Turbulent history

buy the The transaction price was raised to 10,000 silver dollars.

The four dealers moved the antique to a shop in Jinggang town in Hunan Province and planned to resell the with a starting price of 200,000 silver dollars.

But none of them was willing to leave the to find a buyer because they didn’t trust each other.

Eventually, they cast lots to determine who should go out to find a seller.

Yang was the “lucky dog.”

When Yang was about to leave the hideout, he heard other three dealers conspiring to abandon him.

Indignant and apprehensive, Yang turned them in to the government.

A team of special agents was sent to investigate the matter instantly.

But the dealers suddenly fled, and the national treasure also disappeared.

The impression the square ring foot had left on a cloth was still there, indicating that the had only recently been removed.

Yang believed that the was still in the shop. As expected, the authorities found the treasure and the three dealers in a cellar beneath the courtyard.

Given to the Kuomintang, the Fourgoat Square was then kept in Hunan Provincial Bank.

In the next 10 years, the cultural relic dropped out of the sight due to the outbreak of the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression.

Its turbulent history wasn’t figured out until 1952, when China’s first Premier Zhou Enlai orderd a search.

In 1938, Japanese forces had invaded Changsha and the bank moved to Yuanling County in Hunan Province, along with the national treasure.

But the bank was destroyed in a Japanese air raid and the delicate antique was shattered into dozens of pieces.

After the war, the bank returned to Changsha while the fragments were stored in a warehouse of waste products.

After a year-long restoration, the national treasure was given new life.

In 1959, the Four-goat Square Zun was transferred to the National Museum of China, where it remains.