Starting My Treasure Hunting In England

In the next two days, Liang En inspected the cultural relics stored in the empty pool bit by bit. Just as he imagined, these cultural relics were all fine Chinese cultural relics that were placed in the Penn Museum.

In addition to the two pieces of Zhaoling Six Horses that Liang En saw at the beginning, which were smuggled to the United States by cultural relics thief Lu Qinzhai, "Sa Lu Zi" and "Fist Mao Gun", there are also a large number of very valuable cultural relics inside. .

Among the large statues are the three-color Arhat statue from the Liao Dynasty in Bafowawa, Yixian County, Hebei Province, the wooden statue of Shuiyue Guanyin from the Jin Dynasty, and two limestone Bodhisattva statues from the Tang Dynasty.

Three complete Buddha statues from the Xiangtang Mountain Grottoes in the Northern Qi Dynasty, two Bodhisattva heads in the south niche of the central pillar of the Dabei Cave in the Northern Qi Dynasty and a statue of a snow-capped master from the Yuan Dynasty.

In addition to these large statues with one statue in a box, many large boxes contain multiple cultural relics. For example, a box contains three Tang Sancai horses and a Tang Sancai camel.

The other box contains more things, including more than a dozen scattered pots, covered domes, lamps, dog figurines, pig pens, pottery building models and other Han Dynasty green-glazed pottery.

The most eye-catching one is the 70cm-high pottery building model divided into three floors. Everything above is done perfectly. Reproduce the architectural form and structure of the Han Dynasty in an intuitive and three-dimensional image.

Of course, the cultural relics here are not only those made of stone and wood. For example, one of the three small wooden boxes placed against the wall contains more than a dozen jade articles, including jade Zhangs and jade bis.

The other two boxes contain bronze vessels that are traditionally called heavy vessels, such as pots, pans, gobs, and pots, as well as a gilt-bronze Maitreya statue from the Eastern Wei Dynasty.

The most conspicuous among these bronze and jade wares is a square foot with two rings on each side of the shoulder. Height 37.2 cm. The surface of the vessel is decorated with complex patterns, the checkered interior is transformed into dragon and phoenix patterns and swirls, and the bronze square pot is inlaid with turquoise.

This square pot is called the Chen Zhang Square Pot. It was a trophy captured by Chen Zhang when he led his troops to attack the capital of Yan State in the fifth year of King Xuan of Qi (315 BC). The inscription on this pot proves that the Qi attack on Yan and the looting of important weapons recorded in "Historical Records" are indeed true.

However, during the inventory process, Liang En also learned that the more than 30 missing cultural relics in the police records actually referred to the number of these boxes, and the actual number far exceeded it.

For example, those boxes containing jade, bronzes and Han Dynasty green glazed pottery may contain several or even a dozen cultural relics, but they are only counted as one box when registering.

Because this underground pool is not only dark and has almost constant temperature and humidity, but also most of these cultural relics are also made of corrosion-resistant materials in addition to being wrapped in layers.

Therefore, the inspection results found that except for a few minor repairable problems with a few cultural relics, the overall preservation of these items was not bad after more than half a century.

After Liang En cleared out all these cultural relics, he got one gold, one silver, two bronze, and six black in total, a total of ten cards. It can be said that it was an absolute bumper harvest.

"I have to say that we found a treasure house this time." Looking at the list compiled by Liang En, Fan Meng had a sigh of relief on his face. Although he was only half of Chinese descent, he was taught that he was a human being like Liang En since he was a child. Chinese people.

Therefore, after Liang En mentioned the goal of this operation before, he inquired about the information about these stolen cultural relics with great interest, and understood the historical value of these things, so he made such a statement after seeing these things. emotion.

"Yes, these are indeed some great works of art." Joan of Arc also nodded. Although she did not have a high understanding of these things due to cultural differences, she could at least feel them from these things. To beauty.

"Of course." Liang En nodded proudly after hearing what Joan of Arc said. Obviously, the beauty of many things can transcend the differences between civilizations, such as the current batch of exquisite cultural relics stolen from the University of Pennsylvania Museum. That's it.

Although it is said that most of the things in this museum were plundered from other ethnic groups and countries like bandits, we have to admit that these bandits may have a poor eye for picking things because they have grabbed enough things. Not bad indeed.

But when Liang En and the three of them spent two days counting all the cultural relics, they woke up from their excitement and realized that they were now facing a huge problem:

Most of this pile of cultural relics are very heavy and large. For example, the two stone slabs engraved with two of the Six Horses of Zhaoling weigh more than four tons. It is too difficult to carry them.

They even suspected that the reason why that group of people gave up on the larger stone sculptures of mythical beasts, filigree franc lions and famous murals in the rotunda was probably because the stone beasts and murals were too large, even if they were prepared in advance. Don't leave.

However, even if they gave up those difficult goals, the group of robbers still spent a lot of time and energy removing these things from the museum.

According to the information Liang En had obtained previously, this group of people made a series of boxes that were similar to the original boxes after completing the raids, and then filled these boxes with sand and gravel under the cover of the two security personnel who had been bribed. Boxes containing cultural relics are dropped.

The reason for doing this is because the weight and volume of those things are really too big, so this is the only way to bring as many cultural relics out of the museum as possible.

On the other hand, the group of robbers also spent a lot of effort hiding the cultural relics here. Judging from the iron pipes, ropes, pulleys and trolleys piled in the corner of the pool, they should have used pulleys to escape from the water. They were hung down from the big hole in the room just now, and then stacked in this position on a pallet truck.

But this also created a huge trouble for Liang En and the others. Judging from the current situation, it is not a simple matter to move these cultural relics from the hiding place, especially when there are only three of them. Even more so.

"I suddenly realized that we don't actually need to move this thing out." On the night after the inspection, several people hid the entrance to the basement just like the previous two days and drove back to the city. Jeanne suddenly said arrive.

"No need to move out - yes, I can obviously save some trouble." After being reminded by Joan of Arc, Liang En suddenly realized that he was stupid. Since he didn't intend to take the treasure as his own, it was completely okay. Leave the rest of the work to others.

Thinking of this, he immediately picked up the maritime satellite phone in the car and dialed the number left by the Chinese Ambassador to Ireland during the last New Year. Soon, all the calls were connected.

"I'm sorry to disturb you at this time." Considering the time difference, it should be around 11pm in Dublin now, so Liang En apologized as soon as the call was connected.

"Nothing, I'm still working." The ambassador's voice came from the microphone. "Is there anything you need?"

"I have some - some very important cultural relics that I want to donate. These cultural relics are with me in Philadelphia, so I would like to ask how to contact a more reliable person at the embassy or consulate in the United States."

"Wait for me." Because Liang En deliberately emphasized the words important and reliable, the ambassador quickly understood what he wanted to express, and then gave him a phone number.