I believe that many people have heard such a rumor: in the "Collection of the World" program broadcast by Beijing Television, the famous actor and program host Wang Gang took up and dropped a hammer and smashed a unique antique worth 200 million yuan into pieces on the spot, causing a cry of surprise at the scene.
This is a real scene that happened in the "World Collection" program scene in 2012, but what the program team and Wang Gang himself did not expect was that soon the two parties were sued by the owner and claimed 200 million.
After the incident, Wang Gang left the program, almost faded out of people's sight, and the program was also suspended. Just eight years later, in 2020, Wang Gang made a comeback again, already an old man with two white sideburns.
In order to clarify the facts, he responded for the first time on his newly opened social account, clarifying that the rumors of that year were untrue, that he did not smash the wrong one, and that what he smashed was indeed a fake.
So, is what Wang Gang said true or false? Is the collection really worth 200 million yuan, and what is the truth? Let's try to unravel the mystery.
Remove the false and the true, and raise the hammer to smash the fake
China has been up and down for five thousand years, giving birth to a brilliant civilization. Due to the long history, many precious cultural relics have been handed down and collected by folk antique lovers, but it is sometimes difficult to distinguish between true and false.
After entering the twenty-first century, with the vigorous development of all walks of life, treasure hunting programs have also flourished, and major television stations have launched their own treasure hunting programs to spread traditional Chinese culture on the one hand, and on the other hand, they can also preserve the truth and give collectors benefits.
For example, CCTV's "Treasure Hunting" column, invited a number of antique experts to help, rushed around the country, searching for treasures, the program is very civilian, deeply loved by the majority of Tibetan friends and the masses, began to broadcast for more than ten years.
At the same time, Beijing Television also followed the situation and launched a "World Collection" column, which began broadcasting in 2007. The "World Collection" column invited the famous actor Wang Gang as the host of the program, coupled with the novel program format, it immediately caught the attention of the audience after broadcasting, and the popularity has remained high.
The most frightening part of this show is that once the collection is identified as a fake, Wang Gang takes out a "treasure protection hammer", smashes it with a hammer, and smashes it on the spot.
The audience is excited to see, and the treasure holder has an ugly expression and his face is green. Netizens also followed suit, jokingly saying:
Good guys, there is no treasure that Wakan and adults dare not smash!
But these did not deter private collectors, who enthusiastically signed up for the show, moved out their own collections, and let the experts of the program group help identify the authenticity. The purpose of collectors is very simple, fake is smashed by a hammer, but if it is true, with the affirmation of experts, the value of the collection will naturally rise, and it may become rich overnight.
In order to avoid disputes, the "World Collection" program sets up three links: bright treasure, treasure identification, and treasure protection.
In the last link, the host Wang Gang will confirm "whether to quit" many times, if the treasure holder says "no", after being identified as a fake, Wang Gang will "bang" a sound to drop the treasure hammer and smash the fake.
The program is risky, and it is necessary to be cautious when stepping on it, and as a result, in one of the programs of "The Collection of the World", there are Tibetan friends who have disregarded the rules, resulting in the smashing of the collection worth 200 million, and in a rage, the program group and the "treasure smasher" Wang Gang have been sued in court.
200 million Ming Dynasty porcelain was smashed and left the scene
On October 28, 2012, the program "Tianxia Collection" was launched as scheduled, and the theme of this program was "Yongxuan Porcelain Painting", that is, the identification of porcelain and ancient paintings during the Yongle years of the Ming Dynasty. Fu Changyong, a middle-aged man from Hebei, came to the scene with his baby.
According to himself, he brought a pair of "sweet white glazed pressed hand cups".
Fu Changyong is a doctor who has been seeing patients for free for a long time, and one of the patients, in order to thank Fu Changyong for his care for many years, specially gave him this porcelain he bought with 20,000 yuan to express his recognition of other people's character.
This time Fu Changyong participated in the program, is to let the experts identify whether this porcelain is true or false, if it is true, and what is the value? If it is fake, according to the custom, before taking the stage, he and the program team signed a disclaimer clause - once it is considered a fake, the host Wang Gang will smash it on the spot.
Soon, Fu Changyong appeared with the "sweet white glaze pressed hand cup", which was identified by three experts on the field. After carefully examining this porcelain, the expert first said that the "hand cup" that has been identified as genuine is priceless, and the few remaining ones are treasured in the Palace Museum. Hearing the experts say this, the scene was in an uproar, if Fu Changyong's treasure is genuine, the value must be great. From the on-site monitoring, it can be seen that Fu Changyong's expression has also become excited.
But the expert suddenly turned sharply and continued, you call yourself a "sweet white glaze" at this time, but the dark carved dragon pattern is too stiff and stiff, the color is miserable white, the material has obvious impurities, and it is obviously not the porcelain of the Yongle years.
In short, experts believe that Fu Changyong's "sweet white glazed hand cup" is not genuine, but a replica of modern craftsmanship, which can be collected, but is not worth much.
Hearing that it was identified as a fake by experts, Fu Changyong's expression became difficult to see, and the scene was also silent. According to the program process, after identifying the collection as a fake, the host Wang Gang will ask the treasure hammer to smash the fake.
As a result, Fu Changyong has always insisted that his collection is genuine, and he has been asked by Wang Gang seven times in a row whether he will quit immediately, giving a negative answer.
So, Wang Gang picked up the treasure guard hammer and smashed it into one of the cups, "clicking" and smashing it to pieces.
Originally, the treasure program ended here, and according to the contract, the smashed fragments were left in the program group. However, Fu Changyong was not satisfied with the appraisal results, insisted on taking away the debris, and had an argument with the program team staff. In the end, the program team had to compromise, Fu Changyong took away the remaining cup and two pieces, and left the scene with regret.
It was identified as true and claimed 200 million yuan in a lawsuit
After the show aired, things took a huge turn.
Fu Changyong insisted that his collection was genuine, but that the patient had bought it for 20,000 yuan and then transferred it to him. And what makes him even more puzzled is that since the program team believes that it is a fake, why not let him take the fragments away, is there anything catty in it? Fu Changyong thought in his heart that the three treasure experts also had mistakes, they were wrong, and in order to cover up the mistakes, they thought of destroying the evidence.
The more Fu Changyong thought about it, the more unwilling he became, so he took the fragment and sent it to a cultural relics appraisal company for re-identification. The results of the appraisal are:
Fu Changyong's "Sweet White Glazed Hand Cup" is not only genuine, but also a rare gem, worth about 200 million yuan.
Holding the identification results and porcelain fragments, Fu Changyong was both happy and annoyed, happy that his inference had been confirmed, and annoyed that one of the "pressurized water cups" had been smashed.
The more he thought about it, the angrier he became, and decided to ask for an explanation for himself, so he filed a complaint against the program team and Wang Gang in court, claiming 200 million yuan
。
In fact, this is not the first time that someone has expressed doubts about the program team. Just in the middle of 2012, the program team and the Capital Museum jointly held a comparison exhibition of true and false collections, in which more than 30 fragments of the smashed "fakes" were compared with the real objects in the collection of the Capital Museum. It turned out that many of the smashed collections were genuine, and even treasured.
In this regard, the program organizers responded that although there are only three experts on the stage, they have a huge pool of experts behind them, and it is impossible to identify mistakes, let alone smash mistakes.
Although the program team tried their best to explain and came up with a lot of evidence, it still caused an uproar. As a popular actor, Wang Gang's "wrong smashing" of the real thing naturally attracted widespread media attention, but he himself did not clarify, but waited for the court's judgment.
On October 14, 2013, the Chaoyang District Court in Beijing rendered a judgment on the "Smashing Treasure" case. In the spirit of impartiality and impartiality, the court invited two highly influential experts to identify the plaintiff's entire piece of porcelain and fragments. The identification results show that
Although the porcelain in the hands of the plaintiff is not a modern imitation, it is not a genuine product, but a "sustenance vessel" produced from the Ming Dynasty to the Jiajing period, that is, an "ancient imitation".
At the same time, the court held that Fu Changyong and the program team had signed a "life and death document" in advance, and even if the smashing was genuine, the program team did not bear any responsibility.
Therefore, the court rendered a first-instance judgment rejecting all the claims of the plaintiff Fu Changyong and bearing the litigation costs of 3300 yuan.
After the verdict was released, Fu Changyong appealed again again, and the result was still unsuccessful, not only did not get 200 million yuan in compensation, but also put in 3300 yuan in litigation costs. After the court announced the results of the second-instance trial, Fu Changyong put an end to the flag and did not pursue the matter any further, and I am afraid that only he himself can understand it.
Wang Gang made a comeback and responded for the first time
Despite winning the lawsuit, the reputation of the "World Collection" program was still greatly affected. Half a year after the incident, the program team carried out a "big change of face", canceled the "smashing treasure" link, put away the smashing treasure hammer, and Wang Gang, the "treasure protector", also left the program and faded out of the public vision.
Eight years later, Wang Gang made a comeback again, and in the face of the "wrong smashing" of antiques for the first time, he responded on social platforms:
At that time, the so-called rumors were untrue, and there were always people who did not know the truth who were misled and overwhelmed. I smashed it myself is a fake, I hereby respond to this, thank you!
Although Wang Gang no longer hosts the "World Collection" program and no longer fiddles with the "treasure protection hammer", he still maintains a humble attitude towards antiques and continues to tell the story of cultural relics inheritance in the "National Treasures" program.
To this day, there are still many netizens who are obsessed with Wang Gang's "hammer and tone" days, some people wrote on social platforms that me and my dad like to watch, the rules of the show are that there are fakes must be smashed...