Treasure hunt begins in England

Chapter 791 Lost Cultural Relics
The Beiliang Juqu Anzhou Statue Buddhist Monument can be regarded as an important cultural relic lost in China. The only trace it left in history is a pair of half rubbings.

It was in 1906, when the Qing government was influenced by the constitutional movement and sent five ministers, including Duan Fang, to the west to investigate constitutionalism and prepare to formulate a constitution.

Duanfang was surprised when he saw the statue of Juqu Anzhou in Beiliang when he visited the Museum of East Asian Art in Berlin.Because he is an epigrapher himself and understands the preciousness and importance of this stele, he asked for a rubbing.

With the cooperation of the Museum of East Asian Art in Berlin, Duan Fang printed a rubbing copy and brought it back to China, which became the last known trace of this stele.

"It seems that these things should come from the precious cultural relics of the Museum of East Asian Art in Berlin." After looking at the contents checked out, Liang En subconsciously tapped the screen of the phone with his index finger and said, then looked at Joan of Arc beside him.

"I think we may need some time to look at all the things inside, and then find a way to take away the cultural relics looted by the Germans from China."

So in the next work, Liang En and the others began to open the boxes one by one and check the contents inside, and determine what these things are and their origins.

Thanks to this highland being higher than the surrounding area and the thick concrete and steel bars in the basement, the cultural relics inside seem to be well preserved, which obviously facilitates Liang En's inspection work.

In the next inspection, they found a large number of cultural relics from China, such as statues of gods, Brahmans, and even a whole piece of Nirvana statue of Buddha.

There is no doubt that these murals were most likely stolen from certain grottoes.In addition, there are some Buddhist supplies, such as the lotus base with only the feet of the sculpture left, and some ancient documents that have been processed.

These things were placed in boxes one by one, some boxes weighed more than 100 kilograms, while others only weighed [-] to [-] kilograms.

And no matter how heavy the box is, as long as Liang En sees cultural relics from China, he will put them into the space formed by his own cards.

By night, Liang En and the others had cleared half of the boxes and stuffed them into the space, and the most precious cultural relics in these boxes were the murals from the TLF Kizil Grottoes.

From 1902 to 1914, the Folklore Museum in Berlin (the predecessor of the Museum of Indian Art in Berlin, now known as the Asian Art Museum in Berlin) sent TLF expedition teams to the Western Regions of China four times.

前两次考察分别于1902—1903 年和1904—1905年进行，主要集中在TLF地区。后两次考察分别于1906—1907 年和1913—1914 年进行。

The expedition team stayed in the Kucha area for a long time, and uncovered a large number of murals from the Kucha caves such as Kizil, Kumutura, Senmusham and Mazaboha, and also looted sculptures and Buddhist scriptures. and other cultural relics.

Among the murals uncovered by the German expedition, the most are from the Kizil Grottoes.In the third expedition, in addition to uncovering the murals, they also took photos of the exterior of the Kizil Grottoes, the shape of the caves, and the murals.

At the same time, the Germans, while frantically stealing the destroyed cultural relics, also numbered and named the caves, and made more detailed records of the cave shape, mural content and layout, and decorative patterns.

The records of the shape, subject matter and location distribution of the Kizil Grottoes in Germany were mainly completed at this time.And what Liang En found was that there were two full sets of original documents in the box.

The number of murals uncovered by the Germans in the fourth most brutal expedition far exceeded that of the third.On the walls of caves 177, 213 and 223A of the Kizil Grottoes, there are still inscriptions of German expedition members.

According to Liang En's inspection, there are more than 500 pieces of mural fragments from the Kizil Grottoes alone, covering an area of ​​more than 500 square meters, and they come from more than 40 caves.

In another world, the murals are kept by the Indian Department of the Folklore Museum in Berlin. In the mid-20s, in order to publish a catalog of murals, the museum sold a small number of murals and statues to raise funds.

In addition, a small number of murals were presented as gifts by the leader of the fourth expedition, Albert von Le Coq, as his own personal gift.

Of course, this kind of practice is absolutely impossible in this era, but it was a relatively common practice in that era.

But the most important loss came from World War II.Berlin was bombed by Allied forces, and the Folklore Museum on Kuangniglütterstrasse lost the most, accounting for 40% of the murals.

The destroyed ones are all fine works on display, many of which are murals from the Kizil Grottoes. In 1945, when the Soviet Red Army occupied Berlin, they robbed many cultural relics, including some of the murals of the Kizil Caves.

These cultural relics are now housed in the Russian Hermitage Museum. It was not until 2008 that some of them appeared in the exhibition of cultural relics from the Western Regions in the Hermitage Museum.

Considering that the Russians declared that all the spoils of World War II belonged to them and would never be returned, the probability of these things returning home is basically non-existent.

But in this world, these things were taken out of Berlin for unknown reasons, and sent to this remote corner near Prague, where they were discovered by Liang En.

"Why have these precious cultural relics been forgotten here for more than half a century?" Joan of Arc frowned after hearing Liang En's explanation.

"According to what we have seen before, the army escorting them is of course more than a platoon. It is really unlikely that so many people will die at the same time."

"It's also possible that the other party just ran away. You must know that before entering the 20s, Huaxia's cultural relics did not have much economic value other than historical value, so few people were willing to chase after them." Liang En said with his hands spread out.

In fact, the price of international cultural relics is often related to the economic level of the countries where these cultural relics are located, especially the number of people from these countries who are willing to pay and the willingness to pay.

For example, at the beginning of the 21st century, when the Russian oligarchs were in power and oil prices soared, Russian cultural relics were sold very expensive in the international market, and those Russians who needed these cultural relics to hype were slaughtered as fat sheep.

In addition to this situation, the international cultural relics market controlled by Westerners basically does not think that non-Western cultural relics are valuable.So naturally it will not be regarded as a treasure.

Therefore, even if the people who carried it back then survived, they might not have taken these worthless soil clods seriously in the eyes of laymen, so it is normal for this place to be forgotten.

Why things in this place were forgotten can only be guessed at now, but in the next day's search, they found documents in addition to more characters that roughly explained why.

It was a yellowed document in a file folder, with black letters and a blue spicy eagle seal on it. After careful inspection, Liang En confirmed that it was a document from Germany at the end of World War II.

The content of the document is also very simple, that is to allow the group of people who only have the document to leave Berlin with cultural relics to complete the work of hiding the cultural relics. In addition, there are several passes that allow them to leave Berlin.

However, Liang En felt that there was something wrong with these documents as soon as he found them, so he used a [Appraisal (N)] card, only to learn that the documents were forged.

(End of this chapter)