Before the founding of New China in modern times, the life of ordinary people was very hard, there were warlords fighting inside, there were invasions by foreign powers, and for a long time there was no unified political power.
After the Western powers invaded China, the first thing that came to mind was how to plunder, and many national treasures in the Yuanmingyuan, the Forbidden City, the Mogao Grottoes and other places were robbed by those robbers, resulting in a lot of things that were originally ours, and we now want to see how to spend money to go to foreign museums, which is a great sadness.
What is even more tragic is that not only foreigners loot, but many Chinese cultural relics that have been exiled overseas have actually been sold by Chinese, and they have done this kind of thing that can be called "traitorous" for their own way to make a fortune.
Among this batch of scalpers, the most famous and most harmful person is called Lu Qinzhai, nearly half of the cultural relics are sold abroad through his hands, in addition, Lu Qinzhai's private life is also breathtaking, he first got along with a clothing store female owner, in order to be able to live with her for a long time, he even married her 15-year-old daughter.
Lu Qinzhai was originally named Lu Huanwen, born in 1880 in Huzhou, Zhejiang Province, the family was very poor, and he lost his father at a very young age, and his mother had to foster him to his cousin's house when he was unable to take care of him. When Lu Qinzhai was more than ten years old, his cousin sent him to the Nanxun Zhang family as a servant, mainly responsible for taking care of the zhang family's young master.
The Nanxun Zhang family was extremely rich and mainly engaged in foreign trade business, and this Zhang family young master was Zhang Jingjiang, one of the later "four elders of the Kuomintang". It should be known that most of Dr. Sun Yat-sen's revolutionary funds came from Zhang Jingjiang, which can be considered how rich the Zhang family was.
In 1902, Zhang Jingjiang served as the commercial counselor of the Qing court in France, and Lu Qinzhai had already established a good relationship with Zhang Jingjiang, so he also went abroad.
In France, Lu Qinzhai discovered another world, and learned some business knowledge. He knew very well that it was useless to rely on the young master alone to get ahead, so he also actively studied foreign languages, and it didn't take long for him to communicate simply in French and English.
At that time, Zhang Jingjiang opened the "Yuntong" company in Paris, and made a lot of money by selling Chinese porcelain, calligraphy and paintings, and Lu Qinzhai came into contact with the antique industry and met Wu Qizhou, a famous antique dealer in the late Qing Dynasty and early Ming Dynasty.
Lu Qinzhai started as an apprentice in antiques, worked hard to study the various businesses of antique shops, and after becoming proficient in all aspects, cooperated with Wu Qizhou to open the "Orient Company" in Place Madeleine. Wu Qizhou selects goods in China, and Lu Qinzhai sells them in France.
After the outbreak of the Xinhai Revolution, Zhang Jingjiang funded all the money earned by the Yuntong Company to Sun Yat-sen, and returned to China to assist Sun Yat-sen in the revolution.
This is great good news for Lu Qinzhai, one is to break away from the original young master and officially do it alone, and the other is that the domestic situation is turbulent, and the antiques will depreciate.
At that time, in order to maintain their luxurious lives, the fallen royal palace nobles in the Qing court took out their antiques and sold them at a low price, and even the last emperor Puyi did not do less.
Lu Qinzhai and Wu Qizhou thought that this was a good opportunity, and they partnered to set up the Lu Wu Antique Company in Shanghai, or did the antique resale business, as long as it was a good thing, they would collect it. Because he has been involved in this industry for many years, he rarely looks away, and successfully acquires many ancient and rare treasures at a low price, and then sells them to Europe at hundreds or thousands of times the price.
Through the hands of Lu Qinzhai, the most famous and most vicious national treasure is the "Zhaoling Liujun" stone carving in the tomb of Li Shimin of Tang Taizong.
The names of these six warhorses were given by Tang Taizong, and the prototypes were all Tang Taizong's mounts. The characters on the relief are transcribed on paper by the calligrapher Ouyang Yuanxian, the image is painted by the painter Yan Liben, and then engraved on the stone carving by the stone carver Yan Lide, who handles famous celebrities, and the historical and artistic value is immeasurable.
Among them, "Salu Purple" and "Fist Hair" were sold abroad by Lu Qinzhai for $125,000 and are now in the Museum of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, USA, which is a great loss for China.
Lu Qinzhai later opened a number of companies in Europe, and nearly half of the Chinese antiques on the European market are now sold by his company. In order to seek private interests, he betrayed the interests of the state, and such an act is not exaggerated until now he has been shot a hundred times, but unfortunately, the situation was chaotic at that time, and no one could take care of him.
Lu Qinzhai's career has been spurned by the Chinese people, and the emotional life has also made it difficult for the Chinese people to understand. At first, he had no capital in the "OP Company", only equivalent to a treasurer, and at this time he met love.
The manager of a clothing store next door to him was a beautiful woman named Olga. Olga is divorced, but has a rich lover, and this clothing store is also funded by the lover, so Lu Qinzhai and Olga must be sneaky. Otherwise, after being known to Olga's lover, financial support will be cut off.
At that time, Lu Qinzhai did not have the money to raise the family, and Olga, in order to be able to communicate with him in a fair and upright way, took her 15-year-old daughter Mary. Ross. Lu married Lu Qinzhai so that even if they lived together, the lover would not find out. Olga can enjoy new love and get old love again and again. Lu Qinzhai agreed to this practice and later gave birth to four daughters with Mary.
However, Lu Qinzhai thought very traditionally, because there was no son to pass on the lineage, he always declared that he had no heirs, and never spoke Chinese to his daughters, said his hometown, from the bottom of his heart, or some resistance to his daughter and wife.
There is also a more strange point, even after marriage, Olga has always existed in Lu Qinzhai's life. After Lu Qinzhai developed, Olga still had the key and password of his safe.
Come to think of it, this relationship is really messy.
Of course, it would not be enough to say that Lu Qinzhai was useless. He built a famous building in the 8th arrondissement of Paris, the Red House, which is still listed as a cultural heritage.
It was all Chinese-style, and for a certain time, he also sponsored a lunch for Chinese students a day in the Red Chamber. This is also a good deed he has done.
After 1945, his life was not so good, and he was planted in the hands of Tan Jing, the largest counterfeiting gang of calligraphy and painting in the Republic of China. A person who sells cultural relics cannot even distinguish the authenticity of cultural relics, which has led to Lu Qinzhai's reputation plummeting, and others are afraid of buying fake goods from him, so the business has been seriously affected.
After the founding of New China, the control of cultural relics was very important, and Lu Qinzhai was cut off, so he could only dispose of all the antiques in his hand and change careers.
Relying on his previous accumulation, Lu Qinzhai also lived well in his later years, dying in Switzerland in 1957 at the age of 78.
Lu Qinzhai is a very contradictory person, selling national cultural relics, but also building the Red Chamber to promote Chinese culture and fund national talents, and later he believed that he had made many national treasures overseas, which was a mistake, but on the other hand, he also believed that this behavior protected national treasures and prevented these treasures from being destroyed in war.
As far as I feel, there is only one sentence to evaluate him: there are small benefits and no great righteousness. What do you think?
#卢芹斋 #