Friends of Huan cultural relics must be familiar with Ma Weidu, he is well-known in the domestic collection circle, in the early years, some of the cultural relics he picked up in the domestic cultural relics market have been displayed as treasures in the Guanfu Museum today. In the museum's underground warehouse, there are many important priceless treasures, including a helmet.
Speaking of this, some friends may wonder, the helmet is only a part of the armor, and now the armor in the Mainland Museum is not less, why does Ma Wei have a special love for this helmet?
On this matter, we have to go back twenty years, to a trip to Europe by Mr. Ma Weidu. At that time, Ma Weidu was already a little famous in the collection industry, so some auctions or collectors abroad would also invite him to identify cultural relics or exchange some experience in collecting art with him.
After talking with foreign collectors, Ma Weidu had a playful mentality and decided to take a walk around the art market there. Just as he turned to the Oriental Art Trading District, he was attracted by a helmet in front of him. Only to see that this helmet actually painted two dragons, this is a great treasure, in the ancient times of the mainland, only the emperor or the royal family can tattoo the dragon, that is to say, if this treasure is genuine, it must belong to the royal family.
At that time, Ma Weidu slowly walked to this helmet, pretending not to care about the cultural relics next to it, that is, a piece of porcelain from a folk kiln, which was probably a Song Dynasty thing. The shopkeeper looked at Ma Weidu's attention to this porcelain, thinking that this treasure should be an extremely valuable cultural relic, and decided to ask for a high price.
After some haggling, Mr. Ma Weidu finally bought the porcelain for more than 10,000 euros, and because the business was relatively happy, he asked the owner if the helmet could be seen by himself. At that time, the shopkeeper agreed, and Ma Weidu casually looked at it, smiled and put it on the shelf, and finally bought the priceless treasure at a lower price.
When he got this helmet, Ma Weidu's heart was trembling, because as early as a few years ago, the Palace Museum had bought a helmet of a Qing emperor from abroad at a sky-high price, which was said to have cost tens of millions of yuan. And today I was really lucky, I actually bumped into such a priceless treasure, and I don't want to mention how happy I am.
Back in China, Ma Weidu consulted the data for research and concluded: This helmet is exactly the treasure worn by Zhu Di, the Yongle Emperor of the Southern Expedition and the Northern War, because the font on it is exactly the same as the one on Xuande blue and white porcelain, plus the gilded dragon pattern, which further proves the value of this treasure.
Although Ma Weidu did not know the reason for the treasure's exile in Europe, he speculated that it must be inseparable from the European antiquities dealers. Perhaps when the Eight-Power Alliance invaded China, a soldier plundered this treasure and arrived at the local cultural relics market due to the war. Fortunately, however, Europeans were not familiar with Chinese artifacts, so Ma Weidu was able to successfully retrieve the treasure.
Today, this helmet once worn by Yongle The Great has been placed in the underground warehouse of the Guanfu Museum, where there are many valuable treasures waiting to be revealed in the future. However, one thing is certain that Ma Weidu must have been happy to be able to buy back such a national treasure-level cultural relic at a low price.