[The train travels slowly around the city, passing between the dark buildings, the bright lights and the white smoke locomotive reflect the charm of midnight...]
The phone vibrated slightly.
On the armrest sofa of the carriage, Anna took her eyes away from the travel diary "Train Bazaar" written by Paul Theroux and took out her mobile phone.
Outside the window, the train is slowly speeding up, leaving the center of London behind.
After the thank you dinner with Osborne, Anna no longer had an urgent schedule.
She didn't need to be in a hurry, so she asked the housekeeper to book a first-class compartment on the next Eurostar train.
There is no other reason,
Wealth not only allows people to take off from Paris and land in London in a private jet in forty-five minutes, but also allows Anna to spend a little more time leisurely along the spider web of railway transportation lines, through Lyon, and over the Alps. Climb high and finally arrive at St. Anton am Arlberg station in Austria.
She liked to slowly look at the primroses and tulips, the carpet-like lawns of the European plains in early spring that continued to bloom.
It's like an oil painter using a soft pen on the green background to sprinkle colorful arcs with color dots.
Um?
Anna's calm and good mood was easily broken by the new message sent by Detective Cat on her mobile phone.
"Mr. Sloth, I might have to sign a new gallery."
The girl was stunned.
Detective Cat is about to sign an official gallery contract, which Miss Elena has always expected.
Anna is very well connected.
It's a pity that she is just a little girl, not a professional art agent, let alone a large modern gallery with thousands of employees around the world.
After all, professional agents have to show off.
For a relatively simple contract like the illustration contract, Anna could do it part-time behind the scenes, so it wouldn't be a big problem.
But by hiding her identity alone, it was impossible for her to complete the detailed work of hosting exhibitions, sales, contacting collectors, and coordinating art fair booths, which are the professional and detailed tasks of large galleries.
It's not even possible to split Miss Elena into eight pieces.
Industry specializing in surgery.
If one person, Mr. Sloth, can do such a complicated thing, why do we need a professional gallery team?
Unless she decides to buy a gallery and hire an entire team of professionals dedicated to the services of "cat detectives." Otherwise, in order to develop better, the career of a serious artist will always need the help of a gallery.
Of course she knows this.
When I first contacted Detective Cat, I proposed that I could introduce him to a pretty good gallery.
Signing a contract with Detective Cat Sister was a substitute and transition before the other party signed the gallery.
Therefore, they made a gentleman's agreement not to explore each other's identity.
A certain part of Anna's heart has always been clear.
An excellent painter like Detective Cat should not be satisfied with developing in the field of illustration only. He must eventually break away from himself and go into a more serious direction.
But she didn't expect that this day would come so quickly.
"congratulations."
Ana bit her lip lightly.
She suppressed her sadness and typed on the keyboard: "I am very lucky to have witnessed the birth of so many excellent works. Even if the cooperation only lasts for a short month, this is still a very precious memory. If you are in the future, If you need any help, or if you want to continue developing in illustration, you are welcome to contact me even if I am no longer your agent.”
"Scholastic Group is a leading company in the publishing industry. I personally think that you can continue to cooperate with the gallery after obtaining the gallery's consent. In addition, I suggest to Ms. Detective Cat that you'd better wait until the book "The Little Prince" is released. Then sign a contract with the gallery, and..."
Ana pressed Enter, her fingers hovering above the on-screen keyboard.
She hesitated whether to tell the other party,
I should have won Osborne's nomination for the [Scholastic Master Award for Outstanding Contribution to Writing and Art].
Ms. Elena firmly believes that as long as the market is given enough time, the new edition of "The Little Prince" illustrations will be able to spread the shock from shallow readers to the upper class of collectors like dominoes.
at the same time,
Although illustration is not serious enough, the publishing house's "Outstanding Contribution Master Award" is the most serious award in the entire industry.
Both of these can greatly improve the level of an illustrator and elevate the "illustrator" to the level of an "artist".
Anna feels,
Signing up with a gallery is of course a great thing.
It’s just that Ms. Detective Cat should wait another month or two, when the popularity and market recognition of collectors will increase, so that she can obtain greater benefits for herself.
When Gu Weijing saw Mr. Sloth's reply message on the screen, he knew that the uncle had misunderstood.
"Mr. Sloth, we have had a great time cooperating. I am very grateful for your efforts. I have no reason to change the agent I work with, or no longer want to draw illustrations."
Gu Weijing explained.
"The gallery?"
"A friend recommended me to a large gallery with a long history. The gallery didn't know that I had also drawn illustrations online. They were simply interested in my painting techniques."
"I just think I should inform you. At the same time, I want to know if this will affect our cooperation, right?"
That's it.
Miss Elena saw a new message on the phone screen.
She actually felt a sense of relief and solidity in her heart.
In the fairy tale book, the little prince spent so much time on roses, so they were roses that belonged to him.
Anna spent so much effort and energy on the detective cat. By the same token, it belongs to her big sister.
No matter how she tapped the words of congratulations on her fingertips.
In her heart, Miss Elena still feels a certain degree of reluctance over the fact that the soul-resonant painter she raised will run away with another gallery owner.
"There's no problem on my end."
Anna immediately replied: "As stipulated in the contract, I am just the agent of 'Detective Cat', a virtual painter. Your contract with the gallery does not conflict with ours."
"But I suggest that you make a clear agreement with the gallery in advance to avoid future troubles. Is the painting company regular? If it is a small gallery, I do not recommend that you sign, or only sign a contract that renews every year. short-term contract.”
“You really want to sign with a gallery, maybe I can find a better one for you.”
Anna suggested.
Knife painting is no longer favored by the mainstream art world, but it is also gaining popularity.
Boggs is also a tenured professor at the Brooklyn Academy of Art.
If you can draw something as good as Detective Cat Sister, some big first- and second-tier galleries will also be interested.
and.
Excluding the drawings and drawings, the sketches of Detective Cat itself are also outstanding. As long as you do it right and have the right references, it's not difficult to even sign some heads to the big galleries.
"It would have been better if it had been earlier." Anna felt a little regretful.
The Elena family has communication channels with the top galleries, but in order to maintain its neutrality, "Oil Painting" magazine has not had close contacts with those galleries in the past.
Nothing compared to her relationship with Uncle Osborne.
At the same time, Anna's current conflict with Sir Brown of "Oil Painting" is not a particularly secretive news in the upper-class art world.
At this time, those big gallery owners would definitely have concerns about signing the painters she recommended.
Especially after Detective Cat was removed from the buyers section of Oil Painting magazine, it became more of a matter of taking sides.
These gallerists are all smart.
An accusation from DeJon Vandoorne that they could care less about.
However, we are on the opposite side of the management of a magazine like "Oil Painting", which can play a decisive role in the hearts of collectors, unless they are too full and think that gallery management is not challenging.
It wouldn't be a mistake to shut the door to Miss Elena, it would also look too ugly.
If now Anna makes a personal call as a senior collector.
Even Larry Gagosian would respond to her flattering smile. Whether it was buying paintings or exchanging collections, it was all a matter of one sentence.
But if you recommend an agent painter...
Well, since you know that the result will be vain and conceding, why bother asking for trouble.
"Don't worry about this. The gallery that signed me is not only formal, but also large in scale. It is an intercontinental gallery. That's the problem. I have no qualifications to negotiate terms in front of the other party..."
Gu Weijing expressed his confusion to Mr. Sloth - he did not want Ma Shi Gallery to handle matters related to the detective cat.
encounter difficulties,
Whether it's about painting or anything else, Mr. Sloth is a great listener.
He clearly remembered that when he first added his uncle, the other party had offered to help him read the contract. He should be very knowledgeable.
"Understood."
Anna chatted on the phone for a while, and it became clear in her mind what Ms. Detective Cat wanted.
"Since InterContinental Gallery...well, it should be the exclusive agent, right?" she asked after thinking about it.
"Yes, I am an exclusive agent, but the terms above only restrict me from cooperating with other galleries or participating in auctions. There seems to be no restrictions on illustrations."
"That's it."
Anna thought for a moment.
She did not tell the other party immediately whether she could sign or not. There were many legal twists and turns that could not be explained clearly in two or three sentences on social software.
"If you don't mind, could you send me the contract for a look?"
"Hold on."
Before the other party goes back to the hotel,
Gu Weijing added Hanks's work social account, and Hanks also sent him a PDF copy of the contract in his mailbox.
He pulled up the PDF on his computer, blocked out all the information about "Mashi Gallery" in the contract, and then sent the file to Mr. Sloth.
It wasn't that Gu Weijing had to be on guard against Mr. Sloth.
But since he hopes to treat Gu Weijing and "Detective Cat" as two identities that cannot be overlapped and associated by outsiders in the future.
So it's better to pay more attention to such small things.
No matter how wide the net is for fishing, Ma Shi Gallery is still a leading gallery that takes the elite route. In its century-long history, it has only signed a total of about 300 painters.
In case the news gets out.
As long as anyone knows that Detective Cat is about to sign a contract with Ma Shi Gallery, they will scan the updated list of painters represented on Ma Shi Gallery’s global official website twice with their eyes.
It's easy to pinpoint his true identity.
"I have to work for a while in the evening. Can you please help me get a computer? In addition, I also want a cup of coffee, without milk or sugar." Anna received the new file and took out the mini walkie-talkie in her pocket.
In the 19th century, when the upper class traveled by train, it was traditional practice for the host to reserve a first-class box, and then reserve a first- or second-class berth at the back of the carriage for the personal servant.
Anna's legs and feet are inconvenient.
She simply booked two independent private rooms next to each other, and her two personal caregivers lived next door to her.
Two minutes later,
The nurse in a black and white petticoat delivered the computer and the coffee from the dining cart to the table in front of Anna's armrest sofa.
"Well, it looks like at least the contract is pretty formal."
Miss Elena read the contents of the contract page by page on the computer screen, turning the pages constantly, sometimes slightly highlighting some specific terms.
When the girl browsed the contract, the first thing she focused on was almost the same as Mrs. Sakai.
Each gallery's standard contract has its own unique style. Whether a gallery is a black shop that sells people can be determined by looking at the terms of the contract.
She didn't see those very tricky conditions, but her eyes paused for a moment on the shares and years.
"15 years, 70% commission?" Anna thought for a moment.
This copy of the contract shows the conditions and quotations prepared by Hanks before he first came to Yangon.
The commission is good or bad.
It's just that the years are a bit too long, but if it's the intercontinental gallery that Ms. Detective Cat talks about, Anna can understand it.
She put this thing aside for the time being and carefully browsed the relevant areas of the agency content.
"Restricting the auction, this contract clause is not very favorable."
Anna shook her head slightly.
When an illustrator reaches a high place, if he wants to break through the circle, he cannot avoid cooperating with the auction house.
KAWS is a frequent visitor to the auction house.
Even Takashi Murakami, whose artistic style is similar to his, often jointly promotes works with galleries and auction houses to create figures, trendy toys, and spray-painted illustrations with a unit price of more than five million US dollars.
Not to mention whether Detective Cat will take this route in the future, and whether it can reach this point.
Just these terms kill that possibility.
Anna took out her phone again.
Except when passing through undersea tunnels and climbing over certain mountains, Eurostar trains, as the pride of the old railway industry in Europe, have mobile phone signals throughout the journey.
Anna did not rush to reply to Detective Cat. Instead, she chose a name in the classmate directory and dialed.
The art industry, finance industry and political industry all belong to circles that pay great attention to industry connections.
High-end people are often seniors who graduated from the same school.
Certain colleges at Oxford University provided more than 30% of senior bureaucrats in the 1980s and 1990s.
The WYN Academy of Fine Arts where Anna University studied is one of the oldest art academies in Europe.
It is famous for two things.
It has a department of art theory and cultural studies that is consistently ranked among the top five in Europe, and the Academy of Fine Arts once rejected a young art student with a mustache who admired this institution for two consecutive years in 1907 and 1908.
Excluding the latter, this unpleasant episode has affected human history.
Since the 21st century, WYN Academy of Fine Arts has still cultivated a large number of high-end talents in the high-end art industry.
There are also a large number of upper-class people who send their children here to cultivate their artistic accomplishments.
For example, Anna,
For example, her former roommate Aurora is now the senior administrative manager of the largest private gallery in Bern, the capital of Switzerland. Reading art agency contracts is completely within the scope of professionalism.
In fact, just looking at the legal contract, Anna does not necessarily have to find Aurora.
The Jelena family has a long-term consultancy agreement with the oldest law firm in Gleze. Anna has professional private legal counsel.
but,
She couldn't help but have a little thought in her heart.
"Aurora, look at a contract for me... By the way, you are a professional, can you tell which gallery this is and the contract template and style used by it?"
As soon as the call was connected, Ana couldn't help but asked curiously.
(End of chapter)
