50s: Starting with a storage ring

Chapter 476 It's not easy to pick up a bargain

As a great man once said, if we don't occupy the propaganda front, the enemy will. It's impossible for those above not to be aware of this problem.

Sure enough, the counterattack came quickly.

First, "The Dirty Dozen" was taken off the air, and then a few days later, Tong Jiajia and her two children brought back the latest news from school.

To strengthen the building of socialist culture and ethics, nine organizations, including the All-China Federation of Trade Unions, jointly proposed to the people of the whole country to carry out the "Five Talks, Four Beauties, and Three Loves" campaign.

Schools, which cover a large portion of the youth population, have become one of the key venues for this event, giving the children something to do.

After the "Five Stresses, Four Beauties, and Three Loves" campaign started, Tong Jiajia and his two children were busy, leaving him idle at home.

However, there was also a nanny, Yang Guihua, at home, and the two of them had nothing to talk about, which made things very awkward.

So he could only go to the ministry every day to drink tea and read newspapers to pass the time.

When Xu Yimin heard about it, he didn't care. He had already given him a holiday, so he could stay wherever he wanted, as long as he didn't come to his office and ruin the last of his tea leaves.

On the 15th, he saw a report in the newspaper: the State Administration of Cultural Heritage issued a "Request Report on Strengthening Cultural Heritage Work," proposing to carry out a nationwide cultural heritage survey.

The so-called cultural relics survey is to investigate and record historical and revolutionary cultural relics and sites, including: important ancient cultural sites, ancient tombs, important revolutionary sites, memorial buildings, ancient buildings, steles, etc.

This is actually the second time this work has been carried out. The first time was in 56, when a total of 6726 cultural relics protection units were announced nationwide.

This time the requirements were much more detailed than the last time, and the scope was also much broader. It took nine years to process, and a total of more than 400,000 immovable cultural relics were reported, a staggering number.

It was during this period that China simultaneously completed the professionalization of its cultural relics archives and museum institutions, and also promoted the promulgation and implementation of the "Law of the People's Republic of China on the Protection of Cultural Relics".

The Palace Museum is one of the leading institutions in this field.

Sun Zhiwei then remembered that he once had the title of "Researcher No. 0 of the Palace Museum".

However, since he became the director, no one has come to see him anymore, and he hasn't inquired about it, so he doesn't know what happened at the museum.

This also reminded him of something: nowadays, many cultural relics and paintings are sold publicly, and at very low prices.

The most memorable thing for him was that a few years later, Mr. Xu Huachi spent 20 yuan, which bankrupted him, to buy a batch of paintings by modern painters.

As a result, after his death, these paintings had appreciated tens of thousands of times, with a total value exceeding 500 billion, which is much more valuable than collecting gold.

I heard that after Mr. Xu passed away, his descendants began fighting over the family property for these paintings, and the dispute escalated.

Sun Zhiwei thought that in order to prevent Mr. Xu's children from turning against each other in the future and destroying the family's happiness, it was better not to make things difficult for him.

However, he still has a lot to do if he wants to take advantage of this opportunity.

First, he needs to find out which organization is selling the calligraphy and paintings.

There are still quite a few entities that can sell calligraphy and paintings, including joint ventures like Rongbaozhai in Liulichang, antique shops belonging to cultural relics companies, and the National Museum.

Secondly, he also needs an identity to purchase calligraphy and paintings.

It's one thing for him to buy a small number of paintings and calligraphy in his own name, but buying them in large quantities would cause too much of a stir.

Third, how to pay for the goods? He can pay in US dollars cash; he has a large amount of US dollars in his storage space.

Or he could transfer money from other banks; he still had several million pounds at HSBC in Hong Kong and his cheque limit at the Bank of California was still available.
Alternatively, payment can be made through Cathay Bank's Sham Ho branch.

The second and third points are related: if he wants to use the identity of Sun Wei, a grain merchant from Hong Kong Island, to purchase calligraphy and paintings, he can only pay with HSBC pounds.

If payment is made through a California bank, then the purchase can only be made using James's identity from the United States.

Sun Zhiwei's head was getting more and more ache. He decided to put the payment issue aside for now and first investigate where those paintings and calligraphy were.

He just does what he thinks of; no one's forcing him to go to work anyway, so he can come or not.

So he put the lid on the teacup and simply walked away.

In the afternoon, he went to Hepingmen alone and found Rongbaozhai, which was open for business, on Liulichang West Street.

This is a cement building, completely unlike the antique style of the later Rongbaozhai.

Rongbaozhai is a stationery shop established during the reign of Emperor Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty, with a history of over 300 years.

It experienced several periods of rise and fall throughout history, until it was revived after receiving a lot of support from the public-private partnership 50 years ago.

Back then, many famous calligraphers and painters liked to buy the Four Treasures of the Study from them and then consign their own calligraphy and painting works to them for sale.

It experienced a decline in recent years, but with China's opening up, it has immediately regained its momentum.

When Sun Zhiwei came in, he found that there were quite a lot of people here, but most of them were older, and many of them were long-time customers of Rongbaozhai.

After a brief look around the shop, he noticed that while there were very few paintings and calligraphy pieces for direct sale, those that were displayed were all by famous artists, with prices ranging from several hundred to several thousand yuan. He didn't see any paintings or calligraphy pieces for consignment.

The tellers at the counter are all older, seasoned professionals, so it's impossible to find a bargain here, at least not in the current market.

However, in Sun Zhiwei's view, even the most expensive Qi Baishi long scroll here, priced at a thousand yuan, is still a bargain. He could use his identity as Sun Zhiwei to come and buy some for his collection in the future.

But clearly, this is not the place he is looking for.

His goal today was clear: to find a place that sold cheap calligraphy and paintings. Since this wasn't the place, he didn't linger and headed straight to the next one: the antique shop of the Beijing Cultural Relics Company.

The Beijing Cultural Relics Company was actually established in 1956 after 88 antique shops were integrated into a joint public-private enterprise.

Now that it's a state-owned institution, those original antique shops have become cultural relic shops.

The "Regulations on the Work of Cultural Relics Stores" promulgated this year and the "Cultural Relics Protection Law" to be promulgated next year have further clarified the leading role of cultural relics stores in the operation of cultural relics, and have also formed a huge cultural relics purchase and sales network.

Many of the National Museum's collections are provided by the antique shops, which are also the country's main exporters of cultural relics.

After leaving Rongbaozhai, Sun Zhiwei walked a short distance to an antique shop, where he also saw some foreigners.

But after looking around, he realized that what was being sold here really were all cultural relics, and the most recent paintings and calligraphy hanging there were from the Ming and Qing dynasties.

This is one of 88 antique shops, but judging from their business operations, it's not the antique shop he's looking for.

(End of this chapter)