Cai Mingchao spent 270 million to photograph two animal heads, but he refused to pay. What happened?

As we all know, China has a long history and culture. When dynasties change, there will always be a lot of cultural relics and antiques lost. The most serious one was in the late Qing Dynasty, when China was poor and weak and was invaded by foreign powers. Domestic troubles and foreign invasion have turned the country into a dandelion in the wind, as if it would dissipate as soon as it blows. What's more, the British and French allied forces forcibly broke into the capital, entered the Yuanmingyuan and plundered the rare treasures in the garden. After enriching themselves, they burned a century garden in cold blood, leaving only a few columns for our country.

In that disaster, our country lost countless cultural relics and antiques, among which twelve animal heads were extremely precious. Later, a China man spent 270 million yuan to get two animal heads in the auction, but he refused to pay after the auction. Finally, the auction house returned the two animal heads to the country for free, allowing China to regain the bronze statues of the mouse head and the rabbit head. The China person who refused to pay after the auction was Cai Mingchao.

The mysterious man took two animal heads without paying.

As mentioned earlier, the inaction of the late Qing government led to the loss of a large number of cultural relics in China overseas. According to statistics, there were more than ten thousand pieces of cultural relics from other countries in China at that time. And any one of these 6.5438+million cultural relics is of great value, so after the founding of the People's Republic of China, China has been trying to find the cultural relics lost before. It is worth noting that this work is quite difficult, because many cultural relics are collected by the people and some are bought and sold in the antique market. It is practically impossible to collect them all.

But our country is full of talents, and many patriots have come forward to buy China's cultural relics and return them to the country. Stanley Ho is one of them. I have to say that a patriotic businessman like Stanley Ho really deserves our respect and admiration. In 2009, in the auction of animal heads held in France, a mysterious man took two bronze statues of animal heads for about 270 million yuan, but refused to pay after the auction. This antique collector named Cai Mingchao is the so-called mystery man.

He is also a minor celebrity in the industry. When he learned the news of the auction of animal heads, he participated in the auction by telephone. Because Cai Mingchao has a certain credibility in the industry, he is allowed to participate in activities by telephone. Who knows that after he took it, he didn't pay in time. Because the seller of the animal head failed to receive the transaction amount of 270 million yuan, Cai Mingchao's behavior was disclosed in an angry manner. At that time, Cai Mingchao's reputation plummeted and he was even called "Lao Lai".

Cai Mingchao declared that things in China don't need money to buy.

The world-famous twelve animal heads came from the Qianlong period, and the lifelike statues added a lot to them, which were praised by both China and foreigners. After Cai Mingchao's behavior was exposed, he stood up and declared that the twelve animal heads had been the property of China since ancient times, and other countries should have voluntarily returned them to China long ago, instead of selling them to China through auction. At the same time, he announced that he refused to pay. To a certain extent, Cai Mingchao's words do have some truth.

In fact, before the auction, China had also negotiated with France and opposed its auction of animal heads. But the French didn't take China's words to heart, and went their own way. Although Cai Mingchao's speech is patriotic, his behavior is really disgusting. After all, this is a deal, in which Cai Mingchao really broke the rules. This incident also made him a joke in the industry. Many people stood up and accused him of disturbing the rules of the industry, and Cai Mingchao also disappeared from the public. 20 13 On April 26th, the animal heads of this auction-rat heads and rabbit heads-were finally donated to China by the French Pino family, the major shareholder of the auction house.

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In this regard, it has caused a heated discussion on the Internet. Some people think that Cai Mingchao's actions are right, while others think that the actions of French auction houses and buyers of animal heads deserve thanks. In fact, everyone's approach has its merits, but the world is not black and white, so there is no absolute right or wrong. However, for French sellers and auction houses, our citizens should really be grateful to them. After all, they did not invade our country, but they did return the cultural relics to our country.