【Preface】
No matter how many years have passed, the incident of burning the Old Summer Palace is an indelible shame in our Chinese history, especially when I think of the countless treasures on the mainland that have been exiled, my heart surges with infinite grief and anger.
In 1860, the Anglo-French army fought all the way from Guangzhou to Tianjin, and finally captured Beijing, and they immediately saw the Old Summer Palace, known as the "Garden of Ten Thousand Gardens".
So these "robbers" began to burn and loot inside, in order to pack those scattered treasures away, they found a large wardrobe, but after arriving abroad, this wardrobe became a "waste" in the eyes of these people, to whom and who did not want.
But what everyone didn't expect was that more than a hundred years later, this wardrobe, which made many foreigners disliked, actually returned to China in circles, and also sold for a high price of 93.15 million yuan.
So, where does this wardrobe come from? Why did it come back to China?
【Burning the Old Summer Palace】
The Old Summer Palace is a large imperial garden during the Qing Dynasty in China, which not only brings together many famous gardens in the south of the Jiangnan, but also transplants many Western garden buildings.
It can be said that as long as you visited the Old Summer Palace at that time, it was equivalent to traveling to many places, whether it was architectural design or flower cultivation, it was the culmination of ancient and modern Chinese and foreign gardening art at that time.
In addition, there are many rare treasures in the Old Summer Palace, so at that time, the Old Summer Palace could be called one of the treasures of human culture, and it was also the largest museum in the world.
But it is a pity that such a beautiful garden has suffered two ruthless invasions and ended up burned down.
According to statistics, 1.5 million cultural relics have been looted in the Old Summer Palace, including bronze ceremonial vessels from the pre-Qin period, as well as famous calligraphy and paintings from previous dynasties, and countless rare treasures.
And after these "robbers" divided the items, they directly burned them with a fire, seemingly dissatisfied with the fact that China at that time had this royal garden known as the "Garden of Ten Thousand Gardens".
When the Anglo-French army burned the Old Summer Palace, some witnesses saw the atrocities of the Anglo-French army and recorded them.
At that time, when the British and French troops broke into the Old Summer Palace, it seemed that they had never seen such a beautiful garden and so many rare treasures, so the eyes of these people were shining, like a wolf seeing fat.
In order to sweep away the treasures in the Old Summer Palace, they no longer cared about decency and upbringing, and poured into the garden like bandits and began to snatch them in a hurry.
Because the soldiers who entered the Old Summer Palace were not exactly a country, they even fought in order to compete for these rare treasures, and everyone wanted to stuff all the treasures into their pockets, and everyone was covered with necklaces and gold bars.
Their crazy appearance seems to be possessed, and I believe that if the Qing government had not been so instigated at that time, it might have taken advantage of this opportunity to directly kill these "robbers".
However, the Qing government selectively covered its ears and eyes, turning itself blind and deaf, ignoring these aggressions, only seeing their immediate interests, and even feeling that they were sitting on a country of thousands of square kilometers, so it was just a small Summer Palace and not worth mentioning.
But it is also the inaction of the Qing government that has turned our China into "fat meat" in the eyes of Western powers, no matter who wants to take a bite.
And in the hundreds of years since, how much effort and sacrifice our Chinese people have made for this aggression.
In order to get back the treasures that originally belong to the mainland, he did not hesitate to spend a lot of money, just to let Chinese things return to China.
Among them is the "ancient wardrobe" worth tens of millions...
【The "ancient wardrobe" that is disliked]
When the Old Summer Palace was burned, in order to take away the rare treasures of the mainland, the British and French forces could only look for cabinets everywhere, because many treasures could not be directly put into pockets or hung around their necks, so they moved out of the dormitory where successive emperors lived.
Although the wardrobe looked ugly, heavy and difficult to move, for the British and French forces at that time, it was simply a good thing to "sleepy someone sent a pillow".
They stuffed many treasures that could not be taken away into the large closet, and then several people moved away together.
After several days of crossing the sea, this wardrobe followed countless rare treasures to a foreign land. But because those foreigners don't recognize the goods, they leave it idle after using the wardrobe to pack the treasure.
Other treasures were immediately sold by the Anglo-French army after arriving abroad, and were quickly snapped up.
Only then did they look back at the bulky and ancient wardrobe, and someone proposed to burn it or throw it away, but one of them stopped him, who offered to give it away.
When everyone saw him say this, they decided to let him solve it by himself, but what people didn't expect was that this wardrobe was not even given away for free, and it seemed that it felt like a useless rag.
I have to say that these people like "robbers" really "do not recognize goods"!
In this way, the wardrobe that came to foreign countries for thousands of miles was left idle in the corner, and no one cared ...
Later, when the Danish collector Mayil went to a friend's house as a guest, he was attracted by the wardrobe in the corner, he stepped forward to observe it carefully, and gently painted the exquisite five-clawed cloud dragon relief on the wardrobe with his fingers.
After thinking about it repeatedly, Mayil decided to accept this treasure, and even prepared to spend a lot of money, but he didn't expect his friend to bluntly say that he didn't want money, and if he liked it, he quickly pulled it away.
But Mayer understands the value of this wardrobe, just looking at the dragon-shaped carving above, he understands that this wardrobe is by no means simple, because he knows that the dragon is very particular in Chinese history, there is that sentence: the water and the moon are silent, and the fish and dragon listen to the sound of Sanskrit. Rulers value that very much, not ordinary people can have.
So even though his friend repeatedly said that he didn't want money, Mayer still gave a little money, pocketed it, and took it home to watch and admire it carefully.
If they know that hundreds of years later, this wardrobe can bid for nearly 100 million, maybe the foreigner who didn't want to give away money in vain will regret it...
[Not only a treasure of China, but also the dignity and inheritance of Chinese]
The invasion of foreign powers and the shame of burning the Old Summer Palace were firmly engraved in the hearts of all Chinese, so after our country became strong, we began to try our best to get back the Chinese treasures that had been exiled.
In 2012, one of the most famous auction companies in mainland China: Poly Group, accidentally learned about this "ancient wardrobe" collection, and they quickly got in touch with the Ma Yier family, and after continuous negotiation, they won the auction qualification of this wardrobe.
In order to let everyone clearly know the specific value of this wardrobe, Poly Group specially hired experts to set a starting price for this "ancient wardrobe".
After the experts arrived, they immediately began to investigate the wardrobe, and they found that this seemingly unattractive wardrobe actually has a lot of origins, it is all rosewood, its own value is immeasurable, that is, just selling rosewood is a huge fortune.
And its craftsmanship is also a technology that cannot be copied by contemporary times, and modern craftsmen can no longer carve such patterns, so experts finally gave a price of 28 million.
Since then, this "ancient wardrobe" that has been disliked by foreigners has also had a name, and the largest rosewood four-piece cabinet on the market is a rare treasure of the Old Summer Palace and the Qianlong royal wardrobe.
After several rounds of fierce bidding, the price of the wardrobe continued to rise, from 28 million at the beginning to 69 million, and finally sold for 81 million, plus a series of handling fees, a total of 93.15 million yuan.
This price is simply an astronomical amount for ordinary people, but in order not to let the treasures of the mainland flow abroad again, no matter how expensive it is, we must bid successfully.
This is undoubtedly very ironic, thinking that back then, when those "robbers" "stole the wardrobe", they did not spend a penny, and even burned the Old Summer Palace on the mainland. And now we buy back the treasure wardrobe of our own country, and it costs nearly 100 million yuan.
After the auction ended, countless Chinese people took a long breath, but at the same time they also felt resentful, obviously to get back their own things, it took so much effort, and even cost such a big price.
But in fact, this is not the first time that China has spent a lot of money to buy our own treasures, at that time, our China was at a disadvantage, coupled with the Qing government's isolation, so that China at that time was extremely backward, so the treasures that were exiled abroad because of aggression at that time were simply innumerable.
And even if our country is now strong, those countries are still unwilling to let go of these treasures, which is a regret that we can't buy back with money.
This is why so many Chinese collectors spare no effort to acquire and bid for those treasures that have been scattered abroad, because they are not only Chinese treasures, but also the dignity and inheritance of our Chinese.
【Conclusion】
Some people may say, since the country is strong today, why don't we return our country's treasures with a tooth for a tooth?
As a civilized power, our own cultivation will never allow ourselves to do those "bandit" behaviors, such as a dog biting you, do you still want to bite the dog?
We can only use the most upright channel to get back our own things, so that people all over the world can see the magnitude of our Chinese pattern!
END