China's cultural relics enjoy a high reputation in the world, especially in the period of war, the Eight-Power Alliance, the British and French Allied Forces, known as the world's treasures of the Yuanmingyuan destroyed, the cultural relics inside are also lost abroad, it is said that a French second-class soldier, because of the looting of the Yuanmingyuan to get rich, by the locals known as "China's James".
These people were Ming robbers, and at that time, there was another person, who was secretly sharpening knives and focusing on the cultural relics that were scattered in the folk, and these cultural relics were also sold abroad by him, this person was Lu Qinzhai, also known as cultural relics dealers.
Lu Qinzhai was born in 1880 in Huzhou, Zhejiang, since childhood family poverty, from childhood he was fostered in the home of distant relatives, the life under the fence is not good, in order to subsidize the family, Lu Qinzhai was sent by his cousin to the Nanxun Zhang family as a servant, the zhang family young master, is Zhang Jingjiang.
Lu Qinzhai people are very clever, deeply won the favor of Zhang Jingjiang, in 1902, Zhang Jingjiang went to France to open the "Yuntong" company, responsible for selling porcelain and calligraphy and paintings, to support domestic activities, because Zhang Jingjiang's business in the country is too busy, he handed over the Paris company to Lu Qinzhai to take care of, he is also a half-job in the Qing Dynasty.
Lu Qinzhai at first in order to run a good shop, learn from antique dealers everywhere, with the inflow of Chinese porcelain, Paris set off a "Chinese fever", just in the period of hot sale of antiques, the domestic revolution ended, "Yuntong" company was also closed, not willing to end like this Lu Qinzhai left Zhang Jingjiang, he opened an antique shop in Paris.
With his ability to identify cultural relics and business talents, his antique shop was favored by Europeans, but because Zhang Jingjiang did not provide him with cultural relics, he was also facing a crisis of out-of-stock, so he returned to China, and at this time the Qing Dynasty collapsed, and the cultural relics in the Forbidden City and the Yuanmingyuan were lost everywhere.
Lu Qinzhai visited the people, at that time in the early days of the war, cultural relics were not valuable in the interior, Lu Qinzhai took advantage of this advantage, at a very low price to buy many cultural relics, in his hands of cultural relics, basically are national treasures, Lu Qinzhai although left Zhang Jingjiang, but when he followed Zhang Jingjiang, he himself also expanded some contacts.
With the help of these friends, Lu Qinzhai easily smuggled a number of cultural relics, in the shortage of cultural relics, Lu Qinzhai also used the power of several friends to loot in the people, the following ten years, China's cultural relics have been lost, according to statistics, in addition to the cultural relics snatched by the Western powers, Lu Qinzhai smuggled cultural relics are the most.
Between 1916 and 1917, Lu Qinzhai smuggled six juns from China, "Salu Zi" and "Fist Hair", but the remaining four Juns were seized by the Beiyang government, but the remaining two Juns were sold by him for 125,000 US dollars, which was the peak of cultural relics trafficking in 1926.
He used the money from the sale of cultural relics to establish the famous "Paris Red Chamber" in Paris, which is divided into five floors, of which all Chinese cultural relics are displayed, and the "Paris Red Chamber" is listed as a Parisian cultural heritage. In 1957, Lu Qinzhai died of illness at the age of 78, and he was buried in his wife's family, Gu Ho Bewa, and in his later years, he said that he was glad to have smuggled cultural relics, and it was precisely because of his smuggling that he could protect so many cultural relics.