On the morning of May 10, 2000, Qin Gong, then the general manager of Beijing Cultural Relics Company and Hanhai Auction Company, collapsed due to serious physical overdraft after working all night with his colleagues who were 20 or 30 years younger than him. Although he tried his best to rescue him, he was still unable to return to heaven at the age of 57. "Until the day before his death, he was still talking about the national treasure of Yuanmingyuan bought from Hong Kong seven days ago." Wen Guihua, then secretary of the Party branch of Beijing Cultural Relics Company, recalled. At that time, at Sotheby's Spring Auction in Hong Kong, Qin Gong bought the lost cultural relic Yuanmingyuan "Qingganlong sauce glaze pastel hollowed-out six-sided bottle with flower and fruit patterns", and the transaction price was19.8 million Hong Kong dollars, which was sky-high at that time. Today, its value is immeasurable, and Mr. Qin Gong's knowledge and courage are widely known.
"On different occasions, Qin Gong is often mentioned. No matter what the problem is, you can always talk about Qin Gong. " Wen Guihua said. She believes that the relationship between Qin Gong and China art market is too close. "In this commemorative special session, many collectors took out treasures and important collections to commemorate Qin Gong." Wen Guihua said that the Qin government has a strong cohesion. In addition to Wen Guihua, Chairman Chen Dongsheng of Guardian Auction Company, Managing Director Wang Yannan, General Manager Dong Guoqiang of Shi Kuang Auction Company, General Manager Xuejun Gan of Huachen Auction Company, and curator Ma Weidou of Guanfu Museum all wrote articles to commemorate Qin Gong. They all praised Qin Gong's selflessness: in the initial stage of the art auction market in China, he did not shy away from peer competition and fully supported his brother companies. He is "a wise man with courage, kindness and cultivation".
In Wen Guihua's view, Qin Gong's important contribution to the art market in China lies in his introduction of academic research into the art market. Prior to this, only museums paid attention to academic research. "Mr Qin Gong received a good education. He introduced the methods and systems of cultural relics textual research into the auction industry, such as the newly-built Hanhai 1995 calligraphy exhibition. The catalogue is arranged in the order of the development and evolution of Chinese characters, just like a manuscript of calligraphy history, as well as subsequent special exhibitions such as jade articles and study rooms. Through auction, people not only know the price, but also know the historical, academic and cultural value of works of art. " Wen Guihua said.
"Qin Gong was born in the study of steles, so he attached great importance to textual research." Wen Guihua said that Qin Gong did a good job on his desk and often invited experts to repeatedly demonstrate some academic issues. This rigorous style of work often plays a decisive role at critical moments. 1995, a guest walked into Liulichang. On Qin Gong's desk, Zhang Xian's ten poems unfolded slowly. Qin Gong was very excited when he saw this work and decided it was a national treasure. He immediately decided to stay, and invited Xu Bangda, Liu Jiu 'an, Qi Gong, Fu Xinian, Zhu Jiajin and other experts for identification. Experts agree that this is a treasure that Puyi brought to Changchun from the Forbidden City and later lost in the Northeast. 1995 10. At the autumn auction in Hanhai, the Palace Museum brought back ten poems by Zhang Xian with a transaction price of19.8 million yuan, which set a record for the auction of paintings and calligraphy in China at that time, and also opened a precedent for the National Museum to purchase cultural relics through the auction market.
Qin Gong's research is fruitful. He has published more than 50 monographs, including Guang Bei Biezi, Qin Shuo North Railway, Freehand brushwork and literati's feelings, and China Stone Carving Grand View, with more than one million words. He formulated the tenet of "gathering talents and seeking truth" for Hanhai, and created the "three-level appraisal" model of cultural relics, which the company still uses today. "The third-level appraisal starts with the recruiter, then the company's internal experts, and finally the national cultural relics appraisal experts. You have to go through three levels. " Wen Guihua explained. Qin Gong's persistence is fresh in her memory. On one occasion, in order to inspect a group of cultural relics hidden in other provinces, Qin Gong organized three groups of experts to go there, accompanied by Wen Guihua. "There are academic experts, such as the Palace Museum, private marketing experts and experts," Wen Guihua said.
"Qin Gong called you in the middle of the night to verify the information." Wen Guihua recalled. Now people miss him, not because of the high price of the artworks he auctioned at that time, but because of his sincere love and in-depth study of artworks. "What he left behind was not a record, but a pursuit." Wen Guihua said.