Chapter 1202 Van Gogh's Sunflowers
In fact, Zeng Wangcai doesn't understand painting. If you talk about Chinese ink painting and landscape painting, he can still talk to you about it, but when it comes to foreign painting, he knows less.
Even though he knew little, he still knew a thing or two about Van Gogh, Leonardo da Vinci, sunflowers, and Mona Lisa's smile.
What appeared before their eyes now was a painting of sunflowers with a blue background and five sunflowers in a vase.
Zeng Wangcai called out casually, then turned around and felt something was wrong. Van Gogh's sunflowers gave him the impression of being in golden tones, but the colors of this painting were much brighter.
"Isn't this a painting by Van Gogh?" Zeng Wangcai murmured.
"Mr. Lei, listen to me, this is Van Gogh's famous work "Sunflowers"..." Old Kohler was furious when he heard this, "Mr. Van Gogh created many "Sunflowers" in his life, and this "Five Sunflowers in a Vase" is one of them. My grandfather got it by chance from Eagle Sauce..."
It turns out that this painting belonged to the old Kohler family, and it was the most valuable piece of their auction this time.
Through old Kohler's introduction, Zeng Wangcai got to know more about Van Gogh, otherwise he would have to look up information.
It goes without saying who Van Gogh was. He created more than a thousand paintings in his lifetime, a huge number, and there were more than a dozen of them, Sunflowers alone.
The painting that Zeng Wangcai and the world know best is the one with fifteen sunflowers, also in a vase, with a golden hue, and is kept in Van Gogh's hometown.
Among them, there is also a well-known painting of fifteen sunflowers, which was auctioned in the Fog City ten years ago and set a record of nearly 4000 million US dollars.
Not to mention 4000 million US dollars ten years ago, even now or in the future, it is still a huge sum of money.
"Oh, I worked so hard to buy and sell, but I only sold a drone for 200 million dollars even with all the coaxing and deception, while others can get 4000 million with just the movement of their fingers..." Zeng Wangcai sighed as he fiddled with his mobile phone to look up information.
But he was relieved in an instant. No matter how high the painting was sold for, it was useless as Van Gogh could not enjoy it.
Artworks have a peculiarity: they are rarely valuable while their creators are alive; they only become valuable after they die.
"That's not right!" Zeng Wangcai found some information and questioned, "Wasn't this painting in your house destroyed by bombing in 45?"
The information is that the painting that Zeng Wangcai sees now was reportedly collected by Yijiao Penji, but was later destroyed by the American bombing.
"No, that's gossip!" Old Kohler was anxious, "This is really a painting by Van Gogh. My grandfather bought it when he was in Eagle Sauce. Besides, no one dares to sell fakes at Mr. Victor's auction.
"We asked an expert to check this painting, Mr. Victor, and the result is that there is an 80% chance that it is authentic. I will not hide this from you, sir, but this 80% is enough. Many people are interested in collecting it."
He was afraid that Zeng Wangcai would not buy it.
Zeng Wangcai couldn’t tell the real thing from the fake, but it didn’t matter because he had Zhang Xiuzhi.
"Buy it. My daughter will definitely like it." Zhang Xiuzhi said, looking up at the painting.
"Okay, if the girl likes it, it's God!" Zeng Wangcai nodded, "Kohler, we want this painting. No matter how much others offer, I will buy it. Don't worry."
Become!
Old Kohler secretly clenched his fists, thinking that maybe it would be higher than the painting ten years ago, and that way the family could get out of the crisis.
"Let's go and see something else!"
"This way, please."
"Hey, bronze ware, whose is this?"
"I know this. The Avent family's collection has a lot of oriental treasures."
"Avent? Remember..."
This is exactly what Zeng Wangcai wants. All the families that can appear here are famous. You will not be afraid if you remember their names.
Time passed quickly, Zeng Wangcai and others walked around the hall, and Zeng Wangcai had a clear idea of all the items for auction.
It is hard to say which one is the most valuable among them, but there are not many paintings and artworks, and the most numerous are cultural relics.
In fact, in terms of value, the things from our ancestors are still valuable. Take paintings for example, it is not that foreign paintings are valuable. The value of our "Admonitions of the Court Instructress" in the Fog City Museum is impossible to estimate. Even if someone offers hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars, no one will sell it.
The more cultural relics Zeng Wangcai saw in this exhibition hall, the more uncomfortable he felt.
These are all our treasures, and now they have grown into other people's homes.
In this exhibition hall, there were several scrolls from a family that attracted Zeng Wangcai's great attention.
Now Zeng Wangcai and his wife are parked outside this glass cover. Zeng Wangcai really can't recognize this thing. It looks like a painting but it is not a painting.
"Mr. Lei, are you interested in this?" Old Kohler stepped forward very diligently. "This is a very rare collection from the Treolman family. It is not a painting, but a scripture from the Dunhuang Caves of Dongda University. It has great collection value."
"Ok?"
Is this something from our ancestors?
Zeng Wangcai frowned, and without caring that Old Kohler was present, he took out his cell phone to check directly.
When Old Kohler saw Zeng Wangcai's cell phone, he envied, "Mr. Lei is still in touch with Dongda. This kind of cell phone is only available at Dongda. I saw it once and it is very convenient to use."
"If you like, we can meet again if we have the chance. I'll give you one, but the infrastructure here can't keep up." Zeng Wangcai said casually.
It was just a cell phone, far less than the information he had found now.
The cultural relics in the Dunhuang Caves are huge in number and value. In addition to their own value, their archaeological value is even greater.
Among the cultural relics of Dunhuang, there are only about pieces in China, but there are many pieces in Britain, more than 6000 pieces in Gaul, and many pieces in Russia.
The overseas ones combined are more than what we have ourselves.
This shows how serious the plundering was against us in those years.
Among them, the most famous are Einstein from the UK and Pelliot from Gaul.
"Mr. Kohler, the owner of these things could be the Paul family, right?" Zeng Wangcai asked. Paul is Pelliot's last name.
Pelliot the Elder died decades ago.
"Mr. Lei guessed it right. How did you know that?" Old Kohler was slightly surprised.
"Nonsense, one is Pelliot and the other is Einstein, they are the two who are the most aggressive in grabbing Dunhuang." Zeng Wangcai calmly reminded Kohler, "Don't forget, I am Chinese."
"Uh..." Old Kohler smiled awkwardly.
Zeng Wangcai didn't say much and just silently took note of the matter.
At this moment, a white middle-aged couple, perhaps because they were attracted by the cultural relics or perhaps because they could not stand old Kohler's behavior, came over arm in arm.
"Hey Kohler, I heard you became a waiter." The middle-aged white man came over and said sarcastically, "Can you introduce it to us? We are very interested in this batch of scriptures."
Well, it's trouble again.