At three o'clock in the afternoon, a gong sounded.
A man who looked like a host stood on a simple rostrum made of several iron boxes and held a large loudspeaker to officially announce the end of the bidding process.
"Everyone, please be patient. We are counting the bids in each black box. It will take about half an hour. We have prepared a rest area for everyone, with refreshments and fruits..."
The crowd left the bidding area in a bustle.
Gu Weijing saw several police cars driving into the warehouse door followed by a blue and black riot armored vehicle.
The door of the armored vehicle opened, and a group of patrol policemen in black uniforms got out.
These people were leaning against the car, huddled together, smoking lazily.
They don't look elite, but they are real guys with guns and ammunition on their belts.
"There will be a large amount of cash transactions later. You also know the security situation here. It's not safe without the police."
The uncle noticed Gu Weijing's gaze and patted his nephew on the shoulder, as if he had seen a big event before: "The annual jade sale is the big event. Those jewelry merchants from the Eastern Xia mainland and Eastern Xia Hong Kong and Taiwan areas , they are often billionaires. In order to ensure the stability and safety of the public market, there will even be MiG-29s flying overhead."
Gu Weijing nodded.
Boss Wu’s handicap is Bai Dao business.
No one in the audience, except for the young woman dressed as a working woman, wanted to take another look at the "Old Church on a Thunderstorm" photo.
Logically speaking, robbery would not be able to rob him.
"Do you two have something you like? Your Gu Tongxiang is quite discerning. Gu's Book Gallery is a big business locally. How about it? Can you win the bid?"
Boss Wu appeared out of nowhere at this time.
He held a half-burned cigarette in his mouth and puffed away at it.
"I just placed a bid in the miscellaneous section."
Gu Weijing held the number plate No. 69 he received when he entered the venue, and glanced at the whiteboard in front of the miscellaneous area to one side.
Many staff members are counting the number boxes in the miscellaneous area.
After a while, after the bid amounts for each booth are counted, the winning bid number will be written on the whiteboard.
"The miscellaneous area, huh, that's just for kids to play house."
Knowing that Gu Weijing did not hug Brother Hao's lap, Boss Wu's posture suddenly became much higher. He didn't even say "Mr. Gu", and showed an attitude of giving instructions to the juniors: "What can you do if you don't have some courage in business?" .”
The uncle also smiled bitterly: "Biao Wang... "Mountains in the Snow" has a starting price of more than ten thousand US dollars, which is too expensive."
"You can't say that, it's expensive. The price of Impressionist works has indeed increased in recent years. Some time ago, the private collection of Microsoft founder Paul Allen sold a total of 1.6 billion US dollars, including several Impressionist works. , accounting for 30% of the transaction volume.”
Boss Wu blew out a smoke ring calmly, "If it's too expensive, you can go to the miscellaneous area like your nephew, where you can book a reservation for just one or two thousand dollars."
"Send it to the garbage dump for a few thousand dollars?"
The uncle shook his head: "No one's money comes from the strong wind. Your miscellaneous area is so complicated. Why do you even have Coca-Cola bottles?"
"Maybe some fools would like this." A businessman next to him interrupted with a smile.
The air was suddenly filled with a happy atmosphere.
After about twenty minutes, all the bids in the number box were counted.
The host started holding a small notepad and read out the winning number of each booth.
"Congratulations, Mr. No. 06, for purchasing the highest bidder of this calligraphy and painting auction, "Mountains in the Snow", for US$27,001."
As the winning bidder's number came out from the loudspeaker, there was a sparse polite applause from the crowd.
Gu Weijing discovered that the buyer did not belong to any of the local leading galleries in Yangon that he was familiar with.
It turned out to be the thermos cup man who handed him toilet paper and claimed that he would rather eat a bite of fairy peaches than buy a basket of rotten peaches.
This strange man seems to be quite capable. He was able to win the entire auction. No wonder he looks like a master collector.
"The rich old man who came to Dongxia for vacation is said to be in the building materials business. He likes to collect. During this time, he bought a lot of good jadeite in Myanmar."
Boss Wu glanced at the thermos cup man and explained: "It's really a dragon crossing the river."
"Congratulations to Boss Wu for getting rich too."
The uncle glanced at the old man.
It is normal for collectors to pay more than their galleries.
Collectors only need to consider whether they like the work they buy. Even if they want to invest in appreciation, they usually hold it for a long period of ten years.
And galleries are in business.
The uncle estimated that if the painting met a willing buyer, it might be sold for about 30,000 US dollars, with at least a profit margin of more than 10%.
But you have to consider how long it will take to sell the painting.
Spending tens of thousands of dollars on a painting for a long time is likely to put a strain on the store's capital chain.
The opening of public bidding continues.
The uncle placed two bids in total and won once. The other print was bought by another gallery with a difference of US$350.
And the Level 6 Impressionist oil painting that Gu Weijing had seen before.
It was also bought by the old man for US$2,700.
Although the old man failed to see the fame of Gu Weijing's previous painting "Old Church", his eyesight is indeed not bad among ordinary people.
If Gu Weijing had not appreciated "The Ball at the Pancake Mill", he would have almost missed that work.
He didn't have the patience to wait for the host to read one by one, so he took the lead and wandered to the whiteboard in the miscellaneous area aside.
Each winning bidder and winning bid amount at the main booth will be read to the entire crowd through a loudspeaker by the host.
Whenever someone wins a bid, everyone claps, both out of politeness and to satisfy the winning bidder's vanity.
There is not so much emphasis on the miscellaneous area, just look at it yourself.
At this time, someone had already started to paste the winning number plates one by one on the whiteboard with magnets. Gu Weijing was bidding for booth No. 159.
As expected and reasonable, the winning bidder for the booth was No. 69 in his hand.
He went to the toll booth.
"Booth No. 159 in the Miscellaneous Area, Buyer No. 69... Offered $2,500?"
Gu Weijing immediately handed over his envelope containing the money and the number plate in his hand.
The toll boy looked at Gu Weijing like a fool for a long time.
After repeatedly using the banknote detector to confirm that the stack of U.S. dollars was not counterfeit, he handed Gu Weijing a receipt for the fee.
At the moment when he received the receipt, the formal ownership of all the items on booth No. 159 was transferred to Gu Weijing.
A big stone fell heavily to the ground in his heart.
When Gu Weijing was about to quietly take away the painting, an accident happened.
"There must be something shady about this public sale of yours! Who is No. 69?"
As a woman's angry voice sounded in the venue, the originally quiet and stable order in the venue was suddenly interrupted.
Everyone looked curiously at the direction from which the sound came.
"Miss, you must be responsible for your nonsense."
Boss Wu walked out of the crowd and looked at the woman standing by the whiteboard, with anger hidden in his tone.
What he doesn't like the most in a place like this is someone accusing him of having a shady secret.
"I……"
The female Ol, who dressed like a working woman, knew that what she said was inappropriate in her urgency.
However, there were police officers not far away, and she was also a government employee, so the woman was not afraid of Boss Wu.
"I want to check the bid, it should be my right."
She raised her head and looked directly at the people in the field.
"Booth 159, my bid amount is US$300. I want to know who has a higher bid amount than me. I suspect you have made a mistake in your work."
After the woman found the oil painting that the master wanted, she basically kept wandering around booth 159.
During this period, only the student-looking child showed interest in the things on the stand.
Others didn't even have the intention to stop in front of this booth.
A lesson learned. This time, because she didn’t want to make another mistake, she even made up her mind and put in a full three hundred US dollars as the bidding amount.
Is there a higher number than my own?
"You invested $300?"
Boss Wu glanced at the painting tube and scrap candlestick on booth No. 159 not far away.
If no one buys these scraps of metal, he is going to throw them away as construction waste.
Boss Wu lost his anger immediately.
Nowadays, even foreign tourists are not easy to deceive. They are willing to spend three hundred dollars to buy these things. It is rare to see such scammers.
"Miss, this is an item that was leaked from the Grand Writer's Hotel. It might have been an item used by a famous writer back then. It's normal for someone to offer a higher price."
Boss Wu said this, but in his heart he really doubted whether his younger brother had made a mistake while he was busy.
Is there any greater injustice than three hundred dollars?
"Bring over the winning bid form and the bid box, and check the amount of the winning bid."
Boss Wu gave an order.
Unexpectedly, the boy responsible for counting the bid boxes in the miscellaneous area spoke immediately.
"Boss, there's no need to check. The winning bid is No. 69. The US$2,500 is the highest bid of all the booths in the entire miscellaneous area. I was very impressed when I counted it. There is absolutely nothing wrong with it."
"2,500 US dollars? Are you sure? It's not Myanmar currency?"
The working woman opened her mouth.
She immediately thought of the student-looking boy and scanned the crowd behind her.
As those words were spoken, the crowd seemed to have been poured a basin of boiling water into it, boiling at a speed visible to the naked eye.
"Who is bidding on this?"
"You're kidding, for $2,500, no fool will really take the slogan on the booth seriously."
"No, even if it is really a pen used by Somerset Maugham, it is not worth the price."
Boss Wu was also shocked by this number.
"Quiet!"
He is a businessman who is willing to pay a high price to buy garbage. For him, the more the better. Mustache is just a little worried about whether he will encounter someone who makes trouble with the quotation.
probably not.
Those who can participate in the public auction of calligraphy and painting are all prominent figures in Myanmar's local art circle. Ordinary tourists who want to enter need to pay an entrance fee of 200,000 kyats.
This money is equivalent to a deposit.
Two hundred thousand kyats, equivalent to one hundred US dollars, can be deducted if items are purchased. If you don’t buy any items, they can be returned to you when you leave under normal circumstances.
Boss Wu jumped on the tin box and personally took the loudspeaker from the host: "Congratulations to Mr. No. 69, for acquiring the ownership of all the items on booth No. 159 for US$2,500. Who is Mr. No. 69? Let We congratulate this literary lover.”
The crowd applauded again, but the applause was mixed with bursts of unknown laughter.
"well……"
Gu Weijing raised his hand helplessly.
He didn't originally want to make the matter of buying a painting known to everyone.
I don't care about the ridicule of these people. Monet, Van Gogh, Gauguin...whose works by these great painters have not been ridiculed by everyone.
Who is the master and who is the clown, time will tell.
The problem is trouble - his uncle will definitely discipline him if he knows that he spent 2,500 dollars to buy a painting.
Sure enough, when Gu Weijing raised his hand to receive the exhibits at booth No. 159 in full view of everyone.
The uncle's voice mixed with disbelief and anger immediately sounded from the audience.
"Gu Weijing! Are you fucking crazy? For $2,500, you want to buy this pile of junk and go home?"
The uncle only spent a total of three thousand dollars from his family to participate in the painting and calligraphy auction this time. A fine woodblock print that he had been studying all morning was missed because it was a few hundred dollars short.
Unexpectedly, my nephew still had 2,500 US dollars, but he actually used such a large amount of money to buy a bunch of junk.
"My grandpa gave me money and let me choose freely. I found a very good Impressionist painting, which I think is worth the money."
Gu Weijing patiently explained.
"A very good painting? Why do you say it is a very good painting? Is it signed Monet or fucking Van Gogh on the frame?"
The uncle was anxious and turned to Boss Wu and said, "Boss Wu, the child is not sensible. I don't want this painting anymore. We want a refund."
"Mr. Gu, what you said is meaningless. You are also an old man in the industry. Our kind of business is about buying and leaving. There is no reason why you can't just say you don't want it after buying it. Who will dare to talk to you in the future? Your family does business.”
Boss Wu easily pushed the uncle back with a soft nail.
He didn't understand the previous picture "Kingfisher Singing Bamboo".
The old man of the Gu family was a connoisseur with a sharp eye. He explained the problems and shortcomings of the painting in detail, as if he had seen the artist paint with his own eyes.
In this way, Boss Wu reluctantly returned the money because he had recently heard that Gu Tongxiang's grandson was interested in Yangon's tycoon Brother Hao.
The calligraphy and painting auction he is now openly opening, the grandson of the Gu family's bastard also put his bid in black and white.
This kind of good thing is hard to find even with a lantern, so there is no reason for the other party to swallow it back.
As for what he wrote on the label, it might be the pen used by Somerset Maugham - come on, he is a businessman, should he write the word "garbage" in front of his goods?
If this kind of thing spreads to the outside world, people in the industry will only think that the people who believe it are stupid [beep-], and will not think that Boss Wu is unjust in what he does.
Boss Wu with a mustache turned his head and looked at Gu Weijing, who was still expressionless despite being ridiculed by everyone and criticized by his elders.
"Master, since you have stepped into the door of this public company, there is no such thing as being young or young. There is no age or youth in the business world, and you can have no money, but people will look down on you if you have no integrity. Say it yourself, right? That’s the truth.”
Boss Wu knows that young people like this are the most competitive, vain and face-saving.
He immediately stopped Gu Weijing with words and did not give the other party a chance to regret.
really.
Gu Weijing just raised the receipt on his palm.
"There is no refund, and I have already paid. Can you give me the painting?"
"It's a pity that such a shrewd man like Lao Gu gave birth to a stupid [beep-] grandson."
Boss Wu was disdainful in his heart, but on the surface he was praising him: "It's great. You will definitely be good at doing big business in the future. Everyone applauds him."
There was another burst of applause mixed with mocking laughter, among which the competing galleries in Yangon and Gu's Painting and Calligraphy Shop laughed the most.
"Who is this?"
"Do you know Gu Tongxiang? His ancestor was a court painter of the Qing Dynasty. He is the grandson of Lao Gu. My family is unfortunate."
"Big business, I think it's a waste."
The crowd laughed and laughed.
The uncle was so anxious that he wanted to come over and slap his nephew twice, but he was stopped by the familiar businessman next to him.
"Calm down, calm down. You also said that children are ignorant. Everyone is watching here. Let's talk about it when we go home."
"It's useless for you to be anxious now. If you want to be more cheerful, just think of spending money to buy a lesson."
"Two thousand five hundred dollars to buy a lesson?"
The uncle was so angry that he ignored the expressions of the people around him who were looking at the joke. He felt that his nephew was really stupid after learning painting in elementary school.
It cost two thousand five hundred dollars for a piece of junk that had no value whatsoever.
Does he think he is some kind of prince who is passionate about art? How much money do you have in your family for him to waste like this?
"Gu Weijing, do you know how hard it is for adults to make money! How much money does our calligraphy and painting shop earn in a month? In order to pay for your and Gu Lin's international middle school and future college tuition, the family worked hard from early to late and worked frugally. Use it. At such an old age, your grandpa has to run the business himself and is reluctant to even hire a helper. An old car has been driven for forty years..."
"I'll give you $2,800."
The uncle was still reprimanding his nephew angrily when he heard a woman's voice speaking.
This sentence was like a piece of ice, quickly freezing the entire atmosphere.
The second half of the uncle's sentence was stuck in his mouth.
He looked in the direction where the sound came from in astonishment.
The working woman in a brown coat who initially questioned the shady nature of the public sale was holding her handbag tightly with both hands.
She glanced at Gu Weijing with a bit of resentment, and then repeated to Boss Wu: "I offer $2,800 to sell it to me."
"Uh...what?"
Boss Wu felt that he couldn’t understand what was going on today.
He looked back at the booth with scraps of scrap metal.
If one of them is willing to pay a high price, there is a high probability that he has met a fool, but if two of them are willing to pay a high price...
What is going on?
After playing with art for so long, could it be that he misjudged it.
He jumped off the iron box and walked over to check the items on the stand, but was stopped by someone.
"Boss Wu, since you have bought it and left it, no matter what is in it, it has nothing to do with you." Gu Weijing walked over directly and took away the painting tube.
"Let me see."
Boss Wu smiled sarcastically.
"Uncle, I'm going home first."
Gu Weijing said hello to his uncle, who was already stunned, and put the painting tube on his back.
"I only want this painting tube. If you like other things, everything on the booth is yours." He said to the working woman and prepared to leave.
"I'll pay you $3,000 and you'll sell me the painting."
The translator stopped Gu Weijing.
"Sorry, I don't want to sell this painting."
Gu Weijing shook his head.
"$3,200, $3,500... No, I'll give you $4,000."
There was a bit of hatred in the translator's tone.
Half of her heart now regrets that she had taken advantage of the one hundred dollars, and the other half hates this boy who appeared out of nowhere and interfered with her affairs.
Gu Weijing stopped talking, walked around the workplace Ol, and wanted to leave through the door.
"No, you have to sell me this painting."
The woman grabbed Gu Weijing's sleeve. "otherwise……"
"What else?"
Gu Weijing was a little unhappy being entangled.
"This is a work that a foreign master specifically wanted. I am his translator." The woman's tone sounded arrogant.
"Are foreigners superior to others?"
Gu Weijing asked rhetorically.
In fact, in Myanmar, foreigners are really superior to others.
And superior in a truly literal sense.
Tourism is Yangon's main industry. Consumption here is low and there are many backpackers from Europe, the United States, and Canada.
Many tourists from Western Europe can comfortably work for a month in the original high-welfare society and be waited on for a year in Yangon.
You can often see an old white guy in a nightclub surrounded by a group of local girls.
In order to practice his French, Gu Weijing once chatted with a French tourist in a shop who came to visit the Yangon River. The other person told Gu Weijing.
His local hotel in Yangon is 2.3 kilometers away from the sightseeing cruise ship that boarded the Yangon River on Google Maps. The French tourists only walked 19 steps in the whole journey, and the rest of the time was carried by local coolies like an emperor on a sliding pole. .
Gu Weijing has never liked such an atmosphere.
This kind of admiration for foreigners actually means that you think very low of yourself, and others look down on you even more.
"My master has great international influence. He is here to participate in government projects. Even the mayor of Yangon has met him." There was a faint threat in the tone of the female translator.
"First, you are just a translator. Second, even if the master comes to me in person, my answer is that I will not sell it."
The female translator's face turned red from being choked.
Gu Weijing shook his sleeves, turned around and left.
"What's the fuss about? Let's take a look at the painting!"
Onlookers on one side finally couldn't help it anymore. They were curious about what the painting that Gu Weijing was not willing to sell for 4,000 US dollars looked like, let alone that it was spotted by some master.
"Mr. Xiao Gu, let us open our eyes, shall we?"
Boss Wu also came up and rubbed his hands. He now has a 60% premonition that maybe he really mistook the fine items for junk.
At this time, if he didn't figure out the specific situation of the matter, he wouldn't be able to sleep well tonight.
These people had just laughed at him, and Gu Weijing had no interest in satisfying their curiosity.
Besides, this painting had just been placed on the exhibition stand, and they didn’t have the aesthetic attainments to discover it.
But he noticed that the man who first made the request to see the painting was the man with the thermos cup.
He came close to Gu Weijing, looking very itchy.
The paper I used to block my nose was given by someone else.
"Be careful, don't be a double act."
Behind Mr. Thermos Cup, a companion patted him on the shoulder. The scene in front of him, Gu Weijing and the female translator, looked a bit like a liar who performed a double act on the street and sold family heirlooms.
"No, I know it in my mind. In the afternoon, I did see this guy looking at a dirty painting."
The uncle had an itchy expression on his face.
"Young man, I like you, you speak tough! But can you let me see the paintings you are talking about? I just like to collect. I am very curious about what kind of paintings the master likes. I am in the treasure mountain without knowing it. , I also want to learn a lesson, don’t I?”
After Gu Weijing hesitated for a moment, he took off the painting tube behind him.
"You can see the painting if you want. I need a small brush and varnish for maintenance. You also need to find me a frame."
Gu Weijing was a little worried about transporting the painting in a painting tube like this. He planned to maintain the painting on site.
"Of course, it should be." Mustache nodded.
There was not much money for an ordinary picture frame, but he had plenty of it.
Gu Weijing took out the drawing paper from the drawing tube.
"It's so dirty, and there's no point in it."
"Can this painting be worth several thousand dollars? Are you still not selling it?"
The crowd was like a group of talking mosquitoes. Gu Weijing ignored everyone's comments and quickly took out a small brush to clean the floating dust on the drawing paper.
"Back off, back off. This is our family's painting. It's worth thousands of dollars. What will you do if you damage it?"
When the uncle saw that things were turning around, he immediately drove the crowd back a few steps.
He walked to Gu Weijing's side,
After hesitating for a long time,
Then he picked up a small brush and varnish, and with a complicated expression helped his nephew clean up the stains on the screen.
honestly,
If Gu Weijing hadn't been his nephew, he would have doubted whether the female translator was the one he hired to sing the oboe.
No matter how he looked at this dirty painting, it didn't look like it was valuable.
"Hey...this painting is a bit interesting. It is an impressionist hand-painted oil painting...it is indeed different from the other two paintings."
Suddenly someone in the crowd let out a sigh, and gradually, many people saw the significance of this painting.
Those who can participate in this calligraphy and painting fair are basically insiders in the painting industry.
They may not have high appreciation ability, but it is not difficult to distinguish whether a painting is hand-drawn or printed.
"But this tone, this theme... Such dark themes and church themes are really rare."
"It's either a rare product or a piece of trash that just follows the trend."
Someone commented sharply.
Then the warehouse fell into a brief silence.
For an oil painting to be so hotly contested, even people who don't understand painting will know whether it is a treasure or a piece of trash.
Not to mention, good works of art have the ability to be appreciated by both refined and popular people.
As Gu Weijing used a small brush to clean away the floating dust on the canvas, the strong yet subtle changes in light and shadow during thunderstorms, the hazy and uncertain diffuse colors formed by the jumping candlelight hitting the glass, dispersed as the dust Go and regain new vitality.
Everyone immediately intuitively felt that this painting was at least beautiful and coordinated.
Boss Wu's face turned green at this time.
A businessman pursues profit, and when he sees a fine oil painting right in front of him, he throws it away as rubbish.
This sense of frustration and loss made him more heartbroken than the financial loss.
"Young man is amazing!"
The thermos cup man stared at the painting for a long time, "This painting is really beautiful, although I actually... still don't quite understand how this painting shows such characteristics. It is obviously a thunderstorm day, but there is a warm feeling. .”
He raised his head, looked directly into Gu Weijing's eyes, and stretched out three fingers.
"The fact that I can't understand the painting itself means the value of the work. How about I pay 30,000 US dollars and the painting will be mine."
coax……
Everyone immediately exploded.
In just a few minutes, $2,500 had multiplied tenfold.
Thirty thousand US dollars, this price directly exceeds today's bid king. You can buy some mid- to low-end Picassos.
Picasso painted tens of thousands of works in his lifetime, and the market circulation is extremely huge. The prices of many works are not as expensive as ordinary people imagine.
Monet's worst paintings usually cost millions of dollars, while Picasso can probably be bought for thirty thousand dollars.
When the thermos cup man quoted the price, everyone knew that the young man who came to Gu's Book Gallery today had made a big deal.
This kind of story has always been the most jealous thing among gallery practitioners, and it has been circulated in the industry for several years.
But there's nothing you can do about envy. Why don't you have the same vision as others?
"Lao Gu's grandson is very capable."
People burst into exclamations one after another. Just a few minutes ago, they had called Gu Weijing an ignorant child and a prodigal son.
The warmth and coldness of human relationships are such a reality.
Boss Wu's expression became distorted. The more valuable the painting was, the more it stabbed his already bleeding heart.
"Sorry, I don't sell it."
What surprised people even more was that Gu Weijing still looked indifferent.
Of course he doesn't want to sell it,
After selling the painting, he went to copy something, and Gu Weijing didn't think the painting was only worth 30,000 US dollars.
The uncle's lips trembled, but in the end he said nothing.
"Okay, whenever you want to sell your paintings, you can come to me."
The uncle handed the painting back with both hands.
Thirty thousand US dollars is already a lot.
After all, there are too many Impressionist-style paintings in the 20th century. If you just buy this painting skill, $30,000 is neither high nor low.
If the painting is not signed, the uncle is even willing to gamble a little more money. If it can be traced back to the work of a famous artist, it will be a big profit.
But unfortunately, this is a painting by a female artist.
He also handed over a business card. "Thirty thousand dollars, I'll put this price here, and I'll buy it whenever you ask."
(End of chapter)
