Heirloom appraisal expert says it's worth at most 10,000; farmer turns around and sells it for 19.8 million
China's long and enduring history has left us descendants with a great many precious cultural relics, and among them, the ones made exclusively for the imperial family are the most exquisite and the most valuable. Of course, the cultural relics that the state has been able to find and protect are no more than a drop in the ocean; even more relics are still scattered among the people, becoming heirlooms passed down from generation to generation.
And in Northeast China in the 1990s, there was an old farmer surnamed Li who also had such an ancient painting as a family heirloom. The old farmer knew well that he was advanced in years, so he made early preparations to divide up his estate. But he had 7 children, and there was only one of this most valuable ancient painting. To be fair, the old farmer decided to sell the ancient painting, so that after it was converted into money, it could be divided up easily. Having made up his mind, Grandpa Li bought a train ticket to Beijing the very next day. Since he himself also knew how precious this painting was, Grandpa Li went straight to the cultural relics bureau and offered to sell the painting to the state at the low price of 8 million.
During this time, Grandpa Li also recounted the origin of this painting. It turned out that this painting was the famous "Ten Poems Picture" (Shiyong Tu), which it is said Empress Dowager Cixi loved very much during her lifetime. This painting is a masterpiece left by the Northern Song dynasty painter Zhang Xian in the 5th year of the Xining era of the Northern Song (1072). It depicts landscapes and figures, vivid and lifelike on the paper, and its value is like a great jade disc, combining important value for historical studies, literature, and local historical and cultural research, and it can be called a national-treasure-level cultural relic.
And Grandpa Li's ancestor was a guard of Puyi. Back then, after Puyi abdicated, he still lived in the Forbidden City. In order to get Puyi to abdicate, the then government of the Republic of China agreed to give him 4 million taels of silver each year for his expenses. Of course, everything in the Forbidden City no longer belonged to him. Unexpectedly, in the end Yuan Shikai fell from power, and Puyi's money also came to nothing.
In order to make a living, Puyi "bestowed" all the cultural relics in the Forbidden City on his younger brother Pujie, secretly having him sell them off. It was not until Puyi became the puppet emperor of Manchukuo that the Japanese sent these cultural relics back to Puyi in Northeast China. And after the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japan, Puyi fled in a panic, and naturally had no time to take these cultural relics with him; they were looted, and Grandpa Li's ancestor, as a guard, got this "Ten Poems Picture" at that time.
Back to the point: the staff at the cultural relics bureau appraised it and proved that it was indeed an authentic work. However, the expert shamelessly said that although this painting was genuine, it was not worth much, and at most it could only sell for around 10,000!
This infuriated Grandpa Li. His own asking price of 8 million was already very low, and the expert pushed it down to 10,000 the moment he opened his mouth! Unconvinced, he turned around and found an auction house. After the auction house's appraisal and promotion, the reputation of this ancient painting was thoroughly established, and the people who came to the auction at that time were all big shots. In the end, this "Ten Poems Picture" was bought by the Palace Museum for the sky-high price of 18 million, and it paid an additional 10% commission, totaling 19.8 million.
Fortunately, Grandpa Li had the extra presence of mind; there was a difference of several thousand times here! However, in recent years, China's cultural relic protection work has gradually become more standardized, and I believe this kind of situation will no longer happen!
Author of this article: Old Liu Talks History. If there is any infringement, please contact us for deletion.