Artifact Reading Inspector - Chapter 184 - Terms of Return of Artifacts (1)
That medal had been given to people who came to the Japanese king’s coronation.
However, the coronation was not an event anyone could attend.
Only Koreans who had betrayed their country and worked very hard for Imperial Japan could be there.
So, having that medal meant one of Jaesu’s ancestors had been someone who greatly betrayed Korea.
Jaesu quickly realized what Haejin was saying and threw the medal into his bedroom while saying, “Oh… it’s fake.”
“Really?”
Jaesu continued, “Oh, yes. He said he wouldn’t buy it for a thousand won. However, you are well-mannered, to whisper it to me when it’s fake… you’re a good young man.”
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“But it’s strange, isn’t there something more?”
“Of course, there isn’t! Aren’t you coming to dinner with us? Don’t you want beef? Today, I’m buying!”
Jaesu could see that the others were feeling good since his last antique was fake, but he just smiled and moved on.
Luckily, as it wasn’t a live broadcast, it ended there. Jaesu’s face then turned red in humiliation, but everyone just thought it was because he was embarrassed about taking out a fake relic.
If they had known that medal was for the pro-Japanese, the mood would have gone strange, but luckily, they didn’t. Jaesu changed the subject and the filming continued.
“Thank you so much.”
“You’re welcome.”
Jaesu seemed to be more thankful to Haejin for not answering the questions related to the medal than receiving the news of his porcelain being worth 50 million won.
If any one of them had heard it and told the media, Jaesu’s career would have ended there.
After the filming, Haejin took selfies with each of the comedians. They were immediately uploaded on SNS and drew a lot of attention.
Jaesu even wrote #Best_Appraser_in_Korea, which really became a topic of discussions.
However, Haejin had to take a plane to America before he could even see the program on TV.
He had to rediscover the artifacts slumbering at Harvard University’s museum as he had to get the Henderson Collection back.
Additionally, as he was going alone this time, he felt slightly bored.
Silvia had briefly shown some willingness to accompany him, but she gave up because her face was still swollen.
Haejin was both worried and excited about how her face would look like after removing the bandages.
Someone was already waiting for him at Boston Logan International Airport.
“Nice to meet you. I’m Harold Cheong.”
He appeared to be Chinese-American.
The man was tall and had a nice smile. He also had big hands and solid muscles to the point where he looked more like a pro wrestler than a scholar.
“Nice to meet you, I’m Park Haejin. You look like an athlete.”
“Haha, sports are part of my life. Well, shall we go?”
Haejin never thought that a Camry was small, but compared to Harold, it truly was tiny.
Harold then got on the small driver’s seat and gestured at Haejin to get in with a bright smile.
“Is it far from here?”
“It will take about 40 minutes to an hour. It will take an hour if there are many cars on the road, but if the traffic is good, we will arrive in half an hour. Anyway, we have been talking about you because of the matter about the Henderson Collection,” Harold explained.
“What was the conversation about?”
Harold continued, “We mainly discussed why the Henderson Collection had to be returned and would there be anything as valuable as those artifacts among the relics sleeping at the museum. Actually, my grandfather was Chinese. So, I argued for the Henderson Collection to be returned.”
The Western people had exploited countless artifacts in China, just like they did in Korea.
As Chinese porcelains like Blue Flower White Porcelains had been a symbol of wealth in Europe after the 18th century, the demand for them was huge. The Europeans paid and bought them, but they also stole them.
The process of Europeans buying Chinese porcelains was quite interesting. They bought porcelains that had been already made, but they also ordered for the porcelains they wanted.
Sometimes, you would see porcelains that have too many strange shapes and patterns for them to be Chinese. Most of them were actually ordered by Europeans.
“Thank you for your supportive opinion,” Haejin replied.
“Actually, although I’m an American, I’ve been racially discriminated often since I was a kid. That is why I started working out. There are so many people who think they don’t have to return the artifacts that were stolen and exploited. Because of that, I think you were very brave to ask for your country’s artifacts back. Of course, the artifacts you are trying to retrieve weren’t exactly stolen or exploited.”
Harold spoke for long and although it sounded as if he was complimenting Haejin, he was talking quite vaguely. In the end, the last sentence was what Harold really meant.
He was implying that even if Harvard had reluctantly agreed on returning the Henderson Collection, most of his colleagues were strongly objecting it.
Strictly saying, he was right.
The Henderson Collection was a regrettable part of Korean history. If it hadn’t been for that deal Haejin made with the mayor of New York, no Korean would have had any good reason to ask to get them back.
Asking to get them back must have been a request hard to accept to people of the Harvard museum, but it was their problem. To Haejin, the artifacts were just treasure he had to retrieve.
“They might think that way,” Haejin replied with a simple answer and looked out of the window.
It meant he didn’t want to talk about it anymore, and it surprised Harold. He looked confused for a moment. Then, he smiled and focused on driving.
After about 40 minutes, they arrived at Harvard University’s museum and went into the administration office, where a white woman in her early 30s stretched out her hand at Haejin with a stern face.
“I’m Angelica. Nice to meet you. You must be tired after the long flight. Are you going to rest for today and start tomorrow?”
She seemed to find Haejin bothersome. However, Haejin had already been told about what was going on by Harold, so he could guess what she was thinking and replied, “No, I’m fine. I’ll start immediately.”
“This way, then…”
She led Haejin, giving a short explanation about the buildings as they passed.
Her attitude made it clear she wasn’t happy about Haejin’s visit, but she still did her job. It was impressive.
She took Haejin to the basement of the Museum of Natural History, where he had to go through a few steps of identification.
After that, they arrived at a room…
“What do you think?”
Angelica showed some emotion for the first time, she looked like a child showing her toys.
“Impressive,” Haejin looked at the numerous artifacts in front of him and let her see him get impressed.
Angelica then explained, “Harvard University is where the world’s most talented people come. For them, the foundation has collected a number of artifacts over a long period of time, and Americans have willingly donated to this place because they know the more Harvard’s students learn, the stronger the country becomes. This room is the result of that passion and dedication.”
Haejin could see why she was so proud of that place, anyone working there would have been proud of this.
However, sadly, some of those artifacts were Korean.
And they had been given willingly for the individuals’ good.
Haejin looked at Angelica and showed her three fingers, “Three artifacts. You know that, right?”
The artifacts of the Henderson Collection that had to be returned first were Gaya Porcelain and the celadon vase of Goryeo, which were the most valuable artifacts.
Harvard had asked Haejin to find at least three artifacts they hadn’t recognized the value yet in return.
They had promised to return all the Korean artifacts in the Henderson Collection if those three artifacts were more valuable than the two Korean artifacts.
Actually, these were vague terms. If the mayor of New York hadn’t pressed them, they would have never accepted such terms.
Haejin wondered what kind of weakness of the university’s president the mayor knew about that he could make him agree to such terms.
It also had to be the reason why the museum’s workers were even less fond of Haejin.
“I know. I wonder if you would be able to find artifacts more valuable than those two artifacts in the Henderson Collection,” she crossed her arms and expressed her doubt. Then, she gave Haejin a pile of documents while saying, “There is some brief information about the artifacts here. Of course, it’s not enough to let you know about every artifact, but they have been classified according to period and region, so it will help you get the basic idea of this place. You should also never lose the special temporal pass you just got. Go in and out with it when I’m not around, and never, never take out any of these artifacts without permission.”
She stressed the word ‘never’ very hard.
“Don’t worry. I have no desire to go to an American prison,” Haejin replied.
“I hope so, but human greed can blind people sometimes. I hope you don’t do it,” she gave Haejin a strange gaze as if she was prophesying Haejin would do it.
No, maybe she was hoping for him to do something disrespectful and break the deal itself.
“I’ll keep that in mind,” Haejin replied.
“And go to the student’s dining hall for meals. You will be able to eat there if you show your pass.”
“Okay.”
“Then…”
She turned and left.
Before she was out of sight, Haejin started to examine the huge ‘warehouse’.
As there were CCTVs all over the place, Haejin couldn’t do something bad even if he wanted to.
He put his hands behind him and walked slowly as if he were on a stroll.
He touched some of the artifacts, while on others, he just glanced at them and moved away.
Then, he spotted something.
It was a huge jar made of bronze. It looked like any jar commonly seen at any Buddhist temple, but its shape and pattern were not ordinary.
“Hmm… I’ve never seen this pattern before.”
He looked at its pattern and then used his phone’s flash to look inside.
“Ha… wow…” he laughed and started moving again.
He had just found one almost right after starting, but he couldn’t decide what to do about it.
It was magnificent, but he was angry about them being so cold to him. Was he making an excuse when he told himself that they would get even greedier if he found them such an artifact on the first day?
Smiling bitterly, he started to look for a treasure again.
And… Angelica was watching his every move on CCTVs.
