On April 15, the lion's button jasper was auctioned at the Drouå auction house in Paris.
The lion button jasper seal engraved with the "male lion" sitting lion was sold to a Chinese collector for 30.3 million to 400,000 euros and eventually sold to a Chinese collector for 720,000 euros. The lion's left paw is placed on a hydrangea ball with the words "Treasure of the Pro-Sages" engraved on the bottom.
One netizen commented: "This is the second plunder of Chinese wealth by the West!" "When the Eight-Power Coalition took this artwork from the Forbidden City. This was the first looting. Nothing to look at, nothing worth studying, just a broken stone. Then use crooked brains, casually make a price, let the Chinese buy back, you can grab it again, win-win! The robbers won twice!
720,000 euros, converted to 4.96 million yuan at today's exchange rate, is the value of the first prize of the two-color ball.
For five million, you can buy a luxury car, but why is there only a few million national seals of the Qianlong Emperor of China? Many people know that Chinese cultural relics are Western treasures, some are valuable, some are valuable, so it is called a national treasure, the national seal used by the Qianlong Emperor is a personal thing, 720,000 euros is too cheap, let people have a series of questions and speculations, that the French treat it as an ordinary "luxury" to sell.
Who remembers how many such jade seals were taken at Sotheby's in Hong Kong in 2011? 121,800 yuan, the latest price for the year.
This seal is more than 100 million yuan more expensive than the lion button jasper seal, is this jade seal not valuable?
I immediately searched the lion's number of jasper and found something new: the jade seal and the jade seal are really different.
In his lifetime, Qianlong carved more than 1,800 square seals, the largest number in all generations. Make the numbers more dramatic, over 1800. Among them, the highest price is more than 100 million yuan, and the lowest is 720,000 euros at the Paris auction. Is quantity the main price factor that causes such a large price disparity? Is there any other reason behind this?
This is a painting of an emerald handed to the dragon in the Forbidden City, which is very exquisite.
Looking at the lion button jasper in foreign auctions, the difference is indeed obvious.
Therefore, some people also question whether the Qianlong jade seal auctioned in France is genuine, and this lion carver is very "gentle", opens his mouth and does not speak, not like a lion roaring, but like a yawn, there is no sharp claw, so it will be questioned on the Internet, will Qianlong Ye really see such a jade seal?
Therefore, the final auction price of 720,000 euros not only looks low, but is also considered to be fake.
Is this really the case?
Let's take a look at what a jade seal is. Simply put, the imperial jasper seal auctioned in Paris is one of Qianlong's many seals. The name "Yuxi" is believed to be derived from a sentence in Qin Shi Huang's "History of Qin Shi Huang Benji": "Once a gentleman looks at the temple, he gets the jade seal." The jade seal is also the imperial seal, which is not only the seal of the emperor, but also a symbol of power. From the beginning of the Zhou Dynasty, the names of the national seal and the national seal began to be different, the earliest use of the jade seal as a symbol of power is said to be qin shi huang, the national seal used by the emperor is called the jade seal, and the seal used by the subjects can only be called the national seal.
There are many types of jade seals, most of which are made of various jade stones, and the Qing Dynasty jade seals are also made of sandalwood, crystal, and agate. Generally speaking, an emperor has several jade seals in different languages at the same time, and their uses are very different, some for daily appreciation of ancient books and paintings, some for the approval of official documents, and some for personnel appointments and removals. The Qianlong Emperor had twenty-five national treasures, such as the fifteenth inscribed with the national seal, manchu on the left and Chinese on the right, and according to the system regulations, when the emperor issued an edict to an official under the age of six, he covered the jade seal.
Now that this lion button jasper seal has been auctioned off, it should be qianlong's reminder to himself from the seal inscription, reminding himself to be "pro-xianchen", it is worth mentioning that Yongzheng, Tongzhi and other seals are engraved ""pro-xian treasure".
Therefore, some netizens speculate that the jade seal may have been stolen overseas during the turmoil at the end of the Qing Dynasty, and now it is back in the hands of domestic collectors, which is not a bad thing.
The Qianlong Emperor had many jade seals in his lifetime, and each seal had its own meaning and purpose.
It is well known that he was the undisputed "seal maniac" among the emperors of the Qing Dynasty, and in addition to the 25 imperial treasures, it is said that there are nearly 2,000 seal carvings with different words and shapes.
In any case, it is good that the national treasure is back, and I only hope that it will not be bought next time, because it was taken from China by the Eight-Power Alliance.