to sell, and it was Liu Yan's encouragement that the brothers had the idea of selling.
Liu Yan said that Zhu Yun said that he was short of money and wanted to shoot quickly, and it just so happened that he was interested in people he knew, so he helped to introduce it.
The fourth contradiction is the degree of participation of Liu Yan in the trading process.
Zhu Yun said that Liu Yan was involved in the whole process and helped negotiate the price. But Liu Yan said that he only drew the strings from it, and he did not know anything about the trading process.
Both sides have their own opinions, but it is difficult to find actual evidence to support it. What surprised Zhu Yun even more was that in the process of prosecution, he found that there were actually two treasure experts named Liu Yan.
A case that could not be solved has appeared in the drama of "true and false monkey king", which is simply the epitome of the chaos in the literary and play world.
The background of the pickpocket expert actually found that there were two people, which was the real impostor
These two Liu Yan not only have the same name and surname, but even the profile is basically the same.
In addition to their different origins, one is from Beijing, that is, the defendant in this case, here called "North Liu Yan"; one from Dongguan, Guangdong, here called "South Liu Yan".
Bei Liu Yan was born in Beijing and has long since moved to Hong Kong. Rarely surfs the Internet, does not text, does not drive, is more interested in antique research, and has many well-known celebrities in the circle who are familiar with him.
For example, Wang Lijun, director of the Cultural Relics Appraisal Committee of the Antique Industry Chamber of Commerce of the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce, once supported Northern Liu Yan, believing that Southern Liu Yan was using the reputation of Northern Liu Yan to create momentum.
Wang Lijun mentioned that some experts once met Nan Liuyan in local treasure hunting activities and questioned Nan Liuyan, and Nan Liuyan would use this to find an excuse to leave.
Moreover, Nan Liuyan said that he had been hired by CCTV to be an expert in treasure hunting, but Beiliu Yan came up with evidence that CCTV had only hired an expert named "Liu Yan". Nan Liuyan not only stole his name, but also stole his experience.
BeiLiu Yan said that some treasure hunters were deceived by South Liu Yan to find South Liu Yan Treasure, and it was strange to wonder why Liu Yan looked completely different from those on TV.
And Nan Liu Yan did not hesitate to explain that his original name was Liu Yan, but in 1983 he changed his name to Liu Zhonghong, and later used liu yan and Liu Zhonghong.
Regarding the activities of "embezzling" North Liu Yan to join CCTV, South Liu Yan said that he did participate in CCTV peripheral activities, and many experts present at the time could testify.
Finally, Nan Liu Yan said very seriously that the dispute between him and Northern Liu Yan had not yet proceeded to the step of legal procedures, but whether the calligraphy and paintings of the Zhu Yun brothers could be returned was the focus of the incident.
When Northern Liu Yan saw that Southern Liu Yan was biased toward Zhu Yun's words, he even more suspected that Zhu Yun's prosecution of him was a rumor-mongering incident planned by Zhu Yun and Southern Liu Yan in order to smear him.
At a time when the matter of Liu Yan in the north and south was boiling over, Zhu Yun, who was unwilling because the court did not prosecute, submitted a complaint again and said that he had new evidence.
The seal became the key to another investigation, and the outcome was not as expected by both parties
This evidence is a seal on the "Songyang Han Baitu" - the Shiqu Baodi seal. The seal is a strong proof of Qianlong's authenticity.
But at that time, when Zhu Yun asked what the meaning of the seal on the painting was, Liu Yan's reply was "the collector's idle seal, there is no meaning."
Zhu Yun believes that since Liu Yan is a master of treasure hunting and has a deep study of ancient toys during the Qianlong period, it should not be unclear what the meaning of the Shiqu Baodi seal represents.
Yes, Zhu Yun believes that Liu Yan deliberately hid the possibility that "Songyang Han Baitu" is a genuine manuscript, and then used a painting without a Shiqu Baodi seal in the "Beijing Pearl Shuanglong 2009 First Auction of Fine Calligraphy and Paintings" to support its value, misleading Zhu Yun that he was holding a fake of low value.
After interrogation and trial in accordance with the law, the Zhengzhou Intermediate Court found that the case was complicated and transferred the case to the Zhengzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau for handling.
On November 24, 2013, the Zhengzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau received the case file and examined the matter in accordance with the law. But apparently a good conclusion was not reached afterwards.
Because, according to the relevant ruling documents disclosed online, in 2015, the Zhengzhou Intermediate People's Court ruled on this matter as a civil dispute.
According to the Zhengzhou Intermediate People's Court 's (2015) Zheng Min Si Chu Zi No. 253-1 Civil Ruling, on November 5, 2015, the Fengchan Road Branch of the Zhengzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau had filed a case for investigation on the grounds that Liu Yan was suspected of fraud.
However, in 2016, Liu Yan and Cheng Gong appealed against the first-instance ruling.
Liu Yan believes that the statement in the first instance that "the two parties signed a written sales contract and agreed that the dispute settlement between the two parties shall be owned by the jurisdictional area" is not true.
Liu Yan said that the signature of "Liu Yan" in the written sales contract provided by Zhu Yun and Xia Lin was forged by the Zhu Yun brothers. They demanded that the lawsuit be withdrawn.
However, the Zhengzhou Intermediate People's Court held that the case should be handed over to the jurisdiction of the people's court where Liu Yan was located, that is, the Beijing Municipal People's Court, and that the case had already been filed and investigated, which was not an economic dispute, but an economic crime, and the prosecution was dismissed according to law.
Since then, there have been no relevant ruling documents, and it is not known whether the Zhengzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau is still investigating the matter.
Time has passed liu yan in the treasure hunting industry to become low-key, looking for someone to treasure need to polish their eyes
Interestingly, with the passage of time, not only was there no news of the case, but even Liu Yan and Zhu Yun began to become low-key.
Zhu Yun can understand, after all, he is originally just an ordinary farmer, and there is not much exposure except for this case.
Since this case, he has begun to teach himself antiques knowledge.
In 2022, Zhu Yun, who is 76 years old, after retirement, the biggest daily fun is to go to the largest antique market in Zhengzhou to look for Taobao shellfish.
Occasionally, Zhu Yun gave his friend's antiques a palm eye, but he never made up his mind easily. For him, even if the old eyes are dizzy and blind, it is better than mistakenly believing that others have been deceived.
And Liu Yan, a well-known treasure expert who originally had a considerable reputation and gimmicks on large television stations such as CCTV, suddenly disappeared into the major treasure collection columns.
It is reported that he has already fled back to Hong Kong, where his hukou is located, and did not return to the mainland until 2022. Only occasionally entrusted by friends will they go out to the mountains to give people treasures.
Like Zhu Yun, Liu Yan also had a "psychological shadow" on this matter. He no longer dared to help people make connections and do antique business, for fear of getting into some lawsuits.
What is the root cause of this? Is Zhu Yun too greedy? Or did Liu Yan take the opportunity to buy low and sell high? But it can be clear that it is the water of the treasure world, which is too deep.
Someone once said that the art market is like a game without referees.
The particularity of its transaction lies in the fact that it is highly professional, the means of trading are diverse, and the items traded are unique, and it is difficult to draw a definite conclusion from the comparison of other items.
It is this uncertainty that gives many people the space to exploit loopholes. For example, the large price difference between before and after "Songyang Han Baitu", such as the controversy between Liu Yan in the north and south, all prove that this market is too deep.
It is also more difficult to eliminate the chaotic phenomena in the industry.
The industry requires experts to look through to determine the value of an item. However, the way to obtain the qualification certificate of "experts" is not standardized. Many tasting agencies are mixed.
Secondly, the professional ethics of experts are also difficult to withstand in the face of the huge interests of antiques. For this reason, examples of antique counterfeiting and deceiving outsiders to earn intermediate differences also abound.
Only by further improving the law in relevant areas and establishing everything on the idea can we effectively protect the interests of both parties to the transaction and avoid the recurrence of similar disputes between Zhu Yun and Liu Yan.
Resources:
ZHANG Meng. Who will "identify" the art appraisal industry[J].Sino-foreign Cultural Exchange, 2013(06):32-35.
Lei Bohui. Research on legal countermeasures to control false identification of folk cultural relics[D].Lanzhou University, 2019.
YUAN Yanqin. Research on the Legal Regulation of False Identification of Cultural Relics and Artworks[D].South Central University for Nationalities, 2013.