Chapter 0628 – Bronze Mirror (I)

Anyone who did business in a metropolis like Paris, would not recognize the gold card in Zhuang Rui’s hand? After seeing the card, Renault’s eyes immediately stared straight, and his demeanor became more and more respectful.

These years, the art market continues to heat up, but people’s eyes have also become tricky, in the antique line can catch a wrongdoer, is also a difficult thing, the general public in the purchase of valuable works of art, will bring a professional appraiser, such as Zhuang Rui such as casual customers and can pay out 5 million euros, is not very much to see.

Domestic so, in foreign countries is the same, so Reynolds at this moment is two eyes shine, hate to own the store of the so-called da Vinci’s paintings are real, let Zhuang Rui buy only good.

“This gentleman, these in the store right now, are all very valuable works of art, and the ages are all very old, you can look at them again.”

“Oh, forget it then, I don’t like any of these things.”

After Zhuang Rui heard the words of the store owner, he shook his head with disappointment, and was ready to bring Qin Xuan Bing to leave, this store is already the last one on this street, it seems that this foreign moon may not be rounder than the domestic one, and it’s no good to try to find a good piece of gadgets.

“Hey, Mr. Please stay.”

See Zhuang Rui with the woman to go out, Renault anxious, just now he just want to fool Zhuang Rui, the store things sold out a few pieces, now know Zhuang Rui is really not interested, he will naturally come up with good things.

“Hm? Something else?”

Zhuang Rui looked back to Reynolds, with a faint smile on his face, although he has not been in the business for long, but he also knows that if this store is really a hundred years old, then the real thing, absolutely will not be placed in the store.

Reynolds would not dare to play catty anymore, slightly bowed his body to Zhuang Rui and said, “It’s like this, honorable sir and madam, if you have time, I can take you to see some of my grandfather’s collections, I promise, those can be works of art with great historical value.”

Zhuang Rui nodded and said, “Good, I hope your grandfather’s collection, will not disappoint us.”

“Please wait for a moment, both of you.”

This store was just Renault alone, after letting Zhuang Rui out, Renault closed the store door and brought Zhuang Rui and Qin Xuan Bing, from this quiet street, turning into an alley not far away.

This Reynolds is open for business, Zhuang Rui is not afraid of him to play what slippery, followed by about five minutes of time, came to a two-story building next to the small.

The building here is a bit like the old Beijing courtyard house, are very old eighteenth century architectural style, is a light structure of the garden mansion, although not big, but gorgeous and exquisite, I’m afraid that I want to have such a set of villa here, it is also very difficult.

“This is what my grandfather left behind, both of you, please come in.”

After Reno opened the door, he was very gentlemanly and invited Zhuang Rui and Qin Xuan Bing in.

This was the first time Zhuang Rui had entered a foreigner’s home, and as soon as he went in, he was attracted by the bright colors and slim decorations, and the furniture inside was also very delicate and on the cumbersome side, and the cabinet in the corner, which was even hand-beaten and then put together, was very eye-catching.

On the walls and ceilings inside, there were also some murals whose colors had become a bit dull, showing the long history of this house.

“Both of you, this way ……”

Reynolds greeted Zhuang Rui and Qin Xuanbing as they walked through the living room on the first floor and into the backyard.

“Uh, the basement?”

Zhuang Rui came to the backyard, and after seeing Reynolds open a door with a complicated combination lock, his eyes couldn’t help but light up with anticipation.

Possibly a shelter during World War II, this basement was very deep, straight into the ground seven or eight meters below the ground, but at every meter of the passageway, there was a wall lamp, the light was very bright, and the ventilation facilities were very good, and it didn’t feel stuffy.

Entering inside the basement, Zhuang Rui found that this basement was much bigger than the basement of his Beijing courtyard house, it should be fifty to sixty square meters, and was separated into two rooms, in each room, there was a ventilation channel and a dehumidifier that was working.

“Sir, everything here, was collected by my father and grandfather, I hope you find something you like, the lady can sit here and have a cup of coffee, I have everything here.”

Reno’s tone was very proud when he talked about this place, he wasn’t lying, there was a coffee maker sitting on the wall table at the entrance.

Zhuang Rui shook his head, this foreigner didn’t know how to preserve antiques at all, the steam from the coffee maker would damage the longevity of the antiques, but this was someone else’s business, he couldn’t be bothered to talk about it, he nodded at that moment, and took the white gloves handed by Reynolds, and walked towards the objects that were piled up in the basement.

The room they were in now, was a relatively large one, in the room was filled with all kinds of antique furniture, of course, it was only foreign classical furniture, with very bright colors, and on top of the furniture, there were some small things placed.

Reynolds does not seem to be too good at maintaining antiques, the things on the table are just placed there very casually according to the classification, there are clocks and watches from the 17th and 18th centuries, swords and armor from the Middle Ages, and even some Chinese bronzes.

Just these objects, including those clocks and watches above, basically are rusty, see Zhuang Rui straight shake his head, although these things are real, just inside the aura is extremely thin, obviously the collection is not very meaningful.

In fact, Zhuang Rui does not know, these things are Renault’s grandfather received in the decades, but also some people door to door to buy to him, Renault had looked for someone to identify these things, but the value is not great, some things are not as good as the value of modern handicrafts, the reason why did not dispose of, just to commemorate their grandfather only.

Just now Zhuang Rui proposed, to see the historical things, so Renault only brought Zhuang Rui, in fact, the heart does not hold much hope.

“Buddha head?!”

Zhuang Rui’s eyes looking around were suddenly attracted by a head whose proportions were about the same size as a human head, walked to the front of that table, and carefully picked up this Buddha head whose head was mutilated and whose face was almost invisible with both hands.

This Buddha head mutilated an ear, in addition to the eye socket nose and mouth can be recognized, the whole face is very vague, the reason why it is said to be a Buddha head sculpture, because in the head is full of a bulge, and Zhuang Rui in the temple to see the Buddha statue sculpture is exactly the same.

Just this Buddha’s head was damaged too much, like with a blunt instrument from one side of the ear to the hard knock down, half of the ear has been no longer, look at the Zhuang Rui heartache.

Zhuang Rui knows, many Buddha’s head is the Western colonizers from the monuments stolen, if you can not move the whole statue, then cut off the head or hand, in many Chinese temples, many Buddha’s head, are later carved and placed up.

These heads, along with other looted artifacts, were placed as trophies in the rooms of Western colonizers or collectors, and I fear that if this head hadn’t been so broken, it wouldn’t have remained in this basement.

Reynolds also opened the store for quite a few years, often there are some Chinese customers, for these in Reynolds view, no artistic beauty of the broken stone interested, now saw Zhuang Rui hugged up the stone statue, at once went forward and asked: “Mr. Zhuang, you like this stone statue?”

Zhuang Rui nodded, but immediately shook his head again and said, “This Buddha’s head is too tattered, if it was intact, I would have paid 100,000 euros to buy it, but …… it’s too bad.”

Zhuang Rui said the truth, this Buddha head was damaged too much, the original color is gone, even if he bought it, there is not much collection value.

“Oh, that’s too bad.”

Reno shrugged his shoulders, he wasn’t sorry for the fact that it was wrecked, he was just sorry that he couldn’t make this deal.

“If you can find a complete sculpture like this somewhere else, I can buy it instead.”

Zhuang Rui some reluctant to say a word, these foreign robbers that will really rob a lot of good things, Renault home does not have, maybe someone else’s home has it!

Reynolds shook his head and said, “Sir, things like this, are usually in museums, I don’t know who’s home will have it.”

“Forget it then!”

Zhuang Rui was a little disappointed in his heart, and continued to search for the objects in the basement, all of these things had a tiny bit of aura present, and it wasn’t too easy for Zhuang Rui to distinguish them one by one.

“Hm? What is this?”

Zhuang Rui saw a few pieces of rusty palm-sized bronzes underneath the Buddha’s head, and couldn’t help but freeze for a moment, because he had just seen that in those pieces of bronzes, there was one inside, which contained a thick purple aura, only that a few pieces of what looked like pieces of iron overlapped each other, which made Zhuang Rui unable to tell which piece it was in the end.

“Copper mirror?!”

When Zhuang Rui separated those few things on the table, he also saw it, it turned out that these rusty objects, were four copper mirrors, only that three of them were corroded too badly, missing edges and corners not to mention the mirror’s mirrored times, the characteristics of the copper mirror could not be seen at all.

Only one, that is, Zhuang Rui sensed inside the rich aura of the copper mirror, the mirror surface is still smooth, but the round edge and the back, is also covered with rust, with a little hand rubbing a few times, those into powdered rust, have scattered to the ground.

Because the rust is too thick, Zhuang Rui can not see what the pattern on the back, so there is no way to give this mirror to break the generation, but with the content of the aura, Zhuang Rui know, this object should not be simple, are rusted into this, the aura is still not lost much.

“What …… is this?”

After tossing and turning and fiddling with this copper mirror for a while, Zhuang Rui inadvertently turned the mirror’s surface to the light, a beam of light that was not very bright, reflected on the wall in front of Zhuang Rui.