"Cultural relics maniac", a famous Taiwanese collector Wang Du, who sold 7 restaurants and two houses left by his father, all of which became various Chinese cultural relics, bought more than 50,000 collections, and has published 14 albums so far. Some people call him "a beggar sitting on a golden mountain", but in fact he is "the guardian of Chinese cultural relics".
Some people call him a "cultural relics maniac", and some people call him "the guardian of Chinese cultural relics", to which Wang Du, a famous collector in Taiwan, laughed and said: "Some people call me 'a beggar sitting on the Golden Mountain', in fact, I am just a cultural relics protector." ”
1, collected in me such as "drug addiction"
Wang Du, who is in his 70s, has a straight waist and sounds like a hong bell. His life is quite legendary, and after graduating from the Department of Journalism of National Chengchi University in Taiwan, he went to the United States to study. After more than twenty years of restaurant operation in the United States, in 1987, in order to take care of his elderly father, he sold 7 restaurants and returned to Taiwan. For more than 20 years, he rented a house in Taipei, and the two houses left by his father and his own savings over the years were transformed into various Chinese cultural relics.
Wang Du collects cultural relics, not for investment or pleasure. Wang Du said that collecting it on his own is like "taking drugs", and he can't put it away when he puts it on, "Saying that I will not look at cultural relics in the future is impossible." Since he was a child, he liked to collect stamps and silver coins, and the collection of Chinese cultural relics began with a purple sand pot that he jokingly called "harmful pots".
In the 60s of the last century, Wang Du, who was serving plates in the United States, saw 6 small purple clay pots in a shop, which were very beautiful. The boss asked for $100 per hand, and Wang Du's monthly salary at that time was only $300, and he still saved money and bought it all. He later asked someone to identify it, and only then did he learn that one of the bundles of chai sanyou pots was in the possession of Chen Mingyuan, the largest collector in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, and had been handed down for more than 400 years. Since then, the pleasure of discerning the treasures has allowed Wang Du to plunge headlong into the collection of purple sand pots, which can no longer be pulled out, and later expanded to ancient mirrors, snuff bottles, ruyi, wrenches, hooks, wrenches, lacquerware, Tibetan cultural relics, etc., as many as more than 30 categories.
Wang Du's collection is basically concentrated on Chinese cultural relics. He said that when he was young, he visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the British Museum in London, "When I saw that so many Chinese cultural relics were in the museums of foreigners, I said, I will have money in the future, I must do collections." Now I want to open, in their museum, thousands of people go to visit, see also Chinese things. That's how my collection started. ”
2, solo music is not as good as crowd music
Wang Du is an alternative among collectors. For safety reasons, others will hide cultural relics in the secret room, while Wang Du has organized exhibitions and albums for his more than 50,000 collections, and has published 14 albums so far.
He said, "I don't think these things belong to me alone, because it's better to be alone than to be happy together." And he laughed and said that it was a great loss to hide cultural relics in the secret room, "because you don't show it to others, you don't know whether it is good or bad; I have made it public, and after all the evaluations, the wrong things will be picked out, which is also a help to me." I once went to a man's house to see that he hid 4 floors and none of them were real. Speaking of this, Wang Du couldn't help but shake his head.
For more than 40 years, Wang Du has only "entered" and not "exited" cultural relics, and in the past 3 years, he has begun to "go out". On the one hand, because I feel sorry for my wife, "I am a 70-year-old person, and I don't have my own house until now, and I don't even have time to sort out the cultural relics here." On the other hand, "90 percent of what was once the mainland was sold to Taiwan. Now that the mainland economy is getting better, all the people who come to me are auction houses and collectors from the mainland. I am particularly happy to sell it to the mainland."
However, Wang Du donated more than he sold. He said that in addition to being content, cherishing blessings, and being grateful, one should also be willing to be willing. "There is a sacrifice to get." Donate to the museum and they can be kept for me forever. Where there are schools and museums that can protect these cultural relics, I will donate. "In Taiwan, the Museum of History, the National Taiwan University of the Arts and other institutions have cultural relics donated by Wang Du; in the mainland, Peking University and Tsinghua University have also received donations from Wang Du.
3, giving back to the community is my goal
For the sake of cultural relics, Wang Du sold his father's house; in the process of collecting cultural relics, he was deceived many times, and tens of millions of Taiwan dollars could not be recovered. Wang Du said, "I think what I did was better than the house my father left me." No matter how much money there is, there is one more zero, and there is no difference between 10 billion and 100 billion. But I have been protecting the relics for 50 years, and now the trees have grown, the flowers have blossomed, and they have begun to bear fruit, and it is time for me to harvest. ”
On September 21 last year, Peking University awarded Wang Du an honorary doctorate, and President Zhou Qifeng wrote to comment on Wang Du: "I will not hesitate to invest my personal life savings, devote myself to collecting the beauty of China, and make valuable contributions to protecting and promoting the artistic treasures of the Chinese nation..." After receiving the letter, Wang Du was very proud. He said: "I am a small businessman, I can get a doctorate at Peking University, not because I have money, because I have protected Chinese cultural relics for 50 years." ”
Wang Du, who has reached the age of ancient rarity, admits that even if he dies now, he has no worries about the future. Of course, he laughed that he also had a dream, and his most cherished pair of Ming Dynasty East Factory double knives had been collected for 30 years. "I won't sell how much other people pay." I hope that one will be sent to the mainland and the other to Taiwan, and I hope that they will exist together in the future, and these two knives should remain in China. ”
In addition, he also wants to sell cultural relics for public welfare, "I think the phased task of cultural relics collection has been completed and will be handed over to my daughter." What I have to do now is to give back to the society, which is my last goal. ”