golden ear

Chapter 138 Fugitive Mistress
The three-day antique exhibition was very lively. Experts from all over the world opened Wu Tianyuan's eyes, seeing many western antiques and many unpopular collection categories.

"It seems that we need to learn more about the market conditions of western antiques in the future. If there is a supernatural ability to pick up the leaks, buying and selling is indispensable, and the skills are not overwhelming."

During his visit to Zhang Zongxian, he saw the strength of top collectors, especially snuff bottles and porcelain, and he took the opportunity to absorb a lot of energy and returned satisfied.

After the antique exhibition ended, Liu Huasheng took Wu Tianyuan directly to Macau. He had brought Wu Tianyuan there for a few years in his early years and was very familiar with the place, especially the casino and pawn shop.

"Macau's casino turnover is six times higher than that of Las Vegas, and pawnshops have contributed a lot!"

When the two got off the plane, they were greeted by someone, and they went to the hotel first when they boarded the car, chatting while walking.

"I stayed in Macau for two years before I went to RB. At that time, I was making a living in a pawn shop and I was very familiar with it."

Liu Huasheng recalled: "At that time, I learned a lot of eyesight from my master and met several friends. Now they are all doing well and have become elites in the industry."

"Uncle Liu, what do you mean pawn shops are also a good place to pick up leaks from Taobao?"

"Of course!" Liu Huasheng said with a smile: "What is the most in Macau? Casinos! Who is the cheapest? Gamblers!"

"In the two years I've been in the pawn shop, I've seen a lot of red-eyed gamblers, and I can be anything! Needless to say, there are people who are valuable, and there are people who become wives and children!"

Wu Tianyuan has also heard news about many pawnshops. Zhongzheng also has a little business relationship with them, but now they are all fixed assets, which are easy to cash out.

"Macau has the most famous watches and jewellery. I have a few friends who eat this way. They have a good eye for picking up the wrong things, and then refurbish them and resell them for tens of thousands of dollars."

The two took a taxi to a building, went up to the [-]th floor, and saw a sign when they went out, Headquarters of Macau Pawnbrokers Association.

"Old Cao, I haven't seen you for a year, you've gained weight again!"

Liu Huasheng enthusiastically hugged a fat man in his 40s. It seemed that he had a good relationship. After a brief introduction, they went into the office to chat.

"You bastard, you only come to see me every year when you pick up leaks! It's not authentic."

The fat man laughed and joked, and Liu Huasheng retorted: "Nonsense, last year you went to Osaka for half a month, eating and taking, and getting fatter and fatter!"

"Don't talk nonsense, I just brought this kid here today, and you will take care of him in the future." Liu Huasheng suddenly remembered something, and whispered: "Give him a top-level VIP, the kind of 100 million."

"No problem, just ask me and I'll do it, and I'll get the materials."

Watching Fatty Cao leave, Liu Huasheng explained: "You will be a VIP in a while, and then you can go to any of the 170 regular pawnshops in Macau. Any one of them can give priority to dead goods, and you can pick up the missing ones next time."

Wu Tianyuan hurriedly completed all the formalities, entered the personal information into the information database, and then added a way to get started with the collection and find out the missing ones.

"The association happens to have an exchange meeting in the evening, which can be regarded as the biggest industry exchange meeting this year, and it happens that you can participate."

At eight o'clock in the evening, Fatty Cao brought two people to the VIP room of Fuhua Hotel, where the annual pawn shop event will be held.Because it is an internal exchange, it is mainly attended by people in the industry and VIPs.

"Let's go around. Although this place is very low-key, there are many good things. Fortunately, Lao Cao took us to participate. Especially famous watches. This exchange meeting is actually held for the insiders to take advantage of it. Look at the 200-year limited edition of Vacheron Constantin. At least 60 million yuan, [-] to [-] yuan can be settled here."

Wu Tianyuan saw that the venue was full of well-dressed and successful people, and understood that the real purpose of the so-called auction was to use some good-looking dead files to clear up relationships.

It just so happened that Wu Tianyuan also wanted a few famous watches. The quality here is very new, and many of them are limited editions.

He went around and bought a Piaget and two Vacheron Constantins, all of which cost 200 million at most, and the original price was tens of millions.

"Huh? There are still antiques here?"

Wu Tianyuan walked to a display cabinet by himself, and unexpectedly found that there were some miscellaneous items, snuff bottles and jade wares, all of which were from the Qing Dynasty, chattering.

"I am the royal snuff bottle of Chengde Mountain Resort, who will save me!"

Wu Tianyuan was taken aback, and found a white jade painted snuff bottle that was talking, and asked the staff to take it out for exchange.

"Are these going to be auctioned?" Wu Tianyuan looked at them for a while and asked calmly.

"Hello guest, you don't need to go to the auction for these items, because they are small items with a price tag below, and you have the right to sell them on the spot."

Without further ado, Wu Tianyuan quickly paid for the snuff bottle, this clue was too important.

He greeted Liu Huasheng, saying he was going to meet a friend, and he would go back to the hotel later.Then take a taxi and follow the instructions of the snuff bottle, find a dilapidated building, and directly knock on the door of 302.

"Who are you looking for?"

It took a long time for the door to open a small crack, and a woman's face with heavy makeup protruded from inside, asking cautiously.

"Don't talk nonsense, I know you are Li Haitao's mistress, let me in if you don't want to be caught!"

The woman turned pale with shock, stared at Wu Tianyuan, hurriedly opened the door, checked left and right for no one, and pulled Wu Tianyuan into the room.

"Are you a policeman?" The woman picked up the fruit knife in fear and asked tremblingly.

"Don't worry about who I am! Since you can find this place, you won't be able to escape!"

Wu Tianyuan sat down calmly, looked at the nervous woman, and said with a smile: "Li Haitao's vision is not very good, did you find your mistress?"

"What exactly do you want?" The woman said excitedly, "Li Haitao has already been imprisoned, and all the stolen goods have been confiscated. I don't know anything!"

Wu Tianyuan chuckled, and said disdainfully, "Confiscation? The largest cultural relic case in Hebei, Li Haitao, as a staff member of the Cultural Relics Bureau, guarded and stole hundreds of cultural relics, and recovered more than half of them in the end. What about the others?"

The woman's face was pale, she pointed a knife at Wu Tianyuan, and shouted: "I don't know! These years, I have been worrying about my fears all day long, and I haven't had a single day of sleep. What more do you want?"

Wu Tianyuan stood up, approached the woman, and said firmly: "I'm giving you a way to survive now! Hand over what's in your hand, and I can give you a sum of money to get you out of here!"

"Really?" The woman said incredulously, "Didn't you come to catch me?"

"Hmph, you are an accomplice at best, Li Haitao is already in jail, what's the use of arresting your mistress?"

Wu Tianyuan smiled lightly and said, "What I want are lost cultural relics, this is your last chance, what do you do?"

"I want 500!"

The woman calmed down, she now knew that the man in front of her should not be a policeman, the lion said loudly.

"500 million? Just dream!"

Wu Tianyuan sneered and looked at the aged mistress and said: "The reason why Li Haitao took the risk and guarded against himself was probably due to your credit, right? You are so greedy, why don't you sell what you have for so many years? You still live in this kind of crappy place? "

"I..." The woman fell silent, put down the knife, and struggled.Thinking of the reason behind Li Haitao's incident, how dare she deal with the underworld as a weak girl, not afraid of being blackmailed?
Gritting his teeth, he stood up and walked to the bed, took out a small suitcase, put it in front of Wu Tianyuan, and said in a low voice: "To tell you the truth, I know a few things are very valuable, and Li Haitao told me that these They were all treasures he got directly from the tomb robbers when he was the captain of the cultural relics inspection!"

Wu Tianyuan tapped the table with his fingers, and said with a half-smile: "A picture of Qiu Ying's Red Cliff, a post of Wen Zhengming's Changting Pavilion, a piece of Zhou Wenbin's Odes on Shushan Mountain, and a Wanli blue and white garlic bottle with dragon and phoenix patterns!"

"You!" The woman turned pale with shock, she looked at Wu Tianyuan like a ghost, how did he know?

"I tell you, don't play tricks in front of me!"

Wu Tianyuan warned viciously: "I know everything about you. Fortunately, you are still smart and didn't sell these treasures! Say it again, this is your last chance, bring your money and get out!"

Wu Tianyuan picked up the suitcase, threw down 50 cash, and turned to leave.Leaving the woman with a frightened face behind, I believe she will never appear again tomorrow.

"Hey, I didn't expect that I have a talent for acting!"

He went back to the hotel and hurriedly checked the baby. He just heard the snuff bottle talk about it, but now he was sure it was genuine, so he relaxed.

"At that time in Chengde, Li Haitao was known as an expert in cultural relics. It was because of his expertise that Li Haitao took the cultural relics out of the cultural relics library and replaced them with handicrafts, cultural relics, parts, accessories, non-collection cultural relics or low-level cultural relics. collection of cultural relics, and instructed the staff to tamper with cultural relic files, catalog cards, etc., in an attempt to hide the truth."

"According to the final interrogation records, he used various means to steal the Qing Dynasty Qianlong famille rose painted gold seated statue of Amitabha, part of the gilt and silver Tibetan-style Mount Sumeru mandala, Nepal-style part of gilt-copper seated Amitabha, and purple gold inlaid pine stone. There are a total of 259 cultural relics and cultural relic parts in the collection of Shou Buddha and so on.

Wu Tianyuan was happy, originally he was worried that these things would not be seen in the light and could not be displayed in the museum.It turned out that Li Haitao confiscated the private goods directly from the tomb robbers. It was probably because they were too expensive and did not dare to sell them, so they let his mistress keep them.

Li Haitao's incident happened at an auction held on October 2002, 10.

On the afternoon of October 2002, 10, the Hong Kong Queensway Marriott Hotel held a special auction titled "Royal Faith: Buddhist Treasures of the Qianlong Dynasty".Jiashide auctioned Qing Qianlong famille rose painted gilt statue of Amitayus Buddha and Qianlong period silver mandala two items, which were suspected by participating experts to be from the collection of the Forbidden City.

Among the 49 auction items in that auction, the most valuable one was the Seated Statue of Amitayus Buddha in Qing Dynasty Qianlong famille rose paint.The Buddha statue was auctioned by a Hong Kong antique dealer for US$29.5.

A total of 20 cultural relics were sold in this auction, with a total value of 390 million Hong Kong dollars.Two pieces of royal cultural relics from the Qing Dynasty from the mainland attracted people's attention in the auction: one is a seated statue of Amitayus Buddha with pastel enamel painted gold on the lotus petal seat of the Qianlong Dynasty in the Qing Dynasty. The reserve price of the auction is 200 million to 300 million Hong Kong dollars. Ping 20388", "Recheck 22", "So 160801".It happened to be accidentally discovered by an expert from the Forbidden City and reported to the police immediately.

On November 11 of the same year, the Public Security Bureau of CD City formally filed a case, naming it the "28" extraordinarily large theft and smuggling of cultural relics.

The court found that the cultural relics resold by Li Haitao had been auctioned by Kuang's Auction Company and Hong Kong Jiashide Auction Company, and some cultural relics could not be recovered after the incident.

经国家文物局核查，莲花瓣座粉彩描金无量寿佛和乾隆代银坛城，分别于1972年9月21日和1974年10月28日由故宫调拨至承德外八庙，均为国家定级馆藏珍贵文物。

A hidden international smuggling chain of internal and external collusion surfaced, and the arrest of Li Haitao was only the tip of the iceberg of the largest self-theft case of cultural museums in China.

"Niu Feng has investigated this case in detail in the documents. At that time, Kuang's family, Jiashide, and even Jiade were targeted. Over the years, he has suspected that a large number of cultural relics of unknown origin were auctioned, and many of them were lost overseas. Thinking of the last time Jiashide What happened to the soldiers must be the work of Taotie!"

This time, Wu Tianyuan accidentally discovered the snuff bottle pawned by his mistress, so he could find out the treasures that were lost in the past, and some whereabouts are still unknown.

"The masterpieces of the three great talents of the Ming Dynasty, Qiu Ying's Red Cliff Picture was auctioned for 8000 million a few years ago, Wen Zhengming and Zhou Wenbin's calligraphy hand scrolls are rare, and this blue and white garlic vase in the bay, this time it is really right !"

(End of this chapter)