"Wait a minute, their rapid development, what does it have to do with the war? Is it by reselling weapons?" Yue Guanchao asked.
Song Siyuan waved her hand and said strangely: "Reselling weapons requires capital. What they are doing is a capital-free business, reselling antiques."
In 1860, the British and French allied forces entered the Old Summer Palace. Led by the nearby people, the officers set fire to the Old Summer Palace for three days and set fire to the imperial buildings including the Old Summer Palace, Qingyi Garden, Jingming Garden, Jingyi Garden, Changchun Garden and Haidian Town. Burned to rubble.
These gardens were the royal private gardens of the former dynasty aristocrats. They contained the most exquisite treasures at that time. The officers were obsessed with wealth and began to plunder the gardens, including antiques, silk clothes, jewelry, porcelain, bronzes, sculptures, gold and silverware. Silver utensils, gems and jade...all valuable things were robbed by the British and French forces.
In the end, only a few scraps were left, which were divided up by the refugees who poured in later, and the glory was no longer the same.
After the incident spread to the international community, there was a lot of discussion about these actions in the international community. Since robbing wealth was a private act of military officers, the British government only condemned these officers openly but did not punish them in any way secretly. After the officers handed over their wealth, There is no punishment at all.
Steinman was sure that these officers would not hand over all the looted treasures, and smelling the huge profits, he started an auction house business, providing consulting services for the antiques looted by the officers in the form of auctions, and Buyers and sellers act as cultural relic brokers, converting these antiques into money as much as possible and taking a commission, or helping officers launder cultural relics.
Since tens of millions of items were robbed by the previous dynasty, the Steinman Group made a huge profit from these cultural relics, earning tens of millions of pounds in profits every year through no-cost transactions. At the same time, the Steinman Group's business lines Rapidly expanding, in addition to international trade, comprador alliances, and cultural relics auctions, it also began to engage in cruise shipping and newspaper distribution.
In the past hundred years, this kind of auction of cultural relics has never stopped. The Steinman Group can be said to be so guilty that it is difficult to describe.
"Could it be that no one cares about them? These people are blatantly reselling antiques!"
In Yue Guanchao's view, such a large transnational group committing crimes for a long time is extremely conspicuous and it is impossible not to attract attention.
Song Siyuan explained: "The Steinman Group belongs to the White Gloves of the Royal Navigation Association. To put it bluntly, the real manipulator must be a prince or noble. Since this factor exists, then Steinman is equivalent to taking refuge in the royal relatives. How could anything happen? .”
"I can guess all of this, but it's just a little bit surprising."
Song Siyuan picked up a photo: "The current head of the Steinman Group is named Stein Hein. We seem to have heard of this name before."
When Xu Xiake heard this name, he became confused: "Stein Hein, I remember that when I traveled to Dunhuang, I met Wang Yuanlu, a Taoist priest near the Crescent Moon Spring. The person who defrauded him of many scriptures at that time seemed to be named Stein He. because."
Everyone had heard about what he said before. It was said that Wang Yuanlu became poor after becoming a Taoist monk and had always wanted to rebuild the Great Buddha Hall and the nine-story building. We couldn't raise enough money to start construction.
At this time, an explorer Stein Hein came to him and bought scriptures from him twice. Later, on the pretext of protecting the scriptures, he only gave a small amount of money and took away several carts of Dunhuang scriptures. Before leaving, Wang Yuanlu asked him repeatedly I promise to send some silver back before I am willing to let them take away the scriptures for free.
However, this foreigner was very cunning. Although he promised to donate taels of silver to Crescent Spring to build a pavilion, he never came again. It was several years later that Wang Yuanlu realized that he had been deceived.
Now, when Xu Xiake heard Steinhein's name again, he suddenly felt strange. He interjected: "Are there any pictures of Steinhein?"
Song Siyuan nodded and handed over a black-and-white photo. In the photo, Steinhein was at least fifty years old, with half-inch long hair, a decent 37-point hairstyle, a pair of rimless square glasses on the bridge of his nose, and slight facial features. Three-dimensional, with a sense of three-dimensionality that is common among foreigners. His hair is slightly gray, and he can feel that he often travels and explores, and has a sense of health and vicissitudes of life.
After just one glance, his eyes lit up: "Wang Yuanlu showed me a photo of him and Steinhein back then. It is indeed the Steinhein that Wang Yuanlu knew."
Song Siyuan said: "Seriously?"
Xu Xiake nodded, as if he was very sure that the Zhao photo he saw was the same person as the current Stein Hein: "It's true, it's absolutely true. Wang Yuanlu is very worried about this. I remember it very clearly."
Yue Guanchao narrowed his eyes: "What is the origin of Stein Hein? According to your parents, he seems to have been stealing cultural relics in China."
Song Siyuan already felt that Steinhein was not simple, so she continued to introduce her life story.
This foreigner named Steinhein, according to British information, is a senior member of the Royal Navigation Society and the helmsman of the Steinman Group. He is also a British explorer, adventurer, cultural relic expert, and Huawutong. In fact, he is a tomb-robber and cultural relic dealer. .
When he was young, Steinhein followed his father to work as a civil servant in the residence of the Governor-General in India. He stayed in British India for nearly twenty years, and it was not until his father was transferred back to England that his family moved back to the country.
Perhaps because he lived in Central Asia when he was young, he developed a strong interest in East Asia and even Central Asian culture. During the British Indian period, he also used trade facilities to travel to countries in the Middle East, Central Asia, and Southeast Asia. Even if he has returned to China to receive education, he has chosen a major related to ancient culture.
After graduation, Steinhein joined the Steinman Group and became a consultant of the Steinman Group. He was responsible for leading cultural relics experts to identify many antiques flowing out of China. During this period, he accumulated a lot of knowledge through contact with the three religions and nine schools of antiques reselling in China. The experience of Chinese cultural relics has led to a lot of research on tomb culture.
About ten years ago, he got a legend from an antiquities dealer at work!
The emperor of the Zhou Dynasty carved a pair of yin and yang fishes. When King Zhou Mu went west to Kunlun, he gave one of the jade pendants to the Queen Mother of the West. He believed that the jade pendant was in the desert of the Western Regions of China and used his status as a member of the Chinese-British exchange group many times. When I came to the Tibetan desert, on the surface I was investigating the local customs and filling in the blanks about Tibet and the desert on the map of the Western world, but secretly I was looking for the lost Yin-Yang fish pendant.
Five years ago, the British and Chinese sides organized international cultural exchange activities. On behalf of the British side, he led an international expedition to the deserts of the Western Regions and discovered the ruins of the ancient Shanshan Kingdom city near Dunhuang. After bringing this discovery back to the country, he was highly sought after by his country. .
Since then, there has been no news from Steinhein. Some people say that he is concentrating on writing about his experiences in the deserts of the Western Regions. Others say that he has gone to other places to explore and travel. There are different opinions. If the real owner does not show up, the outside world can only make excuses. guess.
