A treasure-appraisal maniac

From the beginning, Lu Fei judged that Liu Jianhua had something shady, and now it seems that this is indeed the case.

Two large piles of rhino horns and ivory, worth tens of thousands.

If there was a thunderstorm, it would be enough to scare Mr. Liu Jianhua.

Not only smuggling ivory and rhino horns, but a box of grenades can also put them in danger. ??

However, this is just scratching the surface.

Dozens of Shang Dynasty bronzes are even more terrible.

Lu Fei and Xu Maochen looked at a pig-shaped bronze statue. Judging from the rust spots in the cracks and the smell of pits, the two brothers immediately came to the same conclusion.

This bronze vessel definitely comes from the Shang Dynasty site in Erligang, Zhongzhou.

In the 1950s, the Erligang Shang Dynasty ruins were discovered.

Although many places were stolen, a large number of precious cultural relics were still unearthed.

It is no exaggeration to say that everything unearthed in Erligang, even fragments, is a first-class cultural relic.

All items that are intact or can be repaired are national treasures.

This pig-shaped bronze statue was excavated thirty to fifty years before the Erligang excavation.

The illegal excavation was definitely not the work of the Liu family.

But no matter what the reason, this thing fell into Liu Jianhua's hands, and it is not an exaggeration to accuse him of smuggling a national treasure.

He privately traded contraband ivory and rhinoceros horns, secretly hid a large number of grenades, and smuggled a national treasure.

Added together, these crimes are simply too heinous to describe.

The current retribution the Liu family has received is simply what they deserve.

In this way, it can be said that the Liu family has caught up with the harmonious society.

If it were placed in the feudal era, it would not be an exaggeration to peel off skins, use straw, crack cars, Ling Chi, and light sky lanterns.

However, the Liu family's private collection of national treasures goes far beyond this one.

Not far away, the two brothers saw another bull-shaped bronze gong from the Shang Dynasty.

This cow's cup is twenty centimeters long and fifteen centimeters high. The most amazing thing is that the wall thickness is only less than two millimeters.

It is incredible that such superb casting technology could exist in that era.

This cow has a high head, flat and curved horns, ears under the horns, protruding eyes, round belly, four separate legs, short and thick hoofs, and a hanging tail.

The head and back of the cow drink are used as the cover, and the neck is used as the vessel.

A standing tiger button is placed on the top of the cover, with the tiger's head protruding forward, the tail of the tiger straight, the tail end slightly tilted, and a protruding edge on the back of the cover.

The whole body of the vessel is decorated with cloud and thunder patterns as the ground pattern, and phoenix and bird patterns, Kui dragon patterns, animal face patterns, etc. as the main patterns.

There is a long-tailed phoenix pattern on each side of the belly of the cow statue, from the front blade of the cow cup to the tail of the buttocks, and from the edge of the mouth of the cow cup to the upper part of the front and rear legs of the cow statue.

The phoenix bird stands with its head held high, its eyes are round and lively, its beak is folded down at a right angle, its head feathers fly backwards, and its tail is curved upward.

A curled dragon pattern is applied to the middle of the cow's belly, cleverly filling the gap between the head and tail of the phoenix bird.

There are vertical ribs on the chest under the cow's neck, symmetrical Kui patterns on both sides, and an animal mask pattern on the lower end.

The tail vertebrae of the cow are embossed with a bull-head-like animal face pattern, the middle part of the tail is decorated with a curved pattern, and the lower end is decorated with feather-like patterns.

The back of the cover has an animal face and fish body as the main pattern, with the fish tail reaching up to the cow's head, supplemented by cloud and thunder patterns on both sides.

The ox gong is as green as jade, has a solid and dignified shape, is extremely finely crafted, and has a natural and smooth curve connecting the cover and body.

The whole body is decorated with exquisite patterns, rigorous conception, and orderly layout. The main pattern and the ground pattern complement each other, and are complicated but not messy.

The gong is also a wine vessel, with the cow's head and back as the cover, the belly to hold the wine, and the neck as the stream.

Among the main patterns, the phoenix and bird patterns, Kui patterns, animal face patterns and standing tiger buttons all reveal a spirit of strength.

Mysterious and shocking, it has obvious characteristics of the bronze culture of the Central Plains in the late Shang Dynasty.

Both the shape and size of the oxgang are extremely realistic, which is obviously different from the symbolism and patterning tendencies of Central Plains culture.

The overall shape of the ox gong is solid yet exquisite, solemn yet beautiful. It can be said to be a masterpiece of the combination of Central Plains culture and indigenous culture.

Judging from the rust stains and the dirt in the cracks, this oxgong also came from Erligang.

In addition to these two things, there are even more awesome ones.

Taotie pattern with four legs.

Li is a food utensil, similar to the pot used for cooking rice and water today. The earliest Li found so far can be traced back to the Neolithic Age.

The earliest ones were made of pottery, and in the Shang and Zhou dynasties, bronze ones appeared.

Three legs are the basic feature of Ge. Its structure is generally divided into upper and lower parts. The upper part is a container with a square or circular diameter, and the lower part has three hollow legs.

The three legs are hollow, shaped like pockets, and connected together.

Different from the common three-legged turtle, this one turned out to be a four-legged turtle.

So far, before the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, there really were no four-legged geese.

From a geometric point of view, the three points are on the same plane anyway, but adding another point on the plane where these three points are located was more complicated for the casting process at that time.

There is a deformed Taotie pattern on each of the four legs of this piece. The Taotie's eyes are embossed in high relief, which has an excellent decorative effect.

Taotie is an ancient mythical beast in ancient Chinese mythology and one of the nine sons born of a dragon. It can be seen in "The Classic of Mountains and Seas" and "Lu's Spring and Autumn Annals".

The biggest characteristic of Taotie is his gluttony. He is so greedy that he even eats his own body, so his image usually has a head but no body.

"Lu's Spring and Autumn Annals: Xian Shi Lan" records: "Zhou Ding's Taotie has a head but no body.

Eating people without swallowing them harms their bodies, so repay them with words. "

The Taotie pattern is a common decoration on bronze vessels. Some people believe that the ancients cast the image of the Taotie on the utensils to warn future generations not to be gluttonous or overeat.

In the Bronze Age, Li was no longer just a daily utensil, but gradually evolved into a ritual vessel and artifact, becoming an important cultural carrier.

The combination of bronze ware is a physical example of the ritual and music culture of the Shang and Zhou dynasties.

The core of the ritual and music culture of the Western Zhou Dynasty is to "clearly distinguish between noble and inferior, and distinguish between ranks."

At that time, due to different social status and wealth, the quality of daily utensils, ritual vessels and artifacts used by people varied greatly.

More importantly, the combination of various utensils is also obviously ritualized.

China has discovered that there are not many bronze Li from the Shang and Zhou dynasties, and this only four-legged Li is even more precious.

There is no doubt that this Taotie-patterned four-legged turtle is the twin brother of the previous two, and also comes from Erligang.

Not just these three.

There are a total of twelve complete vessels of various sizes in this darkroom, as well as twenty-six residual vessels, all of which are products of the same batch.

There is only one mother for these bronzes, and that is the Shang Dynasty site in Erligang, Zhongzhou.

Damn it!

If the Lu Fei brothers hadn't carefully identified each piece piece by piece, even Lu Fei wouldn't have believed it was true.

Good guy, this is simply wholesale!

The only possible explanation for the appearance of so many complete remnants of the same batch is that the previous owners packaged and sold them collectively to Liu Jianhua.

Looking at these bronze wares, Lu Fei was angry, but also more thankful.

Fortunately, these things were packaged and sold to Liu Jianhua. If they were lost overseas, the consequences would be disastrous.