▲ Lu Qinzhai Image source: National Geographic Chinese Network
Lu Qinzhai's name has gradually faded, but now in the major museum collection systems in the United States that are known for collecting Asian cultural relics, searching for the keyword "C.T. Loo" will see a large number of high-end, high-quality national treasure-level cultural relics. Yes, C.T. Loo is the English name of Lu Qinzhai, who was an internationally renowned antiquities dealer and antique dealer at the beginning of the twentieth century. His clients were all huge merchants at the time, like The Rockefellers Jr., banker J.P. Morgan, and so on.
The National Museum of Asian Art has released a set of photos of the interior of the Lu Qinzhai family and its Red Chamber, giving us a glimpse into its former antique empire.
Lu Qinzhai in 1910
Mr. Yang Renkai described Lu Qinzhai in his book "Records of the Sinking and Floating of National Treasures" as follows: Lu Shi was born on February 10, 1880 in Loujiadu, Huzhou, Zhejiang Province, a wealthy family, concurrently engaged in industry and commerce, and during the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, his family fell in the middle of the road. He studied in Shanghai at an early age and went to France at the age of twenty. Later, he cooperated with Zhang Jingjiang, the head of the Zhejiang consortium, to run the antique industry, and after a few years, the business was extremely prosperous, in addition to the main store in Paris, France, there were branches in New York, Shanghai, Beijing and other places...
Mr. Yang has several misremembers here. In fact, Lu Qinzhai came from a humble background, born in 1880 in a small village called Lu Jiadu in Huzhou, Zhejiang, and his real name was Lu Huanwen — a name that was ordinary and ordinary, and had a sad memory, which was one of the traces he wanted to erase in the future. The people of Lujiadu have lived on Sangma for generations. Originally, in such a chaotic world, the thrifty family could barely make ends meet, but Lu Qinzhai's father was a gambling addict. His mother struggled to hold on to bankruptcy in such a desperate environment, committed suicide with hatred under the weight of life, and his father died shortly after. In this way, Lu Qinzhai became an orphan. He passed to the house of a distant uncle who had gone out of five clothes.
The turning point in his fate came when he entered the Nanxun Zhang family as a servant. During the Guangxu period, the people of Nanxun, Huzhou, had the so-called "four elephants, eight cattle, and seventy-two dogs", and those with assets of more than 10 million silver were called "elephants". Those who are more than five million taels but not more than ten million are called "cattle", and those who are more than one million taels of silver and do not reach five million are called "dogs". The Nanxun Zhang family is one of the "four elephants". The master of Lu Qinzhai's service was Zhang Jingjiang, the second son of the Zhang family. Similar to Wang Sicong, many of the famous buildings of the 1920s and 1930s belonged to them, such as the Apricot Blossom Building, the Great Shanghai Cinema, the Great Shanghai Dance Hall and the Great World Amusement Center.
Originally, Zhang Jingjiang and his father wanted him to be an official of the Qing Dynasty, and also spent 100,000 oceans to donate him a false position of two-pin alternate Daoist title, no, he was an angry youth, radical in thought, bent on overthrowing the decaying and declining Qing Dynasty. Seeing that the situation was not right, his father paid him to send him abroad to avoid the wind. In 1902, Zhang Jingjiang was appointed commercial counsellor of the Qing court in France, and Lu Qinzhai was fortunately selected to serve him as a waiter, and thus began a new journey in life. Zhang Jingjiang opened a "Tongyun" company in Paris, selling Chinese porcelain, calligraphy and paintings, etc. Lu Qinzhai with his talent and diligence, starting from an apprentice in an antique shop, assiduously learning the various businesses of antique shops, and learning to speak fluent English and French, soon appreciated by the boss, Lu Qinzhai gradually became the palm shop, laying the foundation for independent operation in the future. After the Xinhai Revolution, Zhang Jingjiang returned to China to assist Sun Yat-sen, and after the end of the Tongyun Company, Lu Qinzhai opened his own antique shop and established the Lu Wu Antiques Company.
▲ Lu Qinzhai thirty years old photo
At that time, the domestic political situation was turbulent, people's hearts were unstable, and the antiquities and treasures in the Forbidden City were lost overseas, Lu Qinzhai took this opportunity to successfully purchase many rare and rare treasures at a low price and sell them to the European market. Gradually, Lu Qinzhai became a well-known connoisseur of Chinese antiques and a celebrity among The Chinese in Europe. But Lu Qinzhai was not satisfied with this. As early as the time of Louis XIV, Chinese art was already recognized by Western high society. In the eyes of Westerners, the crystal fine Chinese porcelain, the strange bronze ceremonial vessels, the dazzling enamelware, and many strange crafts, with a sense of mystery from the far east, make them feel new and interesting.
But in the wave of "Japanese style", Chinese art has obviously been temporarily forgotten. People who really understand East Asian culture, such as Lin Zhongzheng, can naturally understand the connotation and aesthetic taste of Chinese art. He has tried to introduce Chinese bronzes to Westerners, but its relatively high prices have always been unattractive compared to ukiyo-e. According to Kirklin, Lin's bronzes eventually made their way into Gross's collection. At that time, the Western aesthetic was dominated by Japanese art by the French Gonggur brothers, and Chinese art was shrouded in its shadow, and even tasteful connoisseurs could hardly see truly high-level Chinese art.
▲The exhibition held by Lu Qinzhai
Lu Qinzhai changed this situation, and he wanted to make some big moves. So he focused his interests on ancient Chinese sculptures, murals, bronzes, and high jade. At this time, he showed the superb skill of a successful businessman, and through exhibitions and academic research, he broke the aesthetic taste of Westerners. Since he started, these blonde foreigners have come to know how to appreciate Chinese cultural relics. At the same time, however, these Chinese cultural relics have also suffered the disaster of theft, destruction and transportation.
When Lu Qinzhai was 40 years old, his antique business was in full swing. At this point he had a new idea to build an entirely Chinese-style building to display and sell treasures from China. But the idea is almost impossible in Paris, where municipal planning is very strict. The architecture of Paris has a uniform style, and the height, design style, and materials of each house must be strictly approved and must be coordinated with the surrounding buildings as a whole.
Lu Qinzhai had already bought a mansion built by Napoleon III in the 8th district where the rich gathered. The mansion has 4 towers, and Lu Qinzhai plans to convert these 4 towers into 4 rooms for his 4 daughters to live in. Located on the corner of a small square near Parc Monceau, the mansion was ideal for business, and Lu Qinzhai eventually decided to convert it into his third store.
Lu Qinzhai's first proposed renovation plan was not approved. Undeterred, he applied again, with the assistance of the French architect Fernand Bloch. Not knowing what kind of magic he used, the city of Paris finally approved his plan. The renovation project began in 1926, and it took only 2 years to convert the original 3-storey mansion into a 5-story Chinese-style red building. This should be one of the most authentic Chinese buildings in Paris! Hanging at the door is the signboard of Lu Wu Antique Company.
The basement of the Red Chamber resembles a grotto from the Wei and Jin dynasties to the Sui and Tang dynasties
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These famous stone carvings, or masterpieces from the five famous grottoes of Yungang, Longmen, Gongxian, Tianlongshan and Xiangtangshan, as well as the fine works of Buddha statues in previous dynasties (including a small number of mausoleum carvings and other secular works) other than the grottoes, are undoubtedly of special reference value for the study of ancient sculpture history.
▲ These big names appear in the photo
Nowadays, most of them are scattered in major museums in Europe and the United States
As for the main hall on the ground floor, there are murals stolen from China. Among them should be the famous Guangsheng Temple mural. A total of 4 murals were sold at Guangsheng Temple, including the murals on the east and west walls of the front hall and the apse, which are the best of the five generations of Chinese murals. After several turnovers, these murals later crossed the ocean to the United States under the planning of the great antique dealer Lu Qinzhai.
The Misty Chidori Room on the second floor of the Red Building. Its walls are all decorated with Ming Dynasty and Qing Dynasty flower and bird figure lacquer painting wall panels, with flower and bird relief algae wells and furniture, Chinese carved beds have been changed into niches, which are furnished with Buddha statues and picture scrolls, and the windows are also made into Chinese carved window frames, which is full of the style of traditional Chinese architecture.
Further up is the exhibition area for Indian art and Khmer art
With the influence of his old owner Zhang Jingjiang in the Nationalist government, Lu Qinzhai defied the decree to smuggle cultural relics out of China for decades. Until July 29, 1948, his last shipment was intercepted in China – the result of several years of preparation, seventeen boxes, 342 cultural relics, many of which were national treasures. At this point, Lu Qinzhai's good days are over. The detained batch was handed over to the newly established Shanghai Museum, and the animal statue from the late Spring and Autumn Period became the treasure of the museum' town hall.
In March 1950, Lu Qinzhai issued a statement in New York:
I am over seventy years old and have been in the business of Chinese antiques for half a century... The new Chinese regime in Shanghai seized a large number of cultural relics that I had acquired, including my vital collections, which made me realize that my antique business was exhausted and unsustainable... Therefore, I have decided to withdraw from the antiques trading industry from now on.
- Lu Qinzhai
At this point, Lu Qinzhai's "career" came to an end...
Lu Qinzhai's family life was somewhat chaotic, and in 1908, when he was still in "tongyun", Lu Qinzhai met Olga, a female shopkeeper who opened a hat shop in Place Madeland. Olga's father is Polish and her mother is Italian. She was a childless family member in Paris at an early age, but the man of the family seduced her and made her pregnant, giving birth to a daughter, Marie Rose (1895-1971). Lu Qinzhai fell in love with Olga, who was four years older than him. Olga did not want to lose an old lover who had given her a hat shop, nor did she want to abandon the mercurial and amorous Oriental man Lu Qinzhai, so she thought of a "two-boat foot" strategy: decided to marry a mother and daughter, married her daughter, 15-year-old Mary Rose, to Lu Qinzhai and held a brief wedding on December 29, 1910. After marriage, Rose became a single-minded housewife and gave birth to four daughters to Lu Qinzhai successively. But her married life has always had her mother Olga inserted in it. For this reason she developed schizophrenia.
▲ Mrs. Rose, 1920
Lu Qinzhai and Olga, 1950s
Lu Qinzhai is genetically strong, and several of his daughters have inherited his handsome oriental appearance. His youngest daughter, Jenny, married Jean at the age of 17. Pierre. Du Boqiu.
Below are photos taken of his wedding in 1937.
Lu Qinzhai's eldest daughter, Monica, was born in 1913, and the picture shows Monica photographed in the foyer of the Red Chamber at the age of twenty-four.
Lu Qinzhai is a gentleman, not only entangled with Olga's mother and daughter, but also often in and out of New York with the Chinese woman Elena. What's more, when the owner Zhang Jingjiang was running for the revolutionary cause outside, he exchanged postcards with Zhang Jingjiang's wife, Yao Hui, and the relationship was ambiguous.
In 1957, at the age of 78, Lu Qinzhai died in Switzerland. He once said that he would return to his roots, bury himself in China, or be buried in the Belle Lachaise Cemetery in Paris. But his wife's family's grave was in Ancient Hobeva, and he was eventually buried in this small town in the west of Paris.
The conclusion of the coffin, about lu Qinzhai's merits and demerits, is very controversial. In order to avoid the black-and-white argument, we return to human nature and sort out Lu Qinzhai's merits and demerits.
As a businessman, in order to sell his own "goods", he held high-level salon gatherings, invited international famous sinologists to participate in the production of exquisitely printed introduction albums, and intensive and rich art lectures, so that high-class customers in Europe and the United States truly realized the profundity and aesthetics of Chinese history, culture and cultural relics. But his "goods" belong to the memory of a country and a nation, and they are all illegally obtained. Subjectively, he did not aim to promote Chinese culture, but objectively produced such an effect.
As a Chinese, his home country identity is particularly strong. Although he spent his whole life hiding his humble origins. But he sent a considerable amount of money to his hometown every year until the year before his death. He was happy to do his best to ask for help from his own people, and received letters of help from all directions in a lacquered wooden box on the table of huanghuali in the entrance of the Red Chamber. Especially during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, he publicly raised funds and raised funds to purchase military supplies for domestic transportation. He not only has business ties with foreign museums, but is also an important donor to them, such as his donation to the Museum of Gemé, and his assistance to the National Museum of France and the Louvre Museum. In 1950, he generously donated one of his most exquisite Song and Yuan murals to the Nelson Museum. And so on.
Therefore, for the evaluation of Lu Qinzhai's life, we can borrow a sentence from the great collector Mr. Zhang Boju: "The collectors who have been examining the collectors at the end of the Qing Dynasty are different from Xiang Zijing, Gao Shiqi, An Yizhou, and Liang Qingbiao." He is more plundered by the Gentiles. There are also those who have flowed out of the country, and there are also those who have been preserved, then the calligraphy and paintings at this time are half of the merits and sins. ”
Source Wenbo Shaanxi, reprinted from the public account of the ancient script supplement