Chapter 33: Tang Bohu's Ladies, even the experts are unsure
This assistant had also watched Su Yuan's live broadcast on China Collection and was amazed by his performance in the show.

In fact, it was Su Yuan who discovered today that the Lu Ban lock was made by the Ming Emperor Zhu Youxiao himself.

After all, he is also a die-hard fan of Su Yuan's live broadcast room.

So, when he heard that Xu Lieguang actually hired Su Yuan as a consultant for the Magic City Museum, he immediately put forward his own opinions.

Someone recently donated a painting by Tang Bohu to the Shanghai Museum, but Xu Lieguang was unable to determine the authenticity of the painting, so it could only be placed aside as a questionable item and was not displayed in the museum.

Since Su Yuan was able to find a painting by Bada Shanren among a fake, he would definitely be able to tell whether this painting was authentic.

Hearing about the assistant's size, Xu Lieguang immediately thought of this and clapped his hands:
"Yes, Su Yuan has a very unique vision. Why don't you go over and take a look at the authenticity of this painting?"

Professor Chen couldn't help laughing when he heard this:

"What's wrong, Lao Xu? Is there something you don't understand?"

Xu Lieguang shook his head and sighed:
"There are doubts about this painting, but there is also evidence of its authenticity, so..."

At this point, he couldn't help but sigh;
"I'm old, and my eyesight may not be good. Since Su Yuan has become the consultant of my Magic City Museum, I'll ask him to help me take a look!"

Xu Lieguang immediately nodded to his assistant, who turned to the storage room at the side and then walked over carefully holding a scroll painting.

Although the scroll has not been unfolded, it does look like an ancient painting. The color of the paper looks very old, with the gray-brown color unique to old paintings, and many edges have signs of insect bites.

After the assistant took the ancient painting out of the box, he slowly unfolded it on the table.

A unique breath of ancient paintings hits you in the face.

The picture unfolds, and it turns out to be a painting of an ancient lady. In the painting, the woman is holding a fan in one hand, standing among flowers and trees, and gently picking up a flower branch with the other hand. There is a smile on her face. She looks plump and dignified, with the serene and dignified temperament of a wealthy family in ancient times.

Judging from the painter's skills and brushstrokes, this is clearly a painting of a lady by Tang Bohu!

Tang Bohu's paintings of ladies have their own unique style. The maids are generally well-proportioned and graceful, with narrow shoulders and backs, willow-shaped eyebrows and cherry-like buns, and foreheads and noses with three white strokes. The folds of their clothes are as thin, strong and smooth as the strings of a musical instrument, and look elastic and textured.

Moreover, the picture is brightly colored, with a strong contrast of light, dark, warm and cool colors!
This painting looks very much like the work of Tang Bohu himself, and the brushwork style is extremely similar.

The entire painting is about 130 cm long and 50 cm wide. Although there are some traces of insect bites on the edges, most of it is intact.

There is nothing wrong with the meticulous style of the painting, and the seals and inscriptions are also very good.

When Professor Chen and others saw this, they nodded repeatedly.

"Lao Xu, this painting looks like... it should..."

After seeing the rest, Professor Chen suddenly stopped talking.

Because he also saw the problem with this painting.

The brushwork style in the painting is extremely similar to Tang Bohu’s own paintings!

But the folds in the maid's clothes and the brushwork in the details such as the branches and flowers seem to have some hard-to-see stiffness!
In other words, there are some traces of copying that are very difficult to detect!

This sense of stiffness is extremely difficult to discern, and can only be discerned after having seen countless authentic works of Tang Bohu.

Unlike the original artist's vigorous brushstrokes, the copyist's work always has some deliberate traces.

But it is absolutely difficult for ordinary people to distinguish such traces!
Even for famous figures in the cultural relics field such as Professor Chen and Xu Lieguang, it is difficult to make a judgment.

However, there is absolutely no problem with the seals and inscriptions in the paintings.

These seals and inscriptions all appear to be authentic works of Tang Bohu, without any flaws of being fake.

Moreover, the painting itself is a genuine ancient painting. The traces of insect bites and time on it cannot be produced by modern or even recent counterfeiters through various means.

So the question is, if this painting is fake, and was copied by someone who came after Tang Bohu, then the seal and other things are clearly real.

After seeing this, Professor Chen finally understood why Xu Lieguang was unsure.

If we say that this is a work in the style of Tang Bohu, it is understandable. But Xu Lieguang and Professor Chen, who are famous in the antique world, naturally cannot just fool around. If they don't thoroughly understand the authenticity of an item, they will never put it in a museum or collection!
At their level, they value their reputation more than their own life. How could they possibly put a questionable painting in a museum?

Xu Lieguang sighed:
"Old Chen, can you see my dilemma?"

Professor Chen nodded.

He also couldn't say much about this painting.

The more highly-placed an expert or celebrity he is, the more cautious he is when it comes to antiques.

If you're not sure, you're not sure.

On the side, Zixuan was looking at the ancient painting with a frown on his face, but he was quietly taking a breath.

He can't tell for sure either!
Although he could also see a hint of unrecognizable stiffness between the brushstrokes in the painting, this painting looked so real!
He turned and looked at Su Yuan.

But Su Yuan frowned slightly, his eyes fixed on the inscription and seal.

"Brother, what do you think?"

Su Yuan pondered for a while, and suddenly a divine light emanated from his eyes.

The painting changed in his eyes.

The entire picture was shrouded in a faint white light.

This is a very faint precious light.

In other words, this painting is indeed an ancient painting, but it is definitely not an authentic one.

Lines of text appeared before Su Yuan's eyes:
[Item name: Tang Bohu's painting of a lady holding a flower! ]

【Quality: Silk canvas! 】

[Cultural Relic Evaluation: Ordinary! ]

[Historical value: very low! ]

[Origin of the item: This was copied from Tang Bohu's incomplete works by later generations in the mid-Qing Dynasty! ]

[Item value: 30,000 yuan! ]

Seeing this, Su Yuan already felt confident.

"Director Xu, this painting is fake!"

Xu Lieguang and Professor Chen both suddenly felt that it was as they expected, and they took a breath of cold air almost at the same time.

"How... did you figure that out?"

Professor Chen was still a little puzzled.

Although he could see some stiffness in the painting, there was almost nothing wrong with it as a whole.

Because of this, he couldn't help but feel a little skeptical about Su Yuan's very confident conclusion.

"That's it, Professor Chen!"

Su Yuan pointed at the hard and difficult-to-detect marks in the painting and said:

"These places don't have the smooth, rounded and free feeling of Tang Bohu's original painting. You should be able to see that."

Xu Lieguang nodded:
"That's true, so I always thought it was doubtful, but the inscriptions and seals on the paintings are all real!"

Su Yuan smiled:
"It's simple. The seal and inscription on this painting are copied from the original, so they look exactly the same as the original!"

(End of this chapter)