"Who are these old friends?"
Xiao Ran asked in surprise.
Thomas and the others standing aside were also curious.
The next moment, Marvin's voice came again.
"It's Charles from Bonhams, and Scott from Christie's, and a few guys from the FBI's Art Crime Unit."
"They came from different directions, but arrived here at the same time."
"Charles and Scott want to go upstairs to see you, and the FBI guys want to know more about the situation."
Upon hearing the announcement, Xiao Ran couldn't help but sneer.
After pondering for a moment, he nodded and said:
"Got it, let Charles and Scott come up"
"As for those guys from the FBI, they probably have bad intentions. David will go down and deal with them."
"Copy that, Sean."
Marvin responded and immediately ended the call.
Then, Xiao Ran nodded slightly to David.
David understood instantly, then picked up his briefcase and walked towards the door.
The next moment, Xiao Ran took out his phone and glanced at a message he had just received.
The message was sent by Wu Tianyu. The content was very simple, with only one sentence.
"I've boarded a plane to Seattle and will take off soon. Goodbye!"
This message was received more than ten minutes ago, and Xiao Ran never bothered to check it.
Seeing the content of the message, a smile flashed across his face.
Judging by the time, Wu Tianyu's flight had already taken off and left New York.
Even if the FBI branch in New York wanted to use him to make a fuss, it would be impossible for the time being.
For a while, those guys at the FBI may not have thought of this.
After reading the message, Xiao Ran deleted the message and walked to the restaurant with Thomas and the others.
Since there were so many people in the apartment, everyone had to take turns eating lunch.
As a result, there are just enough seats in the restaurant.
As soon as they sat down, Sam took Charles and the others into the apartment.
Seeing two old friends coming in, Xiao Ran could only stand up and greet them.
"Sean, I heard that you have discovered another amazing treasure. It's incredible!"
"Can you introduce the situation? See if there is any possibility for us to cooperate again?"
As soon as they met, Charles and the others said with envy.
While saying this, they also saw the antique artwork and numerous portable safes placed in the living room.
The next moment, the eyes of these two guys suddenly lit up and shone brightly.
Xiao Ran bumped elbows with them first, and then began to introduce the situation.
"This is actually not a treasure, it's just a collection of this Chinese family."
"I was more interested in these things they collected, so I shot them all and bought them all at a high price!"
"The cleanup and appraisal work has not been completed, and we can't talk about cooperation now."
After hearing this, Thomas and the others who got up to follow couldn't help but feel itchy at the base of their teeth.
Bought at a high price? You cunning bastard, you have the nerve to say that!
The value of this batch of Chinese antiques, cultural relics and works of art is God knows how many times more than 130 million US dollars!
Rather than buying it, it would be more appropriate to say it was robbery!
Charles and the others didn't understand the situation, so they didn't think there was anything wrong with Xiao Ran's words.
However, their vision is very sharp.
They can still tell the value of the unboxed antiques and artworks placed in the living room.
In particular, the statue of Water Moon Guanyin made by He Chaozong in Dehua Kiln and several stone sculptures are of amazing value.
The items contained in those portable safes are nine times out of ten valuable, and are very good antiques and works of art.
Looking at those things, both Charles and Scott's eyes were a little red, full of envy and jealousy.
"Sean, can you let us take a look at these antique artifacts and artworks?"
"Your luck is so incredible that it can make people crazy with jealousy."
Scott said with emotion.
However, Xiao Ran changed the topic.
"It's lunch time now. I wonder if you have had lunch?"
“If not, then eat here”
"I will introduce the situation to you during the meal, and then we will go to see these antiques and works of art."
Charles and Scott did not immediately respond.
They glanced toward the room with the open door, eyes full of longing.
They could see the two mahogany museum shelves in the room and the paintings and calligraphy hanging on the walls.
After thinking for a while, they accepted Xiao Ran's proposal.
"Okay, we'd like to hear your introduction to the origins of these antiques and artworks."
“Forget about lunch, we already had lunch before coming here.”
After a few chats, Xiao Ran took them into the restaurant, sat down at the dining table and started enjoying lunch.
During the meal, he briefly introduced the situation.
Following his introduction, waves of exclamations immediately erupted in the restaurant.
For his incredible luck, Charles and the others were almost going crazy with envy!
A few minutes later, David returned to the apartment and went straight to the dining room.
Xiao Ran looked at him and asked pretending to be curious:
"What's the purpose of those guys from the FBI Art Crime Unit?"
David nodded and then said:
"Those guys wanted to know what was going on in this apartment building and what happened to this treasure."
"I introduced the situation to them and showed them the relevant transaction contract."
"There is also a legal certificate issued by the Wu family, which silences those guys."
"This apartment belongs to you now and they have no right to enter here without your permission."
Xiao Ran smiled and nodded.
"That's good, I don't want those guys to interrupt the cleaning process."
Later, David sat down at the dining table and enjoyed lunch with everyone.
After a while, lunch was over.
After a short break, the cleaning and identification work begins again.
Xiao Ran took Charles and the others into the room where antique art was stored, and let them see what was going on in the room.
As soon as they entered the room, the two guys were stunned and stunned.
After staying there for a moment, they finally woke up.
"Oh my God! This is not the collection of an ordinary family. It is simply a treasure."
"More importantly, every item here looks to be of high quality, and they are all collection-level treasures."
Scott exclaimed outright, and so did Charles.
Seeing their performance, Xiao Ran just smiled, his eyes filled with pride.
"Although there are a lot of things stored here, the authenticity and value are not yet known."
"When the cleanup operation is completed, we still need to conduct a careful appraisal to know the final result."
"The subsequent appraisal and evaluation work will take a lot of time, and I plan to do it in Beijing."
Not surprisingly, Scott and the others rolled their eyes.
These guys didn't believe a word of what he said.
They were very sure that Xiao Ran must know the value and origin of these antique cultural relics and works of art in the room!
Although they knew it in their minds, they did not say it out loud.
We all have a tacit understanding on this kind of thing. It would be meaningless to say it out loud, right? Will we still cooperate in the future?
After taking Charles and the others around the room and introducing the situation, Xiao Ran invited them out.
Let them sit in the living room and watch the video with Thomas and the others.
After Charles and the others left, Elaine immediately entered the room again to help clean up.
The next moment, Xiao Ran took down an exquisite brocade box from the museum shelf and opened it carefully.
What then appeared in front of me were three volumes of apricot-yellow rare ancient books.
On the cover of the ancient book at the top, there are a few large characters printed: "The Complete Collection of the Imperial Siku"
Under these large characters, the words "Book of Changes" and "Shujuan" were clearly written.
On the cover of this ancient book, there is also a line of small words, which seems to have been added by later generations, saying "Collected by Wenzong Pavilion in Zhenjiang."
Obviously, this is part of the Sikuquanshu, one of the most important cultural classics in ancient China.
Moreover, it is the long-lost Zhenjiang Wenzong Pavilion version. It is extremely precious and is undoubtedly a rare national treasure-level ancient book!
Looking at these three volumes of "Si Ku Quanshu", Xiao Ran's eyes were a little red with excitement.
Fortunately, Mr. Jin and the others had not seen these three volumes of the long-lost Wenzong Pavilion version of "Sikuquanshu" just now, otherwise they would not have even thought of falling asleep again!
Xiao Ran did not look through the three volumes of "Si Ku Quanshu", but just looked at the appearance and closed the brocade box.
In fact, he already knew the authenticity of these three volumes of "Sikuquanshu", so there was no need to read through them one by one to identify them!
As before, he handed the brocade box to Elaine and asked her to take it out of the room and give it to Nick and the others to take pictures, pack and so on.
Then, he reached out and picked up a rusty bronze vessel from the museum shelf, admiring it with interest.
This is a bronze statue from the early Western Zhou Dynasty, with a thick body and exquisite craftsmanship.
Its shape is cylindrical, with an extravagant mouth, a high neck, a bulging belly, and high ringed feet. The belly is engraved with Taotie patterns and Yun Lei script, as well as several inscriptions.
In the classification of bronze ware, the statue is both a wine vessel and a ritual vessel. Bronze statues engraved with inscriptions are of a higher level and more precious.
It can be seen from the rust marks on this bronze statue that this is an unearthed cultural relic that has not been played with for a long time, and there is no patina on the surface caused by playing with it.
It can be inferred from this that this early Western Zhou bronze statue was probably acquired by Lu Qinzhai from a tomb robber.
This possibility is not even ruled out.
It was the manpower he organized to dig up a large tomb of the Western Zhou Dynasty princes somewhere unknown, so he got this treasure!
But regardless of the past, this early Western Zhou Dynasty bronze statue now belongs to Xiao Ran!
