When you want to tell a lie, you may need countless lies.
If you use a mistake to cover up the truth, you can only use another mistake to cover it up.
After all, such behavior cannot last forever, and there will always be a day when it is exposed.
Mark Jones, his first request now is to delay enough time to investigate the whereabouts of this "Picture of Women's History".
From a modern perspective, he did not believe that a collection could be lost in such an inexplicable way.
Old John, or Zhang Aiguo, finally waited until the door of the British Museum opened.
Something was wrong, very wrong.
The opening hours of the British Museum are 3 minutes later than standard time.
Although it had only been three minutes, he felt something was very wrong.
For a museum of this size, let alone three minutes, or even 30 seconds late, that would definitely be wrong.
"Why are you three minutes late today? What happened?"
No one paid attention to Old John. Although the new group of people had only been working for a few days, they all knew him and came here every day.
Seeing that no one paid attention to him, Old John continued walking into the museum.
But nothing seems to have changed.
All the arrangements were the same as what he saw yesterday. After murmuring a few words, Old John stopped worrying and continued to record the cultural relics from China following yesterday's trajectory.
Yesterday we recorded the 'Kang Hou Gui', a bronze vessel from the early Western Zhou Dynasty.
This Kanghou Gui did not come from the invasion of the Eight-Power Allied Forces, but was unearthed in Henan in 1931. It was eventually resold overseas and donated to the British Museum in 1977.
But this also proves the weakness of China's national power at that time.
It is even more difficult for such resold and donated items to return to the motherland.
Walking to the next collection, Old John began to reminisce.
The first collection that I want to record today should be the "Picture of Admonitions of the Female History" copied in the Tang Dynasty. This work was snatched by Chi Guoguo from the Chinese invasion.
When England and France invaded Yanjing, China, a soldier named William brought it back and finally sold it to the British Museum for 50 pounds.
According to the memories of this soldier named William.
The battle at that time was the most thrilling battle he had ever participated in in his life.
When he, Captain Johnson and Wilson were searching the Summer Palace together, there was a sudden loud bang, which killed Johnson and Wilson on the spot. He was also affected and his right leg was seriously injured.
At that time, amidst the explosion, a scroll flew out of Johnson's arms and fell right in front of him.
At that time, William felt that this should be a good thing. After all, something that Johnson could hide in his arms must not be cheap. In the end, he brought it back to the country and sold it for 50 pounds.
You know, in 1903, the average per capita annual income in England was about 10 pounds.
Soldiers like them would pay a little more, but it would only be 15 pounds at most.
Unexpectedly, a painting was sold for 50 pounds, which was equivalent to William's income in three years.
Since then, William has retired and started a business of reselling antiques, reselling cultural relics from countries with long histories such as Rome, Egypt, and China, and then selling them in England.
Zhang Aiguo looked at the "Picture of Admonitions of Women's History" in front of him with a slightly sad look in his eyes.
He felt that at this time, he could not be called Old John, but must be called Zhang Aiguo.
This painting is spectacular and beautiful, but it should be displayed in a Chinese museum, not in the British Museum, where it can be admired by people all over the world.
As if to say,
'Look, this is a treasure of China, and it's lying in our British Museum! '
The British Museum even built a special 'Exhibition Hall 33' in order to display cultural relics from China. These are basically cultural relics from China for permanent viewing by tourists from all over the world.
"Chinese people have created the most extensive and long-lasting civilization in the world", this is the introduction of Chinese cultural relics in the exhibition hall.
However, the civilization created by the Chinese people was plundered by these invaders.
Zhang Aiguo endured his grief and began to record this painting.
From the beginning of the war of aggression against China to how the Englishman named William obtained this painting, he recorded it word by word in his mind and on his mobile phone.
"Um?"
While Zhang Aiguo was observing "Pictures of Admonitions of Women's History", his eyes suddenly froze.
wrong,
This picture is wrong.
After seeing cultural relics for so many years, it is not an exaggeration to call Zhang Aiguo an expert.
Although he had never carefully observed the "Picture of Admonitions of Women's History", he had seen many paintings from the Tang Dynasty.
There is definitely something wrong with this painting.
I identified them carefully for a long time.
"The paper and ink marks on this painting are wrong. It looks like a rubbing today. The paper from the Tang Dynasty at that time will definitely have some damage, and after plunder and war, it can't be so new!"
"Also, the colors above are a bit too clean. Tang Dynasty paintings are famous for their bright colors, but under the bright colors, the layering will be stronger, and even the highlights are obvious. This is not the case in this painting. Some of them look like imitations. Taste!"
Zhang Aiguo felt that he had found the answer to why the museum opened late just now.
"Where is your person in charge? Is this "Picture of Women's History" fake? Has your British Museum lost cultural relics again, and the ones lost are Chinese cultural relics?"
Thinking of the news about the missing cultural relics in the British Museum some time ago, Zhang Aiguo felt that the authenticity of this painting must have been transferred.
What artifacts are missing?
Everyone knows that this is the rhetoric in the museum, and someone must be guarding and stealing.
And these people actually played with lost cultural relics again this time. No, they didn't lose them, but directly took away the authentic ones and used the fake ones as a display effect.
This means that if no one discovers that the painting is a fake, no one will know that the original painting has disappeared.
In England, there are only a handful of people who can tell the authenticity of Chinese paintings.
Zhang Aiguo was angry.
He began questioning the museum's curator, Robert.
"Sir, our work has been taken away for maintenance, so we will temporarily place this replica here!"
Neither Mark Jones nor Robert expected that,
So quickly, people discovered the fakes.
At first, they thought they would have a long time to investigate.
But I didn't expect to be discovered now, so I could only use this word.
"Impossible. You have maintained cultural relics before, but you always left the booth empty. This is the first time that imitations have been used as genuine ones!"
"Has the genuine product been stolen by your own people and you want to sell it privately?"
"I'm telling you, if this happens, I will file a complaint against you and expose you!"
Relatively speaking, England is relatively particular about human rights and public opinion. They are afraid of exposure.
But Old John cannot be stopped, otherwise the crime of restricting human rights will be more severe than losing a cultural relic, calligraphy and painting.
