On March 26, 2011, at an auction held by the auction house Saint-Aubin in the southern French city of Toulouse, a mysterious Chinese buyer bid the fourth volume of the Late Qianlong Reading Of the Qing Dynasty court painter Lang Shining's late work "Qianlong Da Yuetu" for 22.05 million euros, setting a new record for the auction price of Asian art in France. At the same time, the Qianlong Jade Seal was auctioned for 12.4 million euros, which refreshed the world record for seal lots.
The mysterious Chinese buyer is Zhao Xin, a legendary collector in the cross-strait and three places. Zhao Xin, nicknamed Wutaishan, was born in 1952 in Taiyuan City, Wutai County, Shanxi Province, the father of Zhao Jianbang is a famous calligrapher in Shanxi, once served as the director of the Shanxi Provincial Library, the Shanxi Provincial People's Committee Counselor Office counselor and other positions. Zhao Xin served as a soldier, a farmer, a worker, an engineer, and an economist. In the early 1990s, he moved to Hong Kong and registered Hong Kong Yuanxin Industrial Co., Ltd., engaged in coal, electricity and other businesses. He loved collecting, first collecting paintings and porcelain, and later extending to the court's royal clocks, seals and the like. In recent years, he has set several record for chinese antique auctions with high prices. He was one of the first collectors in Shanxi to enter the international auction house. Under his organization and leadership, shanxi collectors have traveled to Beijing, Shanghai and overseas to find treasures since the mid-1990s, becoming an important force in the Chinese art market. In 2008, when the head of the Buddha in the Tianlongshan Grottoes in Taiyuan was auctioned in the United States, it was auctioned by the rich man in Shanxi, and the dominant force behind the recovery of the Buddha's head was Zhao Xin. Zhao Xin is not good at publicity, keeps a low profile, and never accepts interviews from the news media. Little is known about the size of his collection, but he is known by industry insiders as "the first person in the Mountain Tibetan Family". In 2009, Zhao Xin won the title of "Top Ten Collectors of Chinese Cultural Relics and Works of Art in 2009" in the selection activity of "Dragon Teng List 2009 China Top 10 Collectors" initiated by the Overseas Chinese Charity Culture Communication Fund and Collector Magazine.
According to insiders, at the end of the 1990s, Zhao Mengfu's "Return to the Word" and Xian Yushu's "Stone Drum Song" were photographed by Zhao Xin from Hong Kong, and later these two famous works that occupied a place in the history of the development of Chinese calligraphy were purchased by the Huzhou City Museum and the Capital Museum in Zhejiang Province, which shows that Zhao Xin's collection vision and strength cannot be ignored. In the collection experience, Zhao Xin's luck has always been good, some people call him a lucky star on the auction floor, by chance, often have the opportunity to auction some famous products. In 2000, an auction company obtained a Ming Dynasty Chen Hongshou's "Flower and Bird Album" from the home of the painter Lai Shaoqi, with the inscriptions of Xie Zhiliu and others, the original collector asked for 1.8 million yuan, the reserve price of the auction company's target was 1.8 million, and Zhao Xin bought it for 2 million yuan. In 2003, an auction company in Beijing found Zhao Xin, hoping that he would take out a friendship sponsorship, Zhao Xin really liked this thing, did not want to take it, and finally agreed to release it, and the reserve price was marked with 10 million yuan. At that auction, Chen Hongshou's "Flower and Bird Album" sold for 28.6 million yuan.
Zhao Xin's collection is divided into calligraphy paintings, seals, and porcelain. Calligraphy and painting are the bulk of his collection, and calligraphy and painting are divided into modern and ancient calligraphy and painting. Among modern calligraphers and painters, his Qi Baishi calligraphy and paintings are quite impressive, and most of the collections are published famous works, such as "Cherry Chart", "Blossoming World Warm", "Wisteria Map", etc., which are also fine works in Qi Baishi's works. Because the recipient himself is also a painter, such as "Cherry Diagram" is a female disciple given to the disciple Li Kuchan, the inscription is "If the teaching point is a good population, words and deeds are always broken", the payment is "The old man of Baishi, the former lover slave Baishi and sentence" From the inscription poem to the falling money, don't have any intentions; "Flowers Bloom in the World" was given to Ye Qianyu, then director of the Painting Department of the Central Academy of Fine Arts, with the inscription "Flowers Bloom in the World Warm, Flowers Fall in the World Cold", which is also a work of intention. However, compared with Zhao Xin's collection of "Shiqu Baoqi" bibliographic calligraphy and paintings, modern calligraphy and painting are the "sketches" in his collection. According to Zhao Xin, "Shiqu Baoqi" is the "powerful thing" in his collection.
After years of hard work, Zhao Xin has a rich collection, of which the most proud of him and the most impressive to the world should belong to his collection of "Shiqu Baodi" bibliographic calligraphy and paintings. "Shiqu Baodi" is a huge work in the history of China's calligraphy and painting bibliography, which began in the eighth year of Qianlong and took 74 years to complete. It includes more than 12,000 kinds of the best calligraphy and painting works of famous calligraphers and painters in China from the Wei and Jin dynasties to the beginning of the Qing Dynasty. Unfortunately, most of these more than 10,000 works were destroyed in the war, it is reported that there are about 300 pieces flowing out of the court, about 100 pieces on the auction site, Zhao Xin alone has collected nearly 20 pieces, including the Qianlong Emperor's "General Record of the White Pagoda Mountain", Qian Weicheng's "Fu Chunqiu Color Map", Dong Chen's "Ten Open Albums of Famous Scenic Spots", Jin Tingbiao and Ai Qimeng's "Ten Statues of Heroes of pingding Yili Huibu", Xu Yang's "Pingding Western Regions Tribute Ceremony Map" and so on. Among them, "The General Record of Baitashan" was auctioned by Sotheby's Hong Kong for 2.56 million yuan in 2004, and "Pingding Ili Huibu Hero Statue Ten Kai" was purchased by Sotheby's in New York for $1 million in 2004. At the end of 2009, Zhao Xin's collection of paintings entitled "Wutaishan Renzang - Qingqianlong Court Calligraphy and Painting" and "Wutaishan Renzang - Xu Yang Paintings Pingding Western Regions Sacrifice Ceremony Map" was published, and the collection of calligraphy and paintings of "Shiqu Baodi", which he had been obsessed with for many years, surfaced, and the people of Wutai Mountain gradually became familiar with it.
At the same time, Zhao Xin has a preference for seal collection. In November 2006, Beijing Kuangshi International 2006 Autumn Auction launched the "Seal of Chinese Dynasties", which was the first seal special session made by Kuangshi, with a total amount of 2.91 million yuan, of which Zhao Xin bought nearly half of the lots, and the seals of more than ten square Qi Baishi on the scene were almost wrapped up by him alone. Qi Baishi's representative work "Straight Heart Resident" is one of the lots, which was carved by Qi Baishi for his friend Xia Shoutian. Xia Shoutian, the word Noon Yi, the number of zhixin resident, dejushi. He was the secretary of Cao Kun. When Qi Baishi first arrived in the capital, he was unfamiliar with people and became acquainted with Cao Wong through Xia Shoutian's introduction. Later, Qi Baishi repeatedly mentioned Xia Shoutian's promotion and help to him. The seal was made around the 1920s, at the peak of Qi Baishi's seal carving art, and the competition was fierce at auction, and Zhao Xin finally bid for 261,800 yuan. In October 2008, Sotheby's Hong Kong's "Emperor Wei Bandai - Qianlong Royal Seal Special Auction Held by the French Jimei Family", of which the Qianlong Qianlong "Yunlong Button White Jade Rectangular Seal Two Parties" sold for HK$15.22 million, it is said that the buyer behind the scenes is also Zhao Xin. At the end of June 2010, the Qianlong Emperor's party, the "Qianlong Royal Treasure", sold NT$430 million in Taipei, plus a total handling fee of 482.5 million yuan, equivalent to about 101.8 million yuan, which is a sky-high price! The buyer of this Fang Yuxi was also Zhao Xin. The party entrusted by the Auction of Fang Yuxi is the Taiwan authorities' "Central Depository and Insurance Corporation", which previously belonged to the collateral of Qingfeng Bank and was originally the collection of Taiwanese entrepreneur Cai Chennan. Some people found this fang jade seal registered in the "Seal Of the Empress dowager of the Qing Dynasty" collected by the Palace Museum on the mainland, and found a clear bibliography in the "Qianlong Baowei" compiled during the Qianlong period; and in the upper right corner of the scroll of the Qing Dynasty court painter Ai Qimeng's "Eight Horses of xi and yellow" collected by the Nanjing Museum, there is also this square jade seal imprint, which determines that this square jade seal is the authentic product of the Qianlong Emperor's royal use. Zhao Xin threw down hundreds of millions of yuan through a friend in Taiwan to photograph this Fang Yuxi. In addition to this 100 million yuan jade seal, in several international annual auctions from 2006 to 2008, he has auctioned a series of emperor jade seals, with a total turnover of nearly 200 million yuan.
In the spring of 2011, the special auction of "Shende Mingdao Wutaishan People's Collection of Qingdao Guang imperial porcelain" launched by China Guardian is Zhao Xin's collection for many years, the first time it is presented in the form of a personal special session, and the auction has attracted the attention of many buyers, and the whole venue has a warm atmosphere from beginning to end, most of the lots have fallen at more than 2-3 times the most undervalued price, and the transaction rate is as high as 100%. The two special auctions totaled 158 lots, with a total of 273 million yuan, which not only received good economic benefits, but also won praise from inside and outside the industry.