"Mr. Sun, on behalf of the Ying country government and the British Museum, I have officially agreed to the transaction method.”
As he spoke, Twig Fisher took out a briefcase from his briefcase. The briefcase contained some documents.
These documents listed some of the cultural relics in the British Museum. They were all valuable cultural relics. Cultural relics that did not reach the level would not appear on the list.
There were three main sources for the cultural relics listed on the list.
The first source was from when the Eight-Power Alliance invaded the country, and they looted the capital and the Old Summer Palace. Most of the cultural relics on the list came from this aspect.
The second source was that from the end of the Qing Dynasty to before the founding of the People's Republic of China, foreign scholars, including explorers, museum curators, university professors, etc., directly bought cultural relics from China at a low price or took them away for free after exploring China. For example, the most famous explorer of the Ying Country, Stein, bought the Dunhuang documents and ancient Buddhist paintings from Taoist Wang. There were also people who directly excavated ancient ruins in China.
The third aspect was that foreign collectors would directly go to China to purchase cultural relics at low prices.
The cultural relics from these three sources all fell into the hands of the British Museum by chance.
Because most of the cultural relics of the Tang Dynasty came from these three aspects, the representatives felt that it was a good deal to exchange the stolen items for their cultural relics.
Twig Fisher handed the list of cultural relics to Sun Jian and said,""This is the list of cultural relics that the British Museum intends to exchange. Please take a look.”
Sun Jian nodded and took the document.
The list of cultural relics was very thick, about a hundred pages.
Flipping to the first page, what greeted his eyes was an exquisite painting. It was the famous Painting of Admonitions to Female Historians.
It was the earliest silk painting in the world and one of the earliest works of professional painters in the Chinese Dynasty. It was a milestone in the history of Chinese art and had always been a treasure in the collection of the royal court. Now, there were only two copies left in the world. One was copied by the Song Dynasty and collected by the Imperial Palace Museum in the capital. The style and color were not top-grade. The other was the copy in the British Museum.
The Painting of Admonitions to Female History collected by the British Museum was a copy of the Tang Dynasty by Gu Kaizhi of the Eastern Jin Dynasty. It was originally collected by the Qing Palace and was the favorite object of Emperor Qianlong's desk. It was hidden in Yuanmingyuan. In 1860, when the Anglo-French coalition forces invaded Beijing, the British army's senior captain, Ji Yong, stole it from Yuanmingyuan and took it abroad. It was collected by the British Museum in 1903 and became the most important oriental cultural relic in the museum. It was not an exaggeration to call it the "treasure of the museum".
Sun Jian took a closer look. There were more than 5000 cultural relics listed on it, including the entire art category, spanning the entire history of China, including engraved books, paintings, jade, bronze, pottery, and jewelry.
Among them were the famous Tri-Colored Arhat of the Liao Dynasty in Yi County, the Dunhuang murals, the Dunhuang scrolls, and the scriptures.
When it came to the paintings and scriptures of Dunhuang, two people had to be mentioned, Stein and Wang Yuanlu, as well as the famous study of Dunhuang, which had a great influence in the international academic community around the Dunhuang posthumous writings and the art of Dunhuang grottoes.
In 1907, Stein, an archaeologist, art historian, and explorer from the Ying Nation, came to Dunhuang in the northwest of China during his second Central Asian expedition.
Stein accidentally heard from a businessman who had settled in Dunhuang that a Sutra Cave had been discovered in the Mogao Grottoes.
Thus, Stein came to the Mogao Grottoes…
He used four ingots of silver to exchange for 24 boxes of scriptures and five boxes of carefully wrapped silk paintings, rust tattoos, and other works of art from Wang Yuanlu (Taoist Wang), who was guarding the Mogao Grottoes at that time.
In 1921, Stein came to Beijing for the third time for an 'archaeological explosion'. He came to Dunhuang again and obtained five large boxes of manuscripts from Taoist Wang.
Stein was the person who obtained the most scrolls and scrolls from the cave.
Other than him, there were also the French Boshihe's Boshihe expedition team, the Japanese Otani Mitsuki's three Central Asian expeditions, and the American Warner who successively bought a large number of paintings and scriptures from the Mogao Grottoes.
More than 35,000 of these paintings and scriptures were scattered overseas, accounting for two-thirds of all Dunhuang cultural relics.
This was an eternal pain in the hearts of the people.
Even now, the mention of it could make many people feel regretful.
Most of the 29 boxes of scriptures, manuscripts, and paintings that Stein had brought back to the Ying Kingdom were hidden in Stein's secret room in the British Museum.
It became the treasure of the British Museum.
Sun Jian believed that the reason why they were willing to exchange these scriptures and paintings was probably because they wanted to use these Dunhuang treasures to exchange for the 10000 sheepskin scrolls in King John's treasure vault, including the draft of the Magna Carta.
After all, compared to the scriptures and paintings of Dunhuang, those sheepskin scrolls were the true treasures in their hearts.
It could be said that in order to welcome back King John's treasure, the Ying Country's government was full of sincerity. He did not dare to make any small movements.
(Sorry, I have to deal with some matters in the past two days. I just took the high-speed rail back. I might have to pay less tonight, but I will make up for it tomorrow. Please rest assured.)）
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