Chapter 66 Confiscated and jailed

While Zhang Yang was preparing two imitations, some people were getting a little impatient waiting.

The most anxious person is Director Liao from a department in Linzhou.

He was anxious to get the work and send it for auction.

After Mr. Xu’s sudden outburst, Director Liao was worried for half a year, but in the end, nothing happened.

Then his mind couldn't help but become active again.

I was thinking, can I go back to my old job?
After all, there will be a new development project in the east of the city soon. If we don’t make some money, we’ll be wasting such a good opportunity.

And the way he makes money is related to calligraphy and painting.

Director Liao is a well-known and senior calligraphy enthusiast in the circle.

He has a large collection of calligraphy and paintings at home.

Whenever there was a project to bid on, he would take out the collections in his home and auction them off.

Buyers who bid for the collection will gain his recognition, which will bring huge profits.

This method has certain risks, so Director Liao is very cautious.

All the calligraphy and paintings in his house are fake, and he bought them all himself in antique markets and on the Internet.

In this way, he successfully disguised himself as a "leek".

Some people had thought about investigating him before, suspecting that the antiques in his home were obtained through bribery.

After asking the experts to conduct the appraisal, everyone began to doubt Director Liao's IQ.

Even sympathy.

Now, the semi-annual "East China Private Collectors Auction" is about to begin, and Director Liao decided to seize the opportunity and make another bid.

He originally planned to put up a painting of shrimp by Qi Baishi for auction, as it was the "most authentic" painting he had.

But unexpectedly, the person who sent the money wanted to give more this time.

In this way, Qi Baishi's ordinary paintings are not so good.

In this kind of public auction, famous artists' calligraphy and paintings all have a benchmark price.

Unless the paintings have been circulated in an orderly manner and collected by celebrities, the transaction price of Qi Baishi's paintings is generally in the range of hundreds of thousands, and it is difficult to sell them at sky-high prices.

This time the transaction amount is in the millions.

After a brief discussion, Director Liao turned his attention to Huang Tingjian.

A relatively unpopular calligrapher, but one with high market recognition.

Huang Tingjian's "Dizu Ming" was once sold at a sky-high price of 4.3 million yuan, with an average of 70 yuan per character.

At this price, only five words are needed to meet their needs for this transaction.

However, Director Liao does not have any relevant works on hand.

He began to look for various ways to purchase.

If someone else did this, it would definitely arouse suspicion, but if the person seeking to buy it was Director Liao, then everyone would think:

I guess he was fooled by someone and was dreaming of getting rich overnight.

As a result, he happened to meet Zhang Yang who was looking for clients online.

After receiving Zhang Yang’s goods, Director Liao invited a real retired expert from the Palace Museum to help take a look remotely.

The old expert couldn't find any problems and thought it was Huang Tingjian's authentic work.

He also congratulated Director Liao and said:

"Xiao Liao, you've been deceived for half your life, but you got lucky and received an authentic work."

"This is such luck that smoke is coming out of our ancestors' graves!"

Since the experts said so, Director Liao certainly believed it.

He quickly found someone to deliver the items to the auction.

On the other side, Mr. Zhan from Cui Chi Real Estate Development Company was also very anxious.

He would ask his secretary three times a day:
"Has the director received the goods?"

After asking for many days in a row, I finally received an accurate answer two days before the auction started:

Huang Tingjian is in place!

There is only one work by Huang Tingjian in this auction, so just sell it and that’s it.

……

After sending the goods to the customer, Zhang Yang also brought his own copy - Huang Tingjian's "Preface to the Lanting Poems" to the auction collection site of the "East China Folk Collectors Auction".

When they heard that he wanted to submit his calligraphy works for auction, after he paid an entrance fee of 100 yuan, the staff took him to the preliminary selection hall and gave him a number.

The experts sat in small rooms, waiting for their numbers to be called and for the items to be taken into the rooms for identification.

The rest of the people lined up in the hall.

If not everyone was holding a scroll or a box in their hands, the scene would really be like queuing up for medical treatment at a large hospital.

"No. 0918, Mr. Zhang Yang, please wait at the door of Expert Room No. ."

The broadcast in the hall sounded and Zhang Yang quickly stood up.

When he arrived at the door of expert room No. 3, the previous collector had just entered.

Standing at the door, Zhang Yang could see the expert sitting behind the appraisal desk, a white-haired old man.

There was a young female assistant helping.

Zhang Yang tilted his head curiously and listened to the noise inside.

The collector came up and said:

"Teacher Yang, this is a calligraphy work by the famous Song Dynasty calligrapher Zhao Mengfu, "Returning Home"."

"I have asked foreign experts to look at it, and they all said it was authentic and asked me to send it to an overseas auction." "Oh, foreign experts have looked at it." Teacher Yang nodded and agreed, and asked the collector, "Then what was the reason for not sending it to the auction in the end?"

"There are mainly two reasons for this."

The collector explained seriously:

"First, they want an entrance fee of 50,000 yuan. I don't have that much money. I have to sell this painting to get the money, but they don't allow me to write an IOU."

Hahaha, an IOU?
Zhang Yang was listening to music outside the door.

This kind of auction where you have to pay first sounds like a scam. What scammer would accept an IOU?

"What about the second reason?" asked Teacher Yang.

"The second reason is that this thing of mine may be a national treasure, and I am afraid that it will not be allowed to leave the country or be auctioned."

"It will be confiscated and you will have to go to jail."

“So I didn’t dare send it out.”

"You don't have to worry about that at all." Teacher Yang replied quickly, "Customs won't accept this kind of thing."

"Will it not be confiscated?"

"Absolutely not, I can guarantee it."

Next, Teacher Yang pointed out the flaws in the collector's calligraphy from various aspects.

The verdict: this is a print through and through.

The market value is only a dozen dollars, and you can hang it on the wall for fun.

After a while, the collector came out.

As he passed by, Zhang Yang heard him muttering:

"This expert must be an official. He wants to deceive me so that he can confiscate my treasure."

"There were no printing presses in the Song Dynasty, so how could it be printed? What he said doesn't stand up to scrutiny at all."

After hearing this, Zhang Yang really wanted to give this collector a business card of his own.

This kind of imagination ability shows that he is born with the holy body of leeks.

Unfortunately, Mr. Yang's assistant is already urging us:
"Handsome guy, come in quickly."

"Okay, here I come."

Zhang Yang nodded, and after entering the room, he handed over the box containing the work.

The calligraphy itself, together with the "introduction" and "postscript", makes the entire scroll about nine meters long.

It cannot be fully unfolded when placed on the appraisal table and can only be read while being rolled up.

After opening it, the "first page" of the book, which is equivalent to the title page of the book, has four large characters written on it:

【Authentic works of Fu Weng】

The signature is: "Written by Xu Lin, a student in the Ming Dynasty."

"Is this Huang Tingjian's calligraphy?"

Teacher Yang looked up at Zhang Yang and asked.

Fu Weng is Huang Tingjian’s nickname. Since the expert could react so quickly, his level must be quite high.

"Yes, this is our family's heirloom." Zhang Yang answered habitually.

"What did your ancestors do?"

"They are, they run an antique shop."

"I used to do business in Yanjing, and later moved here."

"That's it..."

Teacher Yang nodded solemnly.

The old man seemed to be severely nearsighted. His face was almost pressed against the paper. He looked at the words very carefully, one word at a time.

Sniff it hard from time to time.

After a while, he raised his head and blinked rapidly, as if he was thinking about some difficult problem.

"What's wrong, Mr. Yang? Is there something wrong with this thing of mine?"

"No problem, it should be authentic."

"Are you planning to attend the auction?"

"Yes, otherwise why would I come here?" Zhang Yang responded with a smile.

"So what's your expected price?"

"Several million, maybe tens of millions."

"this price……"

Teacher Yang pondered for a while, and asked with a somewhat tangled expression on his face:

"If the provincial museum wants to buy your item, can you sell it at a lower price?"

“I don’t know if you know that Huang Tingjian’s calligraphy is now collected by only two museums in the Palace Museum.”

“It’s very precious.”

"You know what I mean?"

"I understand." Zhang Yang nodded.

He realized that Teacher Yang had a blood feud with the museum behind him!

　Thanks to book friends 0506 and Pudao Panda for the tips! Thank you all for your monthly tickets!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)