What scams are there in the antique industry?

In today's China society, antique collection has become a favorite hobby of many people. Antiques come from the Qianlong period. Before that, they were usually called antiques, or "antiques", which meant the essence left by the Ming and Xiao ancients. They are the earliest private property in China society, and also reflect people's pursuit of beauty. This fashion, which was first popular among court nobles, has now developed into a national collection movement.

Most rich and powerful people strive to pursue their own career development. If I am indifferent, I just like to write and draw and have some hobbies. The poor in China watch the colorful world on TV all day, but they can't enjoy their lives by their own efforts. After sighing, they put great enthusiasm into this industry that can get rich overnight. Coupled with thousands of years of history in China, there are countless cultural achievements and a hundred flowers blossom. An industry that is suitable for investment and can bring huge profits came into being-antique collection.

In jargon, antique water is deep. There are countless things to make holes, so cheating has become a common practice. Many factors are mixed.

▲ Jianbao Plan

Antique fever can't be said to come from TV programs every day. The programs "Treasure Hunt" and "Treasure Hunt" are broadcast again and again. One minute I told you that there were millions of treasures and tens of millions of things, and then I smashed fakes with a hammer. This effect makes people's enthusiasm for collection step by step.

I don't know, auction houses from all over the world. China's national treasure, whether it is calligraphy and painting, porcelain or famous animal heads, one China antique after another is auctioned at a high price, which makes people all over the world know that China's antiques are precious and China's antiques are suitable for investment. Let the trivial collection behavior of individual China investors become a social phenomenon of antique investment. Even in the financial market, antique funds, a new thing, were quickly learned to get rich by China investors.

Or developed from the antique industry itself. Because there are still a few people who get rich overnight with real goods, but more people get rich by making fakes. Instead, counterfeiting has become the main support for many towns and villages in China to revitalize the economy. However, no matter what the above speculation is, antique collection is regarded by more and more people as an investment rather than a hobby, which may lead to fraud and become more and more serious. What's more, cheating in antique collection has reached the peak in the history of antique counterfeiting in China.

Antique counterfeiting in China also has its own history, which is almost synchronous with the economic development in China's history, confirming the saying that "the flourishing age plays with collections". The climax of the first antique counterfeiting was in the Song Dynasty. Because the Emperor of the Song Dynasty himself was fond of antiques, the whole country collected antiques. At that time, literati also liked to collect antiques, and a large number of connoisseurs liked to study antiques, such as wang pu, Miti, Su Shi, Qin Guan and Lu You.

At that time, it was in the outbreak period of Chinese culture, and the imitations of predecessors' antiques were mainly bronzes of Zhou and Shang Dynasties. Although there are many fakes, when it comes to antique trading, there are fewer than expected. The reason is probably that people at that time still regarded counterfeiting as a craft, for their own preferences and recognition. One of the most famous stories is that Su Shi traded a child's candy for 289 colored stones in Suzhou. As for the story in the copper basin, he reads it every day.

The climax of the second fraud was in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Coincidentally, the peak of this fraud is still the heyday of China culture, and people's pursuit of art has also reached its peak. Because it is not limited to the previous large-scale antique devices, it is more imitation of calligraphy and painting works. As a result, an interesting phenomenon in the field of antiques today has been formed, and the imitation paintings and calligraphy of the Ming and Qing Dynasties have been re-collected as antiques. First, because of its age, it has time value. Secondly, it is also because the imitations in those years are vivid, it is difficult to distinguish between true and false, and even they claim to be one school, so there are "Suzhou films" and "back doors".

The Republic of China, which reached its peak for the third time, was very different from the previous fake environment. If the country is not a country, people's livelihood will become a big problem. Most of the people who have connections are selling things that the down-and-out Manchu aristocrats came out of the Forbidden City. Those who have no connections have to collude with capable people, then gossip and copy some real treasures. Make a small fortune while the country is in chaos. This time, the peak of fraud gradually subsided with the establishment of New China.

Interestingly, antique counterfeiting not only has its own development history, but also has the specialties of different sects and people. Fans who have read the notes on tomb raiding and blowing lanterns know that there are four sects in the tomb raiding world in China, namely, touching a captain's gold, moving mountain people, unloading mountains, making celestial tombs, and exploring the south and observing the north.

▲ Touching the gold captain in "Ghost Blowing Lights"

However, no matter how described in the novel, a large part of the buried treasures stolen by these grave robbers have become the origin of real antiques on the market today, and also provide counterfeiters with opportunities to make fakes. Because there are sects of grave robbery and different things stolen from different regions, the sects of antique counterfeiting have changed accordingly, forming maps of different regions and different classification of counterfeiting.

Many local governments believe that the establishment of "Jade Culture Village" and "Bronze Town" can improve the lives of local farmers and give them a new development. But the final economic income is earned by making fake antiques.

Taking Jingdezhen as an example, the former state-owned ceramic enterprises were replaced by private contract system in the tide of reform. There are no fewer than 4,000 individual and unregistered ceramic workshops in Jingdezhen, with as many as 65,438+10,000 employees. The result of mixing is that the government can't really control the ultimate source of ceramics. Even if it is taken away as a fake by businessmen in Beijing and Shanghai, the leaders of Jingdezhen have no way of knowing. These problems happen every day in Jingdezhen, and thousands of fake antiques are transported to the final collectors in batches.

▲ Jingdezhen workshop

In the antique market, another indispensable element is "experts". This name, once praised by countless people in China, has not been easy recently. It's not just the antique industry. When an accident happens in any industry in China, the so-called experts will come out and give an excellent course, but the result is often like a rat crossing the street, and everyone shouts and swears. Here, take the "Golden Thread and Jade Clothes" incident that shocked the antique world on 201as an example to show you the magic of the position of "expert".

The hero of this story consists of a rich man, two presidents and five antique experts. The time from counterfeiting to arrest runs through the first decade of 2 1 century. The reason is that Xie Genrong, the protagonist of this story, tried his best to defraud the loan, and finally came up with the business of defrauding the loan. After that, we will explain in detail.

Xie Genrong's name once appeared on China's rich list. As the president of Watsons Group, he is often called "antique collector". Like many rich people, he collects antiques and even opens a private museum, which he thinks is a symbol of status and status. But the "treasures" in the museum can not only be used for viewing, but also become part of the company's property, thus defrauding considerable bank loans. As early as 2002, two presidents of China Construction Bank discovered that Xie Genrong defrauded bank loans with forged financial statements, but as a result of negotiations, Xie Genrong took him into the "Genrong Exhibition Hall" and visited the mysterious "golden thread and jade clothes" together. The governor is not an antique expert, but he knows the appraisal report signed by five authoritative antique appraisal experts. The market valuation of 2.4 billion yuan, this seemingly precious "golden jade", not only dispelled previous concerns about fraudulent loans, but also made various governors decide to continue to provide loans. They thought: if the enterprise can develop, the previous "bad debts" will not be a problem. What the two presidents never expected was that this so-called treasure worth 2.4 billion sent them to prison.

This "golden jade dress" is not an antique at all. According to "expert" Niu Fuzhong, he helped Xie Genrong string together the jade pieces he bought. As a middleman, I contacted the expert group: Wang Wenxiang, Yang Boda, Li Jinsong, Yang Fuxu and Shi Shuqing. These names may be unfamiliar to people who don't play antiques, but for the players in the antique world, these five names all represent "professional", "senior" and "wealth". Each of them is a leader in the collection field in their seventies and eighties, with a long list of titles. President of Collectors Association, former vice president of the Palace Museum, former secretary general of Gemstone Association, and director of Peking University Gemstone Appraisal Center.

Among them, Shi Shuqing, the most famous old man, is an expert among experts, a famous historian and cultural relic appraiser. He used to be a researcher at the Museum of Chinese History, vice chairman of the National Cultural Relics Appraisal Committee, professor of history department of Nankai University, postgraduate tutor of archaeology department of Peking University, and president of China Collectors Association. His archaeological appraisal is famous at home and abroad. It is only through the reading, calculation and evaluation of these experts that a "golden jade dress" has a legal status.

After the incident, a reporter contacted these experts. Except for the late Shi Shuqing in 2007, other experts said that the evaluation at that time was mainly based on seeing, and turned around Yu Yi several times. I don't think this is a formal and serious evaluation, just doing a friend a favor. Coupled with the prestige of Shi Shuqing's old man in the industry, several other experts have not expressed too much views on Yuyi. The final estimate of 2.4 billion yuan was not his own intention, but he just listened to Shi Lao's opinion. Finally, because of this 2.4 billion, the lawsuit is entangled and it is very helpless. But on the other hand, behind the high valuation, experts can also get the corresponding high evaluation fees, which also makes people wonder, is this the reason why mythical high prices emerge one after another?

It is the carelessness of these experts that closely links financial fraud with antique collection. A thing that is not an antique, after expert evaluation, has doubled its value and become a sharp weapon to attract gold. Whether the baby is real or not, as long as you have an expert's appraisal certificate, it will become a lot of money-making tools in the market, just like having a gold medal for avoiding death. Therefore, it is no exaggeration to say that experts are also part of the fraud of antique economy.

▲ Zhongshan Wang Jing Jin Yu clothes unearthed from the Han Tomb in Mancheng, Liu Sheng

In this antique fraud, in addition to experts, the role of the media is also essential. Different from the anti-counterfeiting trend of antiques in history, the anti-counterfeiting trend in today's society is formed under the unconscious promotion of the media. This is an era of vigorous development of collection projects. There are more than 20 treasure-hunting programs on CCTV, among which Wang Gang's Treasure Hunting in the World and Treasure Hunting hosted by CCTV Jiaming are the most popular. Famous collectors immediately replaced Cui Yongyuan, Bai and other CCTV celebrities, becoming familiar faces that you can see when you turn on the TV and change channels.

Some of these 20 projects are well-intentioned. I hope that through the platform of TV, I can show the audience the method of distinguishing the authenticity of antiques, provide the story of the culture behind antiques, expose the process of forging antiques, and strive to let the people establish a correct concept of antique collection.

On the other hand, because of the Sheng Xing of TV programs and online media, the media has played an important role in attracting valuable antiques. Today, it was broadcast in this program that the official kiln porcelain of the Song Dynasty sold for a high price. It was said in that program that the official kiln porcelain was really a treasure. The next day, counterfeiters from all over the country will begin to imitate the official kiln porcelain of the Song Dynasty. Then experts will come out to identify all kinds of official kiln porcelain. In a few days, there will be countless high imitation porcelains similar to those broadcast on TV in the Song Dynasty. Therefore, in the process of antique counterfeiting, the media not only dominated the point of view, but also dominated the direction of counterfeiting.

Since there are so many factors that affect antique fraud, it feels so unreliable. Why are there so many people keen on it? On the one hand, the return on investment is understandable, as everyone knows. However, there are not a few high-yield investment projects. Why do people love this? I think this has something to do with the basic psychological needs of China people.

Antiques can neither be eaten nor worn. Even if it's not for making money, it's at home at most, and many of them are of little practical value. But investors can get the psychological satisfaction brought by culture through antique collection. Take a simple example: in the Wenchuan earthquake, a group of collectors did not donate money or materials, but donated a batch of antiques suspected of being fake for disaster relief. Whether it can finally be auctioned into money for the construction and rescue of Wenchuan, let alone, is this behavior telling the world that for those who collect antiques, counterfeiting in economic interests is second, and psychological needs and recognized counterfeiting are the reasons that lead to the continuous counterfeiting in today's society, but players still know that fakes are bought and would rather be cheated, so as to continue to "support" the development of counterfeiting?

This kind of psychological fraud, wrapped in the cloak of cultural and artistic beauty, is more subtle, but the final result will certainly not be equal to a simple economic blow, which will destroy the fundamental concept of how a group can satisfy consumption enjoyment, and the consequences will be unimaginable.