With a history of more than 1,500 years, Luoyang Longmen Grottoes is a treasure house of ancient Chinese stone carving art and a world cultural heritage that is well-known at home and abroad. Standing in front of the Longmen Grottoes, everyone will be deeply shocked by its magnificent beauty, and at the same time, they can't help but sigh for the scars and scars.
There are more than 1,300 grottoes and more than 97,000 Buddha statues, from the largest 17.14-meter-high Lushena Buddha to the smallest Buddha statue of only 2 centimeters, none of which are complete!
Today I want to talk about the theft and sale of cultural relics in Longmen Grottoes during the Republic of China!
During the Republic of China, the social situation was chaotic, the Qing court cultural relics were scattered, and the folk tomb robberies were rampant, and many people played in the antique industry.
Yue Bin is a big antique dealer in Liulichang. In 1910, 14-year-old Yue Bin left Zhangjiawan, Tongzhou, and became an apprentice with Zhu Er, who was selling old goods in a ghost market. 20 years later, he has become an antique giant in the famous Liuli Factory. A mythical figure, so to speak.
In 1914, Yue Bin moved to Xinglong Store in Gouwei Hutong and began to do business with his own bags. Yue Bin has a sweet mouth and will come to things, and he is deeply loved by Bai Ruizhai, the shopkeeper of the Ruiji antique shop in Xinglong Store. So, Bai Ruizhai began to teach Yue Bin the tricks of doing business with foreigners. Over time, Americans love to buy bronze and Jun kiln porcelain; The French love to buy lacquerware and cloisonné; The Japanese love to buy ancient jade and Longquan porcelain; The British and Germans wanted things of high archaeological value...... They were all clearly touched by Yue Bin.
Yue Bin's apprentice Dong Zuyao once recalled to Chen Chongyuan that in the 30s of the last century, an American often patronized Binji, and they all called him "Master Bu", and he was Pu Ailun. "Master Bu" once took a photo of Emperor Xiaowen's Buddha in the Northern Wei Dynasty and ordered it from Yue Bin, asking him to find a way to chisel it down. For this reason, Pu Allen bid 14,000 oceans for a period of five years.
The Longmen Grottoes were built after Emperor Xiaowen of the Northern Wei Dynasty moved the capital to Luoyang. After the death of Emperor Xiaowen, his son Emperor Xuanwu in order to commemorate his parents Emperor Xiaowen and Emperor Wenzhao Empress Dowager, spent 24 years in Longmen to dig Binyang Cave, Binyang Cave on both sides of the stone wall, originally carved with two groups of large reliefs, this is the "Emperor Rite Buddha" and "Empress Rite Buddha".
规格：H 203.2 cm × L 278.13 cm
c. Northern Wei Dynasty 522-523 AD Traces of limestone and pigments
Collection of the Nelson-Atkins Museum, USA
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Empress Wenzhao wore a lotus crown and a veil with a hand of incense, followed by two noble ladies wearing lotus crowns, and walked slowly in the wind under the guidance and embrace of the palace maids.
| Artistic Features |
The figures in the picture are densely overlapped, looking forward to taking care of them, which is not only integrated, but also rich in variety. Different from the commonly used technique of distinguishing the rank of the characters by their heights and sizes, although there is no significant difference in the size of the figures in the picture, and the costumes are roughly the same, the subtle differences in the position and relationship between the figures, especially the demeanor and majesty, all show the nobility and dignity of the emperor as the center of the whole picture, and reflect the creator's superb artistic expression.
In 1952, investigators found a contract signed by Yue Bin, an antique dealer, and Pu Allen of the United States to steal and buy the "Emperor and Empress Rite Buddha" in the Binji antique shop in Tan'er Hutong, Beijing, and the signed contract read:
The contractor, Pu Allen Binji, bought the Binji stone plain weave screen like a glean, and negotiated the price of 14,000 yuan. The date of the agreement was the first phase, and Pujun immediately took away six pieces of the head of the flat statue from Bin Ji, and the price was 4,000 yuan, and the Bin Ji engraved it has been received. In the second period, Bin Ji should be handed over to Pujun for the first thirteen pieces. If the price of Bin Kee can be paid in one go, Pujun will pay another 6,000 for Binji, and if so, the head will be paid in two installments, and the 6,000 price will also be paid in two installments, 3,000 each time. As for (in) all the flat like the body, if Bin Ji can be handed over at one time, and Pujun will pay Bin Ji a price of 4,000. If so, the identity is still paid in two installments, and the price of the 4,000 is also divided into two instalments of 2,000 each. The above goods have a uniform foreign price of 14,000. The year and length of time for the goods to be delivered after the date of delivery cannot be determined. If an accident occurs in the future, that is, the special circumstances cannot be transported, the contract will be void and no longer valid. This is the agreement of both parties, each has no remorse, and there is no evidence for empty words, and this contract is established as evidence.
The contract is limited to five years and will end on October 21, 23. If the shipment cannot be completed within this five years, the contract will be voided upon expiration.
(Signed)
Joint Venture
Bin Kee (stamped)
The twenty-third year of the Republic of China was established on the first day of October of the national calendar
Each holds a piece of paper
Pu Allen said, "...... I love the Chinese. Sometimes, I make them miserable. But I still love them. I am willing to engrave on my tombstone a large character more than 3 meters high: 'There are two greatest peoples in the world: the Greeks and the Chinese. ”
It was this "Chinese" man who contacted Yue Bin in the fall of 1934 and agreed to pay $40,000 for the six avatars of the Northern Wei Xiaowen Emperor Libuddha in his hands. According to the contract signed with Yue Bin, the thieves knocked out the other parts of the relief that remained in the dragon gate. When Yue Bin gets the other 13 avatars, he will get $10,000. The contract stipulates that "if something happens in the mountains" and "the terms are not fulfilled", the contract will be voided.
The hungry villagers cut down the reliefs, bribed the local army, and packed them into sacks and shipped them to Baoding...... In 1944, Pu Allen wrote about the Longmen Grottoes, saying: "...... But at night, the men waded across armpit-deep waters, knocked out pieces from the grotto's surface, and brought them to Zhengzhou, where they were sold to agents of antique dealers in Beijing. In Beijing, the pieces are stitched together and reproduced from photographs and rubbings are enthusiastically made. You'll find heads of male and female donors scattered across Europe, England and Japan, and are believed to be the original Longmen Grottoes. In fact, the vast majority of them are outright fakes. ”
规格：208.3 cm × 393.7 cm
Emperor Xiaowen Buddha Diagram c. Northern Wei Dynasty 522-523 AD Limestone relief
Collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA
The relief was dismantled in pieces and then spliced and restored
Some only have their heads left, suspended in the air, and the connection is missing
The whole relief was dismantled and stolen, and many details could not be restored after splicing
Now it is a mutilated relief
Regardless, the two liturgical figures were eventually put together and settled in three major museums in the United States. In 1940, considering the weight and fragility of the Buddha Picture of Empress Wenzhao, it should not have been transported back and forth between the two museums. The Fogg Museum of Art accepted the Nelson Museum of Art's return of the purchase funds, allowing the $32,000 requisition of the Empress to remain in Kansas City permanently. And the "Buddha Picture of Emperor Xiaowen" has also become the pride of the Metropolitan Museum.
Foreign robbers who sell Chinese cultural relics always have a set of rhetoric. The following author will list the Buddha statues (remnants) of the Longmen Grottoes that have been stolen over the years!
Asian Art Museum of San Francisco (USA)
Nelson and Atkins Museum of Art (USA)
Nelson and Atkins Museum of Art (USA)
Saidler Museum, Harvard University (USA)
Saidler Museum, Harvard University (USA)
Boston Museum (USA)
Boston Museum (USA)
Boston Museum (USA)
Rijksmuseum
Rietberg Museum (Switzerland)
Musée Guimet (France)
Musée Guimet (France)
Musée Guimet (France)
Princeton University Art Museum (USA)
Osaka Municipal Museum (Japan)
Tokyo National Museum (Japan)
Freer Museum (USA)
Royal Ontario Museum (Canada)
Osaka Municipal Museum
Milwaukee Museum (USA)?
Osaka City Museum of Art (Japan)
Metropolitan Museum of Art (USA)
Osaka Municipal Museum (Japan)
Los Angeles City Museum (USA)
Freer Museum of Art (USA)
Osaka City Museum of Art (Japan)
Asian Art Museum of San Francisco (USA)
Victoria and Albert Museum (UK)
Japanese private
Boston Museum (USA)
Osaka City Museum (Japan)
Los Angeles City Museum (USA)
Los Angeles City Museum (USA)
Los Angeles City Museum (USA)
Los Angeles City Museum (USA)
Los Angeles City Museum (USA)
Returning to Yue Bin again, after his affairs were exposed, he was punished by New China and died in prison in 1959. Lu Qinzhai lived well in his red house in Paris, and he was "deeply ashamed", but not sincerely. He believes that "art knows no borders, and those sculptures have gone to the world and have been praised by scholars and the public." The Shanghai government confiscated a collection of items that he had not been able to take away, including a Tang Dynasty Buddha head from Fengxian Temple, which is so beautiful that it is now in the Shanghai Museum.
Shanghai Museum
Shanghai Museum
Shanghai Museum