Chapter 133 - 133 Luo Feng's Single Product Record Broken! Valued at 240 Million! (4)

133 Luo Feng’s Single Product Record Broken! Valued at 240 Million! (4)

“Indeed. Any regular painting from primary school students would’ve been burned to ashes a long time ago, and as such, any painting that manages to survive until now indicates that they had been drawn by great artists. These sort of paintings would usually retain high collectible value even since ancient times!”

“That’s right! Items that can survive until the present day are all items of high quality! Hence, they are very valuable!”

“Hmm, doesn’t this painting look a little familiar?!”

“Yeah, I seem to recall my teacher mentioning something like this in class!”

“An expert sits quietly, leisurely reading while incense burns in the background?”

“Wait, now that you mention it, I seem to recall something like that!”

“I’ve seen a replica in my school!”

At this moment.

Some art students and top students had an epiphany, but they were quickly wrought with confusion.

Why has this appeared here?

Does this mean that there are two of this artwork?

“Huh? What are you guys saying? The host just dug this out, and yet you’ve claimed to seen it before?”

“Could this situation be scripted after all?”

“Host, you should’ve made sure that the artwork hasn’t been unearthed before if you wish to script this scenario!”

“I reversed image searched the drawing, and I found that it’s currently located within a museum!”

At this moment.

An old man from the Dongshan Museum suddenly received a call about a certain painting stored in his premises.

Apparently someone has dug out the exact same thing?

What could be the meaning of this?

The old man was dumbfounded.

He immediately tuned into the stream that had been mentioned.

There should only be one copy in this world, he thought.

How could there be another one?

Whose was the real one?

Whose was fake?

Luo Feng noticed the barrage of messages and explained with a grin, “This painting of mine is indeed Wang Meng’s ‘Reading in the Village’. I’m aware of another copy that exists at the Dongshan Museum, but neither are fakes! Both are equally as authentic!”

“Host, what do you mean? How can both of them be genuine?”

“I remember back when ‘Reading in the Village’ was first auctioned, it seemed to be unsold because there was no evidence to prove it was a fake, but there was also no evidence to prove it was genuine!”

“So the one the host dug up is definitely genuine?”

“No need to rush, guys, I’ll explain it to you all!” Luo Feng hurriedly answered.

“The matter is simple. This painting was originally presented to the Ming emperor by Wang Meng, but the handler had further processed the painting for unscrupulous purposes!”

“He sliced the painting into two halves and spliced it with a copy of the artwork, keeping the actual lower half for himself, and leaving the actual top half for the emperor!”

“Therefore, half of both paintings that current exist are fakes…”

“However, if joined together, the final painting would probably be worth hundreds of millions!”

“So, do you all finally understand what I mean when I called both copies authentic?”

In the antique world, there is much controversy over this painting. Huang Huangshi’s opinion is very sharp. He believes that this work was not only not painted by Wang Meng, but was also a fake copy from the late Ming period.

Unfortunately, there were no other known genuine Wang Meng works that could be compared, making it difficult to distinguish between genuine and fake works from aspects such as inscriptions, seals, records, and circulation.

“Although this painting is only from the end of the Yuan and beginning of the Ming dynasties, it has a great reputation, but unfortunately it is incomplete, and thus, is only worth a little money!”

Luo Feng had a twinge of disappointment in his voice.

Had the handler of the artwork not split it in two to deceive the emperor, Luo Feng would likely have the original copy in his hands, and would not be stuck in his current awkward situation, where the cost of his goods had been significantly reduced.

“Damn, so this is how it is, huh?! Damn, these ancient people are really f*cked up!”

“Yup! If they weren’t so greedy, the price of this painting wouldn’t have been reduced so much!”

“But here’s the big question, how come a painting meant for the emperor is stored within this ancient tomb?”

“Did the owner steal it from the Imperial Palace?”

“You’re thinking too much. The painting probably didn’t even make it into the palace to begin with. Since the painting was split into two halves, perhaps this is the portion that didn’t make it to the palace!”

Of course, during that peaceful era, such a painting could not have been circulated from the palace.

There could only be one explanation, that it was a reward from the emperor.

Luo Feng was not too attached to the painting, especially after noting its price. With that, he began shifting towards the last wooden box instead…