Becoming Rich with Daily Scavenging APP-Chapter 537: The Qian Jingjing Beauty Painting Incident

Chapter 537: Chapter 537: The Qian Jingjing Beauty Painting Incident

"BBC News front page headline."

Schaefer handed a newspaper to Chen Yiyang.

"French antique furniture appraisal expert Palot has been arrested on suspicion of mass forging antique chairs."

Chen Yiyang took the newspaper, glanced through it, and found that it was just as he suspected. Palot had been forging antique furniture for several years.

Even more impressive, all the antique furniture he had appraised for the Palace of Versailles, claimed to have been used by 18th-century French celebrities, were fakes. (True story) 𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞

He had his carpenter friends make them, found someone to impersonate a collector, contacted the Palace of Versailles, and then sold them to the Palace.

In other words, the batch of French antique furniture treasured by the Palace of Versailles as national treasures are all fakes!

The reason these fake pieces weren’t discovered is that, before they entered the Palace of Versailles, the appraiser hired by the palace was him!

This guy even kindly provided after-sales service to the Palace of Versailles, not only helping with the tour explanations but also making up background stories for all those antique pieces.

Now, the whole thing has been exposed.

Similarly, the table and chairs identical to those of Madame du Barry that Chen Yiyang owned have been proven fake in the Palace of Versailles.

As for the real ones, they have already been airlifted back to China by Chen Yiyang.

The Palace of Versailles had previously shown interest in the batch of Madame du Barry’s chairs purchased by Chen Yiyang.

But because of fear of Tote, they thought these chairs were fakes.

Now that the truth is out, they want to buy them back from Chen Yiyang.

Unfortunately, Chen Yiyang didn’t bother with them; he wasn’t short on money, and such fine things were perfect for keeping back home.

Schaefer commented from the side, "The current European antique market is purely a fake market." "As long as there is an expert endorsement, the authenticity of an artifact is simply not important."

"If you’ve understood the antique market, you will know that in the antique market, the authenticity of an artifact is not the most important thing; the most important thing is whether everyone acknowledges it. If everyone believes it is genuine, then even if the creator himself says it is fake, no one would believe him."

"Is it really that outrageous?" Schaefer was somewhat incredulous.

"I have to tell you about the famous Beauty Painting incident." Chen Yiyang immediately began to educate Schaefer.

In 1991, the National Museum of Modern Art, Korea, collected a painting named Beauty Painting and attributed the artwork to the famous Korean painter Qian Jingjing.

Qian Jingjing is reputed as one of Korea’s famous modern female painters. In 1952, she could already hold a personal exhibition in Busan, Korea, making her one of the national treasure-level painters of Korea.

Collecting a piece from a national treasure-level painter doesn’t sound problematic for a national museum.

But this Korean national treasure painter, Qian Jingjing, was still alive. Although she was a bit old, she was in great spirits.

So, when she heard that the national museum had collected one of her artworks, she immediately jumped out and stated that the painting was not painted by her.

But the National Museum didn’t accept this and insisted the painting was her work.

Upon hearing the museum’s response, Qian Jingjing publicly announced that this painting was not hers, that her soul also denied it, and declared to the public that if this painting were her real work, she would cut off her hand with a knife on the spot.

Yet, it was of no avail.

The National Museum of Modern Art, Korea, engaged multiple appraisal agencies and experts to appraise the painting.

The final appraisal result indicated the painting was indeed by Qian Jingjing, even if Qian Jingjing did not acknowledge it; it was still her work.

Due to this, Qian Jingjing had a fallout with the museum, and eventually, she didn’t even want to stay in Korea anymore and ran off to the United States, finally passing away there in 2015.

After her death, her friends and family continued to dispute with the National Museum of Korea over whether the Beauty Painting was indeed created by Qian Jingjing.

Finally, in 2016, her friends found a professional appraisal agency in France for a direct DNA appraisal.

Through a comparison of the hair found in the painting and Qian Jingjing’s DNA, it was discovered that the hair did not belong to Qian Jingjing.

So, the Korean prosecutor’s office reopened the investigation, reappraising the painting.

In December 2016, the Korean prosecutor’s office determined that, even though the Beauty Painting was denied by its supposed creator, Qian Jingjing, and the DNA test showed the hair found on the painting was not hers,

still, the painting was Qian Jingjing’s work.

The Korean prosecutor’s office stated that the DNA appraisal result was not conclusive, and whether the painting was done by Qian Jingjing would be decided by the Korean Forensic Science Institute, who also asserted it was her work.

This final ruling not only left Qian Jingjing’s friends and family incomprehensible but also disappointed many in the Korean art circle.

The cause of all this uproar was that the Beauty Painting was found in the home of the shooter who assassinated Park Kakak years ago.

In the political context at the time, the Korean government was convinced the shooter was corrupt and led a decadent life.

For such a person, there had to be luxury or valuable items worthy of his depraved lifestyle.

However, the government didn’t find such items in the shooter’s home; instead, they found just one painting signed as ’Miro’.

So, the Korean authorities claimed this Beauty Painting had to be the work of their famous artist Qian Jingjing and was an expensive art piece that the shooter must have bought through embezzlement.

Thus, the Beauty Painting became Qian Jingjing’s work, even if she herself denied it to no avail.

The controversial Beauty Painting.

After hearing Chen Yiyang’s story, Schaefer declared he would never purchase any art pieces again.

Such things really aren’t meant for outsiders to understand.

Chen Yiyang only bought some art pieces or antiques because of insider information on good deals.

Of course, it was merely for collection.

If he intended to sell his collection, there would surely be a lot of disputes.

He had stayed in the UK for such a long time, partly waiting to sign a formal contract with the British government.

On the other hand, Chen Yiyang was also looking for connections to see if he could export Yiyang Automobile’s cars to the UK.

Regrettably, it was too challenging a task.

However, recently, several local British companies have tried to collaborate with Chen Yiyang.

Among them is a company called Jellycat.

This company also produces luxury plush toys, following a path similar to Marte Bubble, but only famous within the UK, unlike Marte Bubble, which has wider recognition.

The company sent a senior executive to discuss cooperation with Chen Yiyang, hoping that as an investor of Marte Bubble, he could take Jellycat toys to Huaxia.

Unfortunately, Chen Yiyang didn’t have much interest. After one discussion, he declined.