Chapter 25: Difficult Choices
Professor Lee arranged for Shen Liyan to stay in his daughter Martha's room. Martha worked at White Knights Law Firm in London and didn't come home often. Once settled, Liyan carefully reviewed her experiences at the auction house and the manor. She suspected that Huntington Auction House was not merely auctioning off stolen artifacts. These artifacts were most likely smuggled from China to the UK by the Huntington family, otherwise, Mrs. Huntington wouldn't have resorted to such drastic measures to confine her. After a sleepless night, Liyan decided to explain everything to Professor Lee. Both he and Mrs. Lee (Jessica) listened calmly to her account. Professor Lee asked, "What do you plan to do next?" "I want to sue Huntington Auction House." "On what grounds?" "They're smuggling Chinese artifacts and auctioning stolen items." "How much evidence do you have?" "Chinese newspapers from the '80s and '90s, a bloodstained slab, and the list of stolen Chinese artifacts I backed up along with anonymous consignments photos from Huntington Auction House." "How much do you estimate these 'allegedly stolen artifacts from China' make up of Huntington's auction items?" "Based on my current evidence, there are 800 confirmed items, about 10% of the Asian warehouse's art pieces. But I know there's much more. If everything were authenticated, it should be around 20%." "I admire your evidence-gathering skills. However, proving only 10% makes it easy for Huntington Auction House to evade your charges. They can claim these items were consigned to them without their prior knowl