He is a traitor in the eyes of the Chinese people, but he is also a cultural messenger in the eyes of Westerners.
He seems to have done the ultimate in betraying the country and seeking glory, but he himself does not think so, he has spoken out for himself, saying that he is doing his best to protect cultural relics and is patriotic.
He was Lu Qinzhai, the most famous antique dealer in the Republic of China period, but in comparison, domestic collectors, such as Ma Weidu, preferred to call him a "cultural relics thief".
According to statistics, half of the more than 10 million cultural relics lost overseas during the Republic of China period were transferred and sold by him, including the Tang Taizong Zhaoling Six Juns Two Salu Zi and Fist Hair, these cultural relics sold by him, so far more than 1.6 million pieces have been collected by more than 200 museums in the world, and they are all treasure-level, and now it is difficult for the country to buy back, let alone come back.
In 1957, Lu Qinzhai died in Switzerland, and after learning this news, many Chinese people suddenly felt happy, but about his evaluation, more than half a century later, it is still impossible to cover his coffin.
He was originally a complicated person, he made a fortune in the country, but he also used these money to fund the domestic war of resistance, he was originally a businessman who was only interested in profit, but he also donated several treasures for the country free of charge.
I think the definition of goodness is good for human beings. —F. Bacon
Perhaps this is Lu Qinzhai's strongest defense of herself!
His controversial life, it was like this...
The noble encounter of the poor boy
Lu Qinzhai was born in 1880 to an ordinary peasant family in Lujiadu Village, Huzhou City, Zhejiang Province, whose real name was Lu Huanwen.
Lu Huanwen (second from right)
It was the late Qing Dynasty, when the Chinese people bore the brunt of persecution by the great powers, and Lu Qinzhai's father was also indisputably infected with opium and gambling, and never had the heart to pick up a hoe.
Lu Qinzhai was already a poor childhood, and he had to be covered with a layer of ashes.
When he was a few years old, his mother died of fatigue and sadness, and not long after, his father also died of opium, a good family, and now there is only a 10-year-old Lu Qinzhai left.
Fortunately, a distant cousin from the same village was willing to take him in, and then, although Lu Qinzhai sent people to the fence, it was fortunate that there was a tile to cover his head.
At a young age, Lu Qinzhai also began to learn to "serve" people and work hard during this time.
Zhang Jingjiang
When he was 15 years old, Lu Qinzhai went out to run around, and after being introduced, he was a servant in the Zhang family of Nanxun's huge wealth, Lu Qinzhai was first arranged to help in the kitchen, and it was not long before, because he was clever and sensitive, he was favored by Zhang Jingjiang, the second son of the Zhang family, and asked his father to come and be a servant.
Lu Qinzhai originally thought that Zhang Jingjiang was a stupid boy, after all, the family had wealth and power, and he donated an official to him early in the morning, and he could also mix with a "head and a face" with him, but Zhang Jingjiang had a strong rebellious mood in his bones, and he thought about overthrowing the Qing court and overthrowing feudalism all day long.
His father was also frightened of this, even the servants around him were worried, and Lu Qinzhai was also afraid to the extreme.
Fortunately, under the painstaking efforts of the Zhang family, he found a position as a commercial diplomat in France for his son, and he was finally able to go abroad to avoid danger, after all, there were many people with lofty ideals at home at that time, and the Qing court struck and suppressed this, and if he was not careful, his life would be in danger.
Zhang Jingjiang understood his father's intentions, obeyed the arrangement, and went to France in 1902 to serve, and when he went out, he only took the 22-year-old Lu Qinzhai as a domestic servant.
This is also lu Qinzhai's first opportunity to go abroad, the outside world, so wonderful that he has more than once thought of settling here.
In addition to working in Paris, Zhang Jingjiang also founded tongyun company, which specializes in Chinese silk, tea, porcelain and antiques.
Lu Qinzhai was arranged to help take care of the antique business in the store, before, Lu Qinzhai did not have much opportunity to touch antiques, and now he can carefully look at these antiques every day, and slowly, he began to be fascinated.
Lu Qinzhai expressed to Zhang Jingjiang the idea of learning from scratch, Zhang Jingjiang was very happy, completely handed over to his own people, nothing could be more reassuring to him.
After Lu Qinzhai was instructed, he began to learn from apprentices, in addition to learning antique knowledge, he also learned English and French, and before long, Lu Qinzhai's ability was significantly improved, and Zhang Jingjiang promoted him as a treasurer and monopolized the power of antique business.
Lu Qinzhai's diligence and ability have also fulfilled Zhang Jingjiang's wishes to a certain extent, although Zhang Jingjiang is in a foreign country, he is still concerned about changes in the domestic situation, especially with Sun Yat-sen and other people with lofty ideals.
After Zhang Jingjiang made a lot of money in France, he donated most of these proceeds to the domestic salvation and survival movement, and after the outbreak of the Xinhai Revolution, Zhang Jingjiang chose to return to China.
In view of his contribution to the revolutionary cause, Zhang Jingjiang was later known as a "revolutionary sage" and ranked as one of the four elders of the Kuomintang.
At the same time, Lu Qinzhai's business in France was already booming, and he did not return to China, choosing to continue to concentrate on the business here.
Perhaps from this time on, Lu Qinzhai's subconscious choice of nationality and interests has been obviously tilted.
Business wizards
In 1908, Lu Qinzhai, who had a certain amount of savings, opened his first antique shop, named Laiyuan Company, which means antiques from afar.
For the sake of business, he thought of "packaging" himself, and it was also at this time that he gave himself a new name called Lu Qinzhai and Westerners called him C.T. Loo.
The reason why Lu Qinzhai couldn't wait to open an antique shop was largely because the antique market was very active at that time.
In order to make ends meet, they are selling antiques in sellers at prices well below value, and the domestic antique market is booming like never before.
In those years, Lu Qinzhai would return to China every year to see the goods and orders, his antique appreciation ability can be described as a must, he almost did not bat an eye on antiques, which also made Lu Qinzhai every time he returned to China to buy a large number of cultural relics at a low price and transport them to foreign countries for sale.
It didn't take long for the business to expand, given the sheer number of antiques.
From 1912 to 1915, Lu Qinzhai found Wu Qizhou, a famous antique dealer in Shanghai, and the two reached a consensus on cooperation, founded the Lu Wu Antique Company, which opened in Paris, becoming the largest antique shop in the local area and the most cattle private antique export company in modern Chinese history.
At the same time, Lu Qinzhai also continued to buy antiques from China in large quantities, placing antiques in Lu Wu Antique Company, which also temporarily became a "warehouse".
However, due to the fact that in European countries at that time, Chinese art was inferior to Japanese culture, which led to a large number of cultural relics that could not be sold and a lot of backlogs.
Coupled with the impact of the First World War, Lu Qinzhai's business was seriously frustrated, but this does not mean that his business will fail, on the contrary, these antiques will become the accumulating force for the subsequent business outbreak.
Lu Qinzhai is called a business wizard because of his unique vision and strategy and viciousness, as Lola, senior vice president of Christie's International Auction Company, said of him: "He was the first antique dealer to understand the globalization of the market." ”
After World War I, Lu shifted his attention to the rising United States, and he persuaded Wu Qizhou that the two would open a second antique shop in Madison, New York, and on the corner of 37th Street.
At this time, Chinese art and culture suddenly set off a boom, in fact, this also has a great relationship with the efforts of Lu Qinzhai himself, Lu Qinzhai has held many exhibitions and academic research on Chinese cultural relics, in order to make Westerners more accepting of Chinese culture, he also created "Chinese Baroque", "classical period" and other fresh words.
In this way, the cultural relics that had been backlogged earlier were enthusiastically purchased, and Lu Qinzhai still returned to China every year to buy folk treasures, especially the treasures scattered in the Forbidden City, which were all searched by him, and he also bought Buddha statues and murals from tomb robbers.
In addition, Lu Qinzhai also harvested a lot of porcelain, ancient jade, bronze, calligraphy and painting ink treasures, etc., every time he returned to China, Lu Qinzhai was full of local departures.
The reason why Lu Qinzhai was able to transport a large number of cultural relics under the eyes of the Republic of China government was because of Zhang Jingjiang's relationship.
In fact, when the Republic of China was first established, it had already focused on rectifying the chaos in the domestic cultural relics market and clearly promulgating the "Decree prohibiting and restricting the export of antiquities", but all this had no effect on Lu Qinzhai at all.
One after another, Lu Qinzhai has transferred countless antique cultural relics from China, while in the foreign market, Lu Qinzhai has accumulated many customers by virtue of his activity in the antique industry in those years.
Coupled with the fact that there are many and complete types of goods today, local people will come here to see if they have nothing to do, and many people come to see it, and the "godfather of antiques" comes from this, and Lu Qinzhai naturally earns a lot of money.
During this period, the number of cultural relics that Lu Qinzhai shipped abroad was huge, and the impact on national interests could not be measured, and the most famous object, which was also the cultural relic that was most criticized by later generations, was the national treasure "Tang Taizong Zhaoling Liujun".
According to legend, when Tang Taizong built the mausoleum, he specially ordered people to carve out the six war horses, one was to commemorate, and the most important thing was to be placed in the mausoleum to accompany himself, and the six horses were placed in the east and west compartments of the mausoleum, guarding Tang Taizong day and night.
In 1914, the great powers had stripped the Six Juns from the tomb wall and prepared to smuggle them out, but for various reasons, they were not shipped out, and then flowed into the hands of warlords, and after several turns, they reached the hands of Lu Qinzhai.
In view of the fact that this is a national treasure, the Republic of China government attaches great importance to it, and it is not easy for Lu Qinzhai to be transported out "bright and upright", so he made a decision, he ordered people to destroy the integrity of cultural relics and try to get lucky.
In the end, the four juns were seized by the government, and Salu Zi and Fist Hair were transported out.
In 1916, the two horses had already arrived in the United States, and were later sold by Lu Qinzhai as a greeting gift to the University of Pennsylvania for a super low price of $125,000, which is now displayed in the museum.
It is reported that the Chinese government has repeatedly asked for it, but it has not been successful.
With his own strength, he has solved problems for the entire Chinese nation, and this is Lu Qinzhai .
"Louvre Museum of China"
In 1920, the 40-year-old Lu Qinzhai turned to the commercial center, wanting to focus on the development of Paris, he wanted to build a Chinese-style building in The city of Paris, the use of the building is not unexpected, is used for antique business.
At that time, the city of Paris was extremely strict in urban planning management, but despite this, Lu Qinzhai bought a mansion from Napoleon III for a large sum of money in 1926, and three years later, it was built into a five-story building with an underground floor and a bright red appearance, which he named "The Red Chamber", which locals preferred to call "China's Louvre".
Because all the items in it are first-class treasures, which are very rare in China, to a certain extent, this building is simply a microcosm of China's five thousand years of culture.
The distribution and display of each floor of the Red Chamber is also very elaborate, the basement is from the major grottoes buddha statues and other objects, the above floors display murals, flower and bird theme objects, lacquer paintings, reliefs, as well as foreign cultural relics imported from India and other places.
In order to promote the culture of the Red Chamber, in 1934 and 1935, Lu Qinzhai held Chinese bronze and cultural play exhibitions in Paris and London respectively to promote the business of the Red Chamber.
In 1937, the domestic War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression entered the most difficult stage, and Lu Qinzhai, who was busy earning money, was finally awakened to a hint of national consciousness.
He mobilized all his staff to donate thousands of francs, and also sold 9 treasures at the Geneva auction house, donating all the proceeds to China, and since that year, Lu Qinzhai has secretly sent $2,000 to his hometown every year, but has never signed his real name.
In 1938, Lu Qinzhai sponsored the exhibition of Chinese cultural relics held in London and also donated to the American Medical Aid Association.
On July 29, 1948, when the new China was being prepared, Lu Qinzhai had been preparing for several years and intended to transport a total of 342 cultural relics in China, including an animal statue from the late Spring and Autumn Period, which is now the treasure of the Shanghai Museum.
In 1949, after the founding of New China, Lu Qinzhai could no longer transport cultural relics, and a large number of important cultural relics he had stored in the Shanghai branch at that time were also confiscated by the government, not only that, but the "accomplices" groups he had established before were also arrested and executed.
Lu Qinzhai's antique commercial industry has reached the sunset stage.
According to rough statistics, since 1915, Lu Qinzhai has been continuously transferred to the outside world for more than thirty years, and countless cultural relics have been passed through his hands, and in the two auctions held by Lu Qinzhai himself in New York, more than 2,800 cultural relics have been sold.
In an exhibition in Paris, he once again sold more than 3,000 pieces of bronze, sculpture, jade and so on.
Not to mention the many cultural relics that he personally selected and placed in the Red Chamber for display.
Lu Qinzhai's value soared, the company became bigger and bigger, almost all employees were profitable, at that time, a small shareholder of Lu Wu Antiques Company's annual dividends were more than 100,000 silver, which was comparable to the best glass factory at that time for almost a year.
In 1950, Lu Qinzhai saw that his career was coming to an end, announced his retirement, liquidated the New York branch and accepted it by others, and led the family back to the Paris main store.
A few years later, Lu Qinzhai also transferred the store business to others, leaving the proud Red Chamber in his own hands and taking over by his daughter until 2006, when it was auctioned as family property.
In 1957, Lu Qinzhai died of lung cancer in a Swiss clinic at the age of 77, and he did not set foot on the land of his beloved motherland.
His married life is also highly controversial.
His marriage and family
When Lu Qinzhai opened her first store in Paris, she met a hat shop owner named Olga.
The two people are relatively close to the store on weekdays, and they can often meet when they open and close the store, he sees that she is always alone, she sees him is always alone, and slowly, the two have feelings for each other and begin to fall in love.
Mary Rose
Olga Lu Qinzhai is 4 years old, when they fall in love, they can talk about everything, but Olga is not a simple single woman, she was a nanny in a rich family, did not want to be seduced by the male owner, at the age of 19 gave birth to a daughter Mary Rose, the male owner for his own selfish desires, has been raising her as a lover, in order to hide her eyes, but also opened a shop for her, is this hat shop.
At this time, Olga's thoughts had all fallen on the gentle and elegant Chinese man in front of her, but in order not to lose the hat shop and to keep in touch with Lu Qinzhai, Olga boldly proposed that her daughter marry Lu Qinzhai and use her daughter to cover her selfish desires.
Lu Qinzhai even agreed to this ridiculous proposal.
In this way, 30-year-old Lu Qinzhai married 15-year-old Mary and gave birth to 4 daughters after marriage. But during this period, Lu Qinzhai and Olga maintained an ambiguous relationship.
Lu Qinzhai's 4 daughters
At first, the two were still jealous of Mary and relented, but later, especially during Mary's pregnancy, the two began to communicate openly.
Not only that, Orga has always lived with her daughter's family, Olga is actually the hostess of this family, he usually takes care of Lu Qinzhai's daily life, and interferes with the big and small things in their family, which Mary is often very distressed about.
Over time, Mary became aware of the true relationship between the two of them, and she asked her mother for an explanation, but Olga was so angry that Lu Qinzhai was preoccupied with her career and paid no attention to Mary.
Finally, Mary could not bear such a big mental blow and gradually became schizophrenic.
Her marriage was a scam from the beginning, and now that she is ill, she has confessed her fate, even if she has a little sober consciousness, she no longer mentions the idea of divorce, since this marriage is a scam, then let it be deceived to the end, her life, can only be like this.
Daughter of Lu Qinzhai
On the other hand, Mary's four daughters, they may also feel their father's indifference, because Lu Qinzhai never taught them any antique knowledge, nor did he teach them Chinese culture, nor even Chinese, let alone let them recognize their ancestors and inherit their own property.
Controversy about him
Lu Qinzhai's biggest wish in his later years was to hope that he could return to his roots, even if he returned to China once, but at this time, the domestic scolding of him rose and fell, especially he was also regarded as a shame by many antique figures in the Chinese collection industry.
For the evaluation of the outside world, he once defended himself in this way: "Art has no borders, rather than reluctantly leaving Buddha statues in China, reduced to valuable commodity chips, and then robbed and destroyed, it is better to properly keep foreign museums and serve as living cultural ambassadors." ”
But objectively speaking, Lu Qinzhai in the early twentieth century should not have accurately predicted what would happen to China next, or even what Would happen to China's cultural relics, the so-called "loss of cultural relics in order to save Chinese culture", in the final analysis, this statement is a bit distorted.
In any case, because of Lu Qinzhai, the wealth and culture of the mainland have been seriously hit.
The fact is that the statue stele, which is known as the first statue in the sea during the Republic of China period, is now placed in a corner of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, USA, which carries the inspiration for the creation of Chinese Buddhist art in the late Southern and Northern Dynasties, and this monument was sold by Lu Qinzhai to the oil king Rockefeller.
The Bronze Fang Gong body of the Shang Dynasty is known as the pinnacle of the Shang Dynasty bronze, and it is also because of Lu Qinzhai that the Chinese government has added a lot of troubles, but fortunately, this cultural relic was later repurchased by heavy money and returned to the motherland, and the country lost a large amount of wealth for no reason.
But it is undeniable that Lu Qinzhai in his later years is also trying to make salvation for himself.
He has donated a number of top cultural relics, such as the Five Dynasties Bodhisattva Chart, which was evaluated by Ma Weidu as a "true treasure of the Five Dynasties Period", and in 1947, at the instigation of the scholar Chen Mengjia, he donated to the Cultural Relics Exhibition Room of Tsinghua University the Warring States bronze "Sizi Pot" excavated in Luoyang, Henan Province.
In fact, many people believe that Lu Qinzhai is a legal antique dealer in theory, and from a commercial point of view, his purchase and sale of cultural relics is also a reasonable commercial means.
After all, many cultural relics today are because of Lu Qinzhai, only to learn that they are alive, and today's Chinese can also have the honor to see the glory.
But because he did make a fortune in the country, he also wrote in a letter: "I do feel very humiliated, because I am one of the sources of the loss of these national treasures." ”
In fact, as to how Lu Qinzhai's heart weighed the interests and the nation, I think that his decision to smash the Six Juntu in the first place can already explain everything.
As a businessman, he is undoubtedly successful, but as a Chinese, he is also undoubtedly a failure.
Patriotism and interests are not incompatible, but they cannot be obtained at the same time, perhaps for businessmen like Lu Qinzhai, first making money and then loving the country is also a patriotic way, but is this really the case?
In the eyes of patriots, the state is the greatest interest and the only interest.