Chapter 1058: The country's largest antiquities collector

Xia Yulong laughed loudly and said, 'Fine, Director Yan, I'll trouble you then. I'll take whatever calligraphy or paintings you can get your hands on. Just work out the price, I trust you. I'll arrange for someone to contact you later.'

Yan Sihai nodded happily, 'Mr Xia, don't worry, I will take care of this.'

Liu Zhihe also spoke up at this point, "Mr Xia, we will also do our best on your behalf.'

Xia Yu waved his hand and said nonchalantly, "Director Liu, there is no need to go to such trouble. You know I don't mind spending a little money. As long as the museum doesn't lose out and the masters don't lose out, otherwise I won't be able to live with myself.'

Director Liu nodded repeatedly, refraining from saying more, but he still gave Yan Sihai a wink the moment Xia Yu turned around.

Yan Sihai nodded in understanding.

Xia Yu must be a VIP from the mainland to be accompanied by Liu Zhihe the whole way, so without Liu Zhihe's reminder, Yan Sihai knew exactly what to do. No matter what, political tasks come first, an idea that has penetrated deep into his bones.

And now that he really has difficulty dealing with these calligraphy and paintings, Xia Yu's willingness to buy them all has already been a great help to the museum, and he is already content.

Amidst Yan Sihai's words of thanks, Xia Yu and Liu Zhihe exited the gate, and the red car drove away from the National Museum of Revolutionary History.

After getting into the car, Xia Yu, who had picked up at least 'several billion', was in a very happy mood, and a smile involuntarily appeared on his face.

Seeing that Xia Yu was in a good mood, and thinking about a sentence Xia Yu had said in the museum just now, Liu Zhihe's heart stirred, and he pretended to be interested and asked, 'Mr Xia, I have heard about the Kowloon Cultural Museum you built in Hong Kong. I have also heard that it houses the national treasure-level Yongle Encyclopedia, and that the quantity is even greater than that of the Forbidden City?'

Xia Yu laughed heartily and said modestly, 'It is true that the quantity of the Yongle Encyclopedia is greater than that of the Forbidden City, but in other respects, it is not even worthy of holding the shoes of the Forbidden City Museum.'

'Although my Kowloon Cultural Museum is famous in Hong Kong and Southeast Asia, there is still a long way to go. So far, it has collected only more than 10,000 cultural relics. Even if it adds tens of thousands of calligraphy and paintings now, it will only have tens of thousands of pieces. Unlike the Palace Museum, which has millions of treasures, and each piece is a masterpiece among masterpieces, I can't compare with it!'

Liu Zhihe smiled and flattered, 'Mr Xia is being modest. With your financial resources, it would not be difficult to fill the collection of the Kowloon Museum of Cultural History with more than a million pieces.'

Xia Yu shook his head with a slight bitter smile and sighed, 'Director Liu, it's not that easy. I want to buy back as many Chinese cultural relics as possible that have been lost overseas and turn the Kowloon Museum of Cultural History into a stage for showcasing Chinese culture, but unfortunately it is difficult to acquire overseas cultural relics.'

Liu Zhihe immediately said, 'Mr. Xia, it is very difficult to purchase Chinese cultural relics overseas, but it is still quite easy to do so on the mainland. If you need a large quantity of cultural relics, you might as well consider the state-run cultural relic stores.'

'Cultural relic stores?'

Xia Yu became interested and, after Liu Zhihe's reminder, realised the good opportunity he had overlooked.

It seems that in the 1970s and 1980s, there were cultural relic stores on the mainland that sold cultural relics exclusively, with the aim of earning foreign exchange.

Liu Zhihe nodded and said, 'Yes, cultural relic stores are the only stores designated to sell cultural relics in the country.'

Xia Yu asked with interest, "Director Liu, can you tell me more?'

Seeing Xia Yu's interest, Liu Zhihe perked up and carefully described the situation of cultural relic stores: "Mr Xia, cultural relic stores are...'

As Liu Zhihe continued to talk, Xia Yu also learned about the situation of cultural relic shops. Although Liu Zhihe, as an official, tended to take an official stance when speaking, Xia Yu was able to form his own judgement based on his knowledge of the subject.

In general, cultural relic shops are the only platform established by the state for the acquisition and trading of cultural relics. This is the only channel. If you sell to somewhere else, it is considered speculation and a violation of state law.

The law only stipulates that what is buried underground belongs to the state, but there are simply too many cultural relics circulating in the private sector. These are private property and the people can sell them.

In order to regulate the cultural relics market and to protect precious cultural relics as much as possible, the state established cultural relics stores that specialize in the acquisition of cultural relics.

After acquisition, the precious cultural relics will be handed over to museums by cultural relics stores across the country, while the less precious ones will be sold as commodities to foreign guests in exchange for precious foreign exchange needed for national construction.

It is also worth noting that while the general public in mainland China can sell cultural relics to cultural relic shops, they cannot buy them there. Cultural relic shops only sell cultural relics to foreign guests, because only they have foreign exchange.

It is worth mentioning that, considering the difficulty of selling cultural relics, cultural relic shops do not accept everyone. The foreign trade acquisition department issues a limited number of numbers each day, and cultural relic shops will not accept any items that have not been issued a number.

The antique shops are also very picky when it comes to buying. Regardless of whether the relics are old or not, as long as they are damaged or flawed, they will not be accepted.

There is nothing they can do about it, because there are just too many privately collected relics on the mainland. Even with these restrictions, there are still queues of people waiting to sell their relics in front of the antique shops from evening until morning.

So Liu Zhihe also assured Xia Yu that if he needed to, although the best cultural relics in the cultural relic stores were already in the museum, the others would not be bad, and buying them to fill the museum would be a good choice.

After listening to Liu Zhihe, Xia Yu was certainly tempted.

He did not mind that the cultural relic stores did not have the best of the best, because he had thought of a crucial problem.

There were many cultural relic stores across the country, and he did not believe that every cultural relic store was equipped with a master expert who was proficient in all categories. Even the masters could make mistakes.

Therefore, among the cultural relic stores across the country, there must be fake replicas from the Republic of China and also masterpieces that have been misjudged.

Regardless of whether they are fake or treasures, at the current price, they are all priced at a few or tens of dollars. At this price, buying fake replicas from the Republic of China will be worth a lot of money in the future, so buying them is a sure profit.

Thinking about this, Xia Yu did not hesitate and immediately said to Liu Zhihe, 'Director Liu, I want to buy these cultural relics. One hundred thousand pieces is not too few, and a million pieces is not too many. Anyway, I want as many as I can get. I'm worried that my museum is still empty. I'll use all the funds for the acquisition. I'll use whatever kind of foreign exchange you guys want.'

'And instead of these cultural relics being bought by foreigners who don't appreciate them, it's better for me to buy them all and put them in the museum to bring out their value in cultural communication. The people of Hong Kong need these things to experience the brilliance of our Chinese culture and receive a spiritual baptism.'

When these words came out, Liu Zhihe's eyes lit up. He realised the political value in them.

If he reported Xia Yu's words exactly as they were, he was sure that the authorities would definitely do their best to mobilise cultural relics for sale to Xia Yu. Not only would they be able to earn foreign exchange, they would also be able to give play to a more significant political value. This would be a million times better than selling them to foreigners!

Therefore, he said without hesitation, 'Mr Xia, don't worry, I will report your thoughts to the authorities. I will let you know as soon as there is a result!'

Xia Yu thanked him with a light smile, 'Then I'll trouble you.'

Afterwards, seeing that it was still early, Xia Yu, in high spirits and accompanied by Liu Zhihe, went to Liulichang, where he saw the flourishing market for cultural objects and the state-owned Rongbaozhai, which has a history of more than 300 years. According to Liu Zhihe, the three characters of Rongbaozhai are still engraved according to the standard of Guo Moruo's calligraphy.

There, Xia Yu saw the queue of people selling cultural relics to the shops, and also saw the current value of cultural relics. The purchase price of a 'three hundred pieces' porcelain – a large porcelain vase with double chi ears and a sloping shoulder, about one and a half metres high – ranged from a few yuan to ten yuan.

After wandering around for an afternoon, Xia Yu had a deep understanding of the current situation of cultural relics on the mainland, and he had already made up his mind to plan for both scenarios.

On the one hand, he would ask the authorities to collect cultural relics from shops and sell them to him, and on the other hand, he would set up a special company on the mainland to privately acquire cultural relics for storage. Whether they were put in a museum or used as the foundation for Sotheby's auction house to enter the mainland in the future, they would be an excellent choice.

...

The next morning, Xia Yu met with the mainland's senior management. The atmosphere was peaceful throughout the entire process. Xia Yu had a good grasp of the situation, satisfying the mainland while also gaining a great deal of room for manoeuvre for himself.

And as he had expected, the mainland hoped that he would stabilise Hong Kong as much as possible and play a positive role in its future.

The former was something that Xia Yu would do in his actions and plans, while the latter was something he would do immediately.

There was also a deep connection between the two. Therefore, Xia Yu promised to do his best and decided to return to Hong Kong and immediately leave for the UK to do his best in these matters, asking the mainland to wait for the time being for his results.

The mainland agreed and also promised to repay Xia Yu's kindness, so Xia Yu's purpose of going north was achieved.

After the meeting, Xia Yu was once again treated to a grand reception, and during the meal, he reached an agreement with the mainland regarding the acquisition of cultural relics. The mainland would do its best to mobilise cultural relics from cultural relic shops across the country to sell to Xia Yu, and the price would be more favourable than selling to foreigners.

Xia Yu didn't care about the slight discount, but since the senior mainland officials would make a statement on this, it meant that his cultural relic trading with the mainland was not just a business, but also a political task.

As long as the mainland is serious, then this matter will definitely have a good outcome.

Xia Yu had already made up his mind to immediately tell Hua Shengshi to expand the team after returning, so as to facilitate the receipt of the extremely large number of cultural relics.

That afternoon, Xia Yu boarded the return train amidst warm farewells from the mainland.