Treasure hunt begins in England

Chapter 273 Contact
For the next two days, Liang En checked the cultural relics stored in the emptied pool bit by bit.Just as he imagined, these cultural relics are all fine Chinese cultural relics that were placed in the Penn University Museum back then.

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 the cultural relic thief Lu Qinzhai, there are also a large number of very valuable cultural relics. .

Among them, the large-scale statues include three-color Arhat statues in Liao Dynasty in Bafowa, Yixian County, Hebei Province, wood statues of Shuiyue Guanyin in Jin Dynasty, and two limestone Bodhisattva statues in Tang Dynasty.

Three complete Buddha statues from the Xiangtang Mountain Grottoes in the Northern Qi Dynasty, two statues of Bodhisattvas serving in the south niche on the central column of the Dabei Cave in the Beixiang Hall, and a statue of a great scholar from the Jiayu Snow Mountain in the Yuan Dynasty.

In addition to these large statues in which a statue is placed in a box, many large boxes contain multiple cultural relics.For example, there are three Tang Sancai horses and a Tang Sancai camel in a box.

The other box contained more things, including more than a dozen scattered pots, dowries with lids, lamps, dog figurines, pigsty, pottery building models and other green-glazed pottery of the Han Dynasty.

The most conspicuous among them is the 70cm high Taolou model divided into three floors.Everything above is done perfectly.Reproduce the architectural form and structure of the Han Dynasty with an intuitive and three-dimensional image.

Of course, the cultural relics here are not limited to stone and wood cultural relics. For example, one of the three smaller wooden boxes placed against the wall contains more than a dozen jade wares including jade Zhang and jade bi.

The other two boxes contain bronze vessels traditionally called heavy vessels, such as ampoules, 盉, goblets, and pots, and a gilt bronze statue of Maitreya from the Eastern Wei Dynasty.

The most conspicuous of these bronze and jade wares is a square foot with rings on both sides of a shoulder.37.2 cm high.The decoration on the surface of the utensil is complex, the interior of the grid is deformed with dragon and phoenix patterns and scroll patterns, and the bronze square pot is inlaid with turquoise.

This square pot is called Chen Zhang Fang Pot, and it was a loot captured by Chen Zhang when he attacked the capital of Yan State in the fifth year of King Xuan of Qi (315 BC).The inscription on the pot proves that the record in "Historical Records" that Qi attacked Yan State and plundered heavy weapons was indeed true.

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

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

Because this underground pool is not only protected from light, but also has almost constant temperature and humidity, and besides the layers of wrapping, most of the cultural relics themselves are also made of corrosion-resistant materials.

Therefore, the results of the inspection found that except for a few small cultural relics that can be repaired, the overall preservation of these things after more than half a century is not bad.

After Liang En cleaned out all these cultural relics, he won one gold, one silver, two bronzes, and six blacks, a total of ten cards, which can be said to be a bumper harvest.

"I have to say that we have found a treasure trove this time." Looking at the list Liang En compiled, Fan Meng showed emotion on his face. Chinese people.

Therefore, after Liang En said the goal of this operation before, he inquired about the information about this batch of stolen cultural relics with great interest, and figured out the historical value of these things, that's why he sent out such a message after seeing these things emotion.

"That's right, these are really great works of art." Joan of Arc also nodded beside her. Although she didn't understand these things very well because of cultural differences, at least she could feel them from these things. to beauty.

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

Although it is said that most of the museums were plundered from other nations and countries like the bandits, it has to be admitted that these bandits may have picked up enough things because they robbed them enough Not bad indeed.

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

Most of this pile of cultural relics are some very heavy big guys. For example, the two stone slabs engraved with the second of Zhaoling's Six Horses weigh more than four tons, and it is really too difficult to carry them.

They even suspected that the reason why the group of people gave up the larger stone beasts, filigree franc lions and famous murals in the rotunda was probably because the stone beasts and murals were too large, and even if they had prepared in advance, they would have brought a lot of trouble. don't go.

However, even if those difficult goals were abandoned, it took a lot of time and energy for the robbers to remove these things from the museum.

According to the information Liang En obtained before, this group of people made a series of boxes similar to the original ones after stepping on the dots, and then put these boxes filled with sand and gravel under the cover of the two security personnel who were bribed. Boxes containing cultural relics are dropped.

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

On the other hand, the robbers also took a lot of effort to hide the cultural relics here. Judging from the iron pipes, ropes, pulleys and carts piled up in the corner of the pool, they should have used the pulley block to get out of the cultural relics. It was hung from the big hole in the room just now, and then stacked in this position with a cart.

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

"I suddenly discovered 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 as they did the previous two days and said suddenly on the way back to the city. arrive.

"You don't need to move out—yes, I can save some trouble." After being reminded by Joan, Liang En suddenly realized that he was stupid. 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 ambassador of the Chinese embassy in Ireland during the last New Year. Soon, 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 made.

"It's 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 in Philadelphia with me, so I would like to ask how to contact more reliable people in the American embassy and consulate."

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

(End of this chapter)