It was already noon in a blink of an eye.
After visiting the preview of Art Space Auction House, Xiao Ran and the others temporarily left the scammer auction house.
But instead of leaving the neighborhood, they went to a famous nearby restaurant for lunch.
The auction will officially begin at 2 p.m. and is expected to last three to four hours.
It was just a break at noon, so I went back to the Plaza Hotel to have lunch and rest. It was a bit too rushed.
Because of this, Xiao Ran and the others stayed near Lincoln Center.
As soon as the group of them came down from upstairs, they saw David holding a briefcase standing in the lobby of the office building.
After the two sides met, David immediately lowered his voice and said:
"Sean, we have investigated clearly. The underground rights of the block you mentioned are in the hands of the New York Subway Company."
"When the subway was built at the beginning of the last century, the New York Subway Company acquired all the underground rights in that block."
"In the past 100 years or so, the owners of the old buildings above the ground have changed countless times, but the underground rights have never changed."
"The subway line located underground in that neighborhood was abandoned as early as the 1930s due to unreasonable design."
Xiao Ran's expression immediately changed, a little unsightly.
After thinking for a moment, he whispered:
"Fake! The underground rights of that block are actually in the hands of the New York Subway Company. This is not good news."
"You arrange for Mike and the others to contact the New York Subway Company to see if they can buy the underground rights of that block?"
"I will send employees to cooperate with Mike. When contacting the other party, we must pay attention to confidentiality and not expose our identity and intentions."
"If necessary, you can temporarily register a leather bag company in New York, which can be used as a cover for us."
David nodded and responded in a low voice:
"I also think it is necessary to register a company in New York. In that case, it will be much more convenient for you to do things in New York."
"As for Mike, I will ask him to find out about the New York Subway Company. That guy is very cautious and will not leak secrets."
While they were talking, they walked out of the office building and headed towards the reserved restaurant.
They spent the rest of the day laughing and chatting while enjoying lunch.
At the end of the visit, Xiao Ran had already exited the live broadcast room, so there was no need to worry about leaking the secret.
While eating, he took out another mobile phone and looked at several messages he had received.
These messages were all sent by Fang Yufei, but what they relayed were private messages from Jin Lao and the others.
As for the content of the information, it goes without saying that it was all discovered by Jin Lao and the others.
At the preview of Art Space Auction House, Jin Lao and the others still found some good things.
That's why Xiao Ran was reminded to go back and take pictures of those treasures.
Looking at this information, Xiao Ran couldn't help but smile proudly.
It was definitely a wise decision to bring Mr. Jin and the others into the live broadcast room.
In this way, Jin Lao and the others can not only provide professional advice, but also help them establish contacts with major domestic cultural institutions and top collectors.
More importantly, the existence of Jin Lao and the others can provide him with the most perfect cover.
In case someone is suspicious of himself, thinking that his luck is abnormally good and his sharp vision is a bit too much, and he becomes suspicious.
Many top antique cultural relics and art appraisal experts, including Jin Lao, can stand up and provide the most powerful proof.
They can attest to the fact that they are so successful because they have the backing of top experts in antiquities, artifacts and art appraisals.
In this way, everything will be explained.
After lunch, it was already around 1:30.
Xiao Ran and the others immediately left the restaurant and went straight back to the Art Space Auction House to prepare for the afternoon auction.
…
At two o'clock sharp, the auction started on time.
The auction venue is within the Art Space Auction House.
Taking advantage of the lunch break, the scammers from Art Space vacated an area in the office area to use as an auction venue.
They placed more than thirty chairs in the venue for relatively powerful buyers to sit.
As for the other buyers, they can only stand around and conduct the auction.
Everyone accepts this differential treatment and has no objection.
Xiao Ran and Elaine sat in the middle of the first row, facing the auction table in front of them, very conspicuous.
They were also the center of attention, with everyone watching their every move.
Many guys are secretly gearing up to grab a few treasures from Xiao Ran in an attempt to get rich overnight.
But how do they know what is waiting for them.
Once all the buyers are in place, the liquidation auction will begin.
The auctioneer who presided over the auction was a white man in his early forties.
This guy is obviously also a deadbeat liar and has deceived God knows how many people.
After taking the stage, the liar first introduced the auction rules and bidding rules.
After introducing the rules, the auction officially started.
The first group of artworks up for auction were the same realistic oil paintings that Xiao Ran had seen before.
These things are all imitations and fakes, of little value, but the auctioneer introduced them in a flashy way.
"Ladies and gentlemen, the set of artworks you are seeing now are six realistic oil paintings."
"It includes several works of the French Barbizon School, which are of high artistic value and collection value."
"These six oil paintings are being auctioned together. The starting price is US$6,000. Which buyer should bid?"
Just as the auctioneer introduced the situation and gave the starting price, six high-definition pictures of the oil paintings simultaneously appeared on the large screen at the scene.
Although Art Space is a scam auction house, the preparations are still in place.
As soon as the starting price was announced, all the buyers on the scene looked at Xiao Ran.
Everyone remembers that when he first walked into the auction house in the morning, he stopped for a moment in front of this group of oil paintings and made a few comments.
Among these six oil paintings, there may be one or two valuable works of art hidden.
Now that the auction has begun, everyone will naturally turn their attention to Xiao Ran to see how he will react.
If he raises his sign and accepts the bid, those guys who have made up their mind to follow the auction will immediately follow suit.
Those guys are all making small plans, trying to cut them off halfway and make them rich overnight.
Xiao Ran seemed to feel the attention of many people. He raised the bidding number in his hand and accepted the starting price.
Seeing this scene, everyone at the scene was stunned for a moment, and then they were all overjoyed.
Wilson's crooks were even more so, and everyone was smiling.
At the same time, there was a bit of contempt and disdain in their eyes.
In their opinion, these realistic oil paintings have no value at all and are not worth collecting. They can only be used as decorations.
For just a few oil paintings, Xiao Ran immediately raised his sign to accept the price, which shows his sharp eyesight.
The previous legends about his sharp vision now appear to be exaggerations or even fabrications.
That is to say, he was very lucky. He found some top-notch antiques and artworks, so he was praised to the sky!
While they were overjoyed, Wilson's crooks also felt much more relieved and were not too worried about being picked up by Xiao Ran.
"Buyer No. 6, Mr. Sean, accepted the price. The current price is US$6,500, US$6,500..."
The auctioneer said with joy, and nodded slightly to Xiao Ran.
For him, it was a good start.
Before he finished speaking, someone in the audience raised a sign to accept the price.
This is a professional treasure hunter in New York who is about thirty years old. He has been keeping a close eye on Xiao Ran before.
Seeing the opportunity coming, this guy was naturally unwilling to let it go.
Soon after, several more professional treasure hunters joined the competition.
Among these guys, there is a guy who is the trustee of Art Space Auction House.
During the morning visit, this guy had been following Xiao Ran, and from time to time he would interact with Wilson's deadbeat liars.
Xiao Ran, who saw all this, still didn't know the identity of this guy.
But he acted as if this guy didn't exist and didn't take it to heart at all.
In the blink of an eye, the price of the first group of lots had reached US$9,000.
Xiao Ran, who was silent for a moment, finally took action again.
"$10,000"
He directly raised the price by one thousand to five figures.
This was like giving the other competitors a shot of chicken blood, making those guys suddenly more excited.
Those guys followed suit without thinking, scrambling to hold up their signs and answer the price.
Moreover, several professional treasure hunters joined the competition and kept raising signs with great enthusiasm.
For a time, the atmosphere at the scene became extremely heated.
With everyone's encouragement, the prices for the first group of lots were soaring like a rocket.
Many buyers in the audience kept raising placards to respond to the bids, and bidding signs kept coming and going.
There were also many guys who took the initiative to raise prices and acted very boldly. The scene was very lively.
However, Xiao Ran fell completely silent.
He and Elaine were laughing and chatting in low voices, seeming to have forgotten that the auction was still going on.
When the bid for the first group of lots approached $30,000, someone finally woke up and realized something was wrong.
Those guys felt a little surprised when they looked at Xiao Ran, who was like an outsider.
"What is this bastard Sean doing? Why is there no movement? Is this a trap?"
There was a buzz of discussion and the atmosphere was changing.
While discussing, many people thought of some legends about Xiao Ran.
Thinking of this, those guys shuddered secretly and were terrified.
They no longer dare to raise their cards casually, for fear of jumping into the pit and losing money until they vomit blood!
As more and more buyers discovered that something was wrong, the scene quickly cooled down.
Everyone looked at Xiao Ran, but no one raised a sign to accept the price.
Seeing his relaxed look, these people didn't know what was going on.
This is a fucking pit!
This bastard Sean has deceived everyone. Anyone who takes pictures of this group of oil paintings will definitely be tricked to death!
In the end, the transaction price of this group of oil paintings did not exceed US$30,000.
"$29,000, deal"
After asking three times in succession, the auctioneer immediately hit the auction hammer when no one responded.
"boom!"
The moment the auction hammer fell, a wailing sound immediately sounded from the back row.
"Farke! I'm a fucking idiot!"
At the same time, there was a burst of laughter in the live broadcast room.
