Artifact Reading Inspector

Chapter 108: Soldier from Tomb (1)

“What? I don’t understand…”

Dojin also couldn’t understand what Wang Huiyang was saying. Before Wang Huiyang could answer, Dojin asked again.

“But there are many great appraisers in China, too. And China has various artifacts because of its deep history and broad land, so wouldn’t it be better to find an expert here?”

The first sentence was what Haejin wanted to ask, but what followed that was compliment of China, so Haejin was impressed.

Dojin was trying to make his guests feel good even with not-that-important question.

Wnag Mingwan answered instead, but she looked at Haejin as she spoke.

“You’ve seen him, right? The man who did appraisal match in Hong Kong.”

Of course he did.

“Yes, I remember him.”

“He wasn’t just an employee of an appraisal agency. He was member of National Culture Bureau’s Appraisal Committee. In short, he is the greatest expert of antiquity of this country, but he disappeared a while ago.”

Wang Mingwan frowned hard.

“Oh… I hope nothing bad happened to him.”

“Anyway, we don’t have many trustworthy appraisers who can replace him.”

Dojin had succeeded on inviting Wang Huiyang, but he couldn’t say a word about what he had to say.

He looked at Haejin.

“It’s hard to believe there are not many, but even if I believe that, it means there are some appraisers.”

Wang Mingwan could see irritation on Haejin’s face. She smiled playfully.

“Haha! There are. Don’t get so full of yourself. We are not asking for your help because we think Chinese appraisers are not as good as you.”

“But?”

“Most appraisers of National Culture Bureau’s Appraisal Committee have been put in another mission. So we can only rely on local appraising organization’s appraisers of each district, but we cannot fully trust them.”

She was saying Haejin was the only option. But most appraisers of National Culture Bureau’s Appraisal Committee had been put in one mission? That made Haejin curious.

What was that mission?

“Hmm… What kind of artifact you need to be appraised that you are going through all this trouble?”

Wang Huiyang answered this time.

“This might be a little sensitive matter, but the artifact we want you to appraise is our history.”

“What?”

All artifacts are history. Haejin thought that was exaggeration, but Wang Mingwan took out a photo from her bag.

“This is what you have to appraise.”

Surprisingly, what was on that photo was not a porcelain was a painting.

It was a man made of earth. It was wearing armor and its lips were closed tight. It was Terracota Soldier that was supposed to be in Qin Shi Huang.

The solder was stored in huge glass tube. It clearly had been made with great care.

“This is…”

This wasn’t a matter that could easily be touched.

Dojin was shocked to see it. He was just staring at Wang Huiyang.

“I know you will keep the secret, but you never saw or heard what happened today.”

“Of course.”

After getting Dojin’s promise, Wang Huiyang turned to Haejin again.

“I do not think Chinese are less good than you Koreans. However, this time, we need help of someone from outside.”

“Is this about political matter?”

Wang Huiyang thought about it, but he soon nodded.

“Yes.”

“Please, tell me the details.”

Haejin sat opposite to him and looked at him. Wang Huiyang started to explain.

“In 2007, 10 Terracotta Soldiers that were 2200 years old and about 100 modern replicas were exhibited together in the Museum of Ethnology, Hamburg. Do you know it?”

Haejin had read article about it.

“Yes.”

“Then it would be easier to explain. The title of the exhibition was Power within Death. But the exhibition was closed in less than a month. As you know, it was because someone said the real Terracotta Soldiers were fake.”

“I heard that other museums were accused, too, not just Museum of Ethnology in Hamburg.”

“Yes, yes. Leipzig, Stuttgart…. In the end, all 10 Terracotta Soldiers that were claimed to be 2200 years old turned out to be fake. Of course, those museums of Germany received great loss and protested to China.”

“How did it go?”

“It turned out that the Cultural Artifact Bureau of Shanxi Province, which was thought to had leased those soldiers, didn’t even know the exhibition took place in Hamburg. They even found out about what happened in Hamburg after seeing it on the news. Of course they never send real Terracotta Soldiers to Germany. It was concluded as sort of scheme.”

“Then isn’t it over?”

There was no way China would have listened to those protests, but it sounded like it was all over, why was he bringing out something that had happened ten years ago now?

“There’s hidden story in that process.”

Haejin started to get interested only now.

“Hidden story…”

“Actually, the Cultural Artifact Bureau sent real Terracotta Soldiers to Germany.”

“Huh? They were real?”

Haejin had expected some kind of twist, but not like that.

It isn’t easy to make fake Terracotta Soldiers. The tomb of Qin Shi Huang is still being controlled by Chinese government, so even high officials cannot easily get access to it.

What Wang Huiyang said revealed big flaw of management of the Terracotta Army and even implied crimes that were yet to be recealed.

“The head of Cultural Artifact Bureau of Shanxi Province verified it. Of course, I’m not the one who asked him. The government admitted that it had been a victim of that scheme ten years ago. Nothing was announced as it was quite embarrassing…”

“Then this is…”

Haejin pointed at the photo. Wang Huiyang took a sip of tea and continued.

“A while ago, one Terracotta Soldier appeared in black market. One good thing is that no one thinks it is real….but I don’t agree with others.”

“Then you think this is one of the Terracotta Soldiers that went missing ten years ago?”

Instead of answering, Wang Huiyang took out another photo. It showed the same Terracotta Soldier that was on Wang Mingwan’s photo, but the background was different. Plus, this photo was not very clear.

“What do you think, Mr. Park?”

“They look to be the same.”

“That’s what I am thinking. This is part of a photo a staff took in secret at Cultural Artifact Bureau before they sent the soldiers to Germany…. Strangely, official photos that the bureau took were all gone. We managed to find this one hard, investigating the whole staff.”

The matter was more serious than Haejin had thought.

“If it hadn’t been this photo taken in secret, you would have had nothing to compare with.”

Wang Huiyang smiled.

“It is funny, but it was thanks to that staff. He said he took it as souvenir photo, but we got evidence to compare with.”

There are 8,000 terracotta soldiers and generals. None of them are the same.

They might look similar, but if you look closely, you can see they all have different expression that were carefully made. Without photo or video, there would have been no way to verify which one is the real stolen soldier.

“Have you gotten it from that black market?”

This is what that mattered. But both Wang Huiyang and Wang Mingwan grimly shook their heads.

“I didn’t mean black market in China. I’m talking about one in Tokyo, Japan.”

“Oh…”

Things were getting more and more complicated.

“The government cannot officially take care of it. If words get out that real Terracotta Solider is on sale in Japan’s black market, it could cause a huge problem.”

Dojin sat down next to Haejin.

“I promise Korea will give you every help possible.”

He also knew that if it hadn’t been for Haejin, there was no way he would have had been able to hear that kid of secret.

Sharing a secret meant the relationship was strong, so although he looked grave, he must have been delighted.

Wang Huiyang smiled bitterly.

“Thank you, but we only need the help of Mr. Park here. We will take care of the rest. I let you hear this because I know you and Mr. Park are close, but to ask help of you or your country.”

It meant Dojin was allowed to be there because Wang Huiyang thought Haejin would tell him later anyway. That was firm refusal, but Dojin smiled and countered it.

“This kind of artifact theft and fraud cannot be done by an individual. There must be a huge organization behind all this, so if the two countries work together, we will find those Terracotta Soldiers. Of course, this will be done in secret and Korean media would never know about this, so you don’t have to worry.”

Wang Huiyang didn’t say anything at this and turned to Haejin. He thought it was meaningless to argue with Dojin.

“Please go to Japan instead of us, approach the black market, and check if it’s real.”

“Is there a reason it has to be me?”

“Among those who speak fluent Korean and they wouldn’t suspect, you are the only one who can recognize real Terracotta Solider.”

“Hu… What if it’s real?”

“You should buy it. Of course, it would be better if you could find out how the real Terracotta Solider ended up there, but as you are an appraiser, we won’t ask that much. If it is real, we can track it.”

Wang Mingwan added.

“I will pay, so don’t worry about money. Just buy it.”

Haejin nodded then asked, looking at the photo Wang Huiyang gave him.

“As you know, I am Korean appraiser, not Korean official. What do I get if I find you this Terracotta Soldier?”

Dojin looked momentarily surprised at this, but he didn’t try to stop Haejin or show his uneasiness. He thought it was too late to argue with Haejin.

Wang Huiyang was also surprised. He was about to talk, a little mad, but Wang Mingwan grabbed his arm and talked instead.

“What do you want?”

“Well…”

Even if Haejin made money easily, running an art museum wasn’t easy.

Money kept going out, including the rent and the staff’s salary, so he needed to keep putting money into the museum’s account in order not to get nervous.

So of course money was the thing he wanted the most, but as he was there to help improve relationship between countries, he couldn’t openly ask for money.

He didn’t finish his sentence because he didn’t know how to say it. Then Wang Mingwan smiled and offered.

“If you bring back the real Terracotta Soldier, I will give you 5 million yuan. My personal money, of course… How’s that?”

She didn’t hesitate to spend huge money for Wang Huiyang.

“Hmm… Then how about this? If I find out where the other real soldiers are…”

Wang Mingwan hit the table.

“5 million yuan more for each of them.”