Volume 1 Chapter 73: Jincheng Cang Buddha (2)

  Zhao Meng's home was in a wealthy villa area on the outskirts of the city. Due to the extremely high housing prices, developers were willing to invest in landscaping and recreational facilities. Artificial hills, green trees, pavilions, and towers could be seen everywhere, and even basketball courts and tennis courts were available.

  Qu Wen casually asked down, each villa here is at least tens of millions, after hearing that she couldn't help but secretly whistle.

  When he arrived at Zhao Meng's home, he had already ordered the servants to prepare a delicious dinner and came out to greet him from afar.

  "A Wen, how come you're so late? I've been waiting for a long time."

  "Are you in a hurry to have dinner with me or are you in a hurry for me to take a look at your collection?"

  "There's no rush, elder brother has also invited two antique collectors from the city, they're just waiting for you to take your seats."

  Upon arrival at the restaurant, two elderly people in their fifties were seen sitting at a table. Through Zhao Mengzhi's introduction, it was learned that both were major collectors from Chengdu, one named Liang Zhishong and the other Zhou Yiqun.

  "I really didn't expect Master Gu's closed-door disciple to be so young, I thought he was a middle-aged man in his thirties." Liang Zhisong joked, while thinking of his own youngest son, couldn't help but sigh in his heart, they were all young people in their twenties, others had already achieved something, but his own youngest son only indulged in playing and wasting his time.

  "Not at all, I was also very surprised when I first met Awen, such an achievement at a young age. It has to be said that Master Guquan's vision is unique, he sees things accurately and judges people accurately." Zhao Mengzhi couldn't help but praise, even Guquan himself praised him, then paused for a moment before asking: "I heard you guys went to the Songxian Bridge antique market this afternoon, I wonder if you found any good treasures?"

  This brought up Zhao Haifeng's curiosity again.

  "Afternoon, Ah Wen bought a bronze Tibetan Green Tara in the antique market. However, there's some issue with the gilt on the bronze Buddha, I suspect it's a Qing dynasty imitation of Ming dynasty work. But Ah Wen paid 50,000 to the other party, which left me perplexed. This guy has been in the business for a short time, but his eyes are sharp and he won't do any unprofitable deals."

  Upon hearing Zhao Haifeng's words, Zhao Mengzhi hastily asked Qu Wen to bring out the newly received Green Tara Buddha statue. After examining it for a while, he handed it over to Liang Zhisong beside him.

  "Mr. Liang, take a look at this Green Tara statue, what's wrong with it?"

  Liang Zhisong took over the Green Degree Mother and looked at it carefully for a while, with a puzzled expression on his face.

  "The Green Tara is actually an incarnation of Guanyin Bodhisattva in Tibetan Buddhism. In the 13th century, with the establishment of the Yuan Dynasty, Tibetan Buddhism was introduced to Central China on a large scale, and Tibetan Buddhist statues gradually gained recognition from people in Central China. From then until the Qing Dynasty, it was customary for the imperial court to cast Tibetan Buddhist statues. The Tibetan Buddhist statues of the Ming Dynasty were basically made of copper alloy with thick gold plating, round in shape and natural in expression. Especially those cast during the Yongle to Yongzheng periods can be said to have reached the peak of Tibetan Buddhist statue casting."

  "Look at this piece, regardless of its copper quality, shape, and facial expression, it all has the distinctive characteristics of a Ming dynasty Tibetan Buddhist statue... Unfortunately, the gilded surface reveals its true nature. As I mentioned earlier, all Ming dynasty Tibetan Buddhist statues were fully gilded, without the technique of mixing gold powder into the lacquer to create color. So this point makes one extremely suspicious."

  Liang Zhisong handed the Green Degree Mother back to Qu Wen, still with a puzzled expression on his face.

  "Just now, Zhao Xiao said that you spent 50,000 yuan to buy back this Green Tara statue. If it's from the Ming dynasty, then you've made a profit. But if it's a Qing dynasty imitation of a Ming piece, it's worth at most 30,000 yuan. I don't know what your intention is in spending 50,000 yuan to buy it?"

  What Liang Zhisong said is the same problem that Qu Wen wants to figure out for himself, knowing that the lacquer gold color on top is not right but still wanting to buy it down, but can't say it's related to spiritual energy.

  "Mr. Liang, forgive me for speaking bluntly, it seems that we both missed a point when looking at this Buddha statue. What's most difficult in ancient Buddha statue casting is the carving craftsmanship, yet this piece has such realistic workmanship, why did they miss doing a good job on the surface gilding?"

  Qu Wen said this and looked at several people, but no one could answer.

  "I heard Master Shu say that if it's an ancient Buddha statue, the gold color on its surface will gradually peel off after being used for a long time. To maintain its appearance, some later generations would re-gild it with lacquer and gold powder, which is what we commonly call 're-gilding'. So, did someone re-gild this Green Tara statue, giving us the illusion that it's a Qing dynasty imitation?"

  Several people immediately focused their attention on the green Tara statue on the table. If it's true what Qu Wen said, that a Ming dynasty Buddha statue was covered with gold powder to create an illusion, then as long as it's slightly processed and confirmed to be a Ming dynasty Tibetan Buddhist statue, Qu Wen would really have made a big mistake.

  The problem is that the gold lacquer on top of this Green Tara is added later or aged. If it's added later, scraping some off to restore its original color would greatly increase its value. However, if it's aged, the original color is still passable, but once a flaw appears, the price will plummet. According to antique market trends, if something worth 100,000 yuan has one flaw, it loses 10,000 yuan in value; with multiple flaws, it becomes worthless.

  Zhou Yiqun looked at Qu Wen and said: "Brother Qu, this Buddha statue is yours, whether to take it or not depends on your decision."

  The Qing Dynasty Tibetan Buddhist statue, which is worth over 30,000 yuan on the market, was sold to Liang Shuang for 50,000 yuan. If he had scraped off another piece and hadn't found a layer of gold underneath, his loss wouldn't have been small. It feels similar to gambling on stones.

  "Scrape, as the saying goes, without breaking and standing, there is no spirit of boldly seeking truth, what's the point of talking about antique appraisal and collection? Scrape, just scrape." Qu Wen steeled himself and shouted loudly, but when it came to taking action, he still hesitated.

  "Where do you think is better?"

  "Let's take a look here." Zhao Haifeng pointed to the surface of the lotus seat under the Green Tara statue: "If this is indeed a Ming dynasty Buddha statue, the gilding in this place is the least likely to fall off, and it may also be possible to see the inscription."

  Having been with Zhao Haifeng for so long, Qu Wen had already regarded him as his own brother and trusted him exceptionally. Not to mention just shaving off a little, even if he shaved off the whole thing, it would be fine, after all, it was only worth 50,000 yuan, not a big loss.

  Qu Wen immediately took out the key and gently rubbed it on the surface of the lotus seat, her movements extremely gentle, afraid that using too much force would cause even deeper harm.

  It was just a small area, and Qu Wen spent five minutes scraping it carefully. When he finished scraping off the gold paint on the surface, several people stood up from their seats and gathered around him.

  "Ah, yes! There really is gold in it!"

  "Hmm, there's another one, Da Ming Yongle year... This is a Buddha statue made by the imperial court during the Yongle period of the Ming Dynasty! Congratulations to Qu brothers, you've picked up a big bargain! In my opinion, this Buddha statue can fetch at least a million yuan at an auction!"

  Seeing the gilt layer inside the scraper, and hearing a few people's words, Qu Wen still thought he was in a dream. He let out a long sigh of relief, figuring that he hadn't lost out after all; otherwise, he would have been in for another bout of physical punishment.

  Zhao Haifeng shook his head as if it was a matter of course: "This guy is the reincarnation of one of the top ten good people, no matter where he goes, he can always bump into good things. It's that young man named Liang Shuang who lost out, fortunately Qu Wen gave him 10,000 yuan. Maybe this time he's excitedly rushing to the Italian International Rock Climbing Competition."

  "What?!" Hearing Zhao Haifeng's words, Liang Zhishong's expression changed and he almost fell to the ground. "You're saying that the person who sold this Buddha statue to you is named Liang Shuang?!"

  Zhao Haifeng quietly responded with a vague "uh-huh".

  "It's Liang Shuang, what happened to him."

  Confirmed, Liang Zhisong couldn't help but clutched his chest and sighed: "A prodigal son, a prodigal son! How could I, who has been wise all my life, give birth to such a prodigal son?"

  Introducing a friend's book: An ordinary young man, step by step, overcame all obstacles and became the strongest hero in history.