"Sign him!!!"
Hanks received the call suddenly at almost four o'clock in the morning yesterday.
Business management courses tell us that the bigger a company is, the more bloated it will be and the slower its operating efficiency will be.
Ma Shi Gallery is not a giant trust group with hundreds of thousands of employees, but it can be regarded as a multinational private company with asset valuations of more than a few hundred million euros conservatively.
The entire company's operating system is like a complex gear set.
Hunter dealers like Hanks directly report to the administrative manager of Asia, and above him there is the senior administrative director of the gallery headquarters in Regensburg.
The director is responsible to the big boss Mas III.
Big contracts like the one proposed by Mrs. Sakai yesterday are not within Hanks's scope of authority.
Hanks needs to convey his opinions to the manager,
Then the manager will convey it to the headquarters.
The administrative manager of the headquarters briefly reviewed it. Because Mrs. Sakai’s proposal included not only profit sharing, but also personal exhibitions and the publication of special albums. Therefore, comprehensive communication was required with the operations department and the exhibition department.
If necessary, you will also need to request legal intervention.
And because it involves great artists like Lin Tao and Professor Sakai.
Therefore, after the entire gallery senior management has discussed an appropriate opinion, it will ultimately need to be presented to Mas III himself, who will make the critical decision in person.
If we were to go through all this quickly, it would take a week and a half.
As the gallery is busy with major exhibitions, it would be great to receive accurate feedback within ten days.
Representing major artists is inherently a very tedious and meticulous job.
No matter before signing the contract or after signing the contract, everything must be done rigorously. Only in this way can we reduce the friction and disputes that may arise in the future and take away all the benefits that the gallery can take away.
Gu Weijing himself is not a great artist, but the connections behind him allow him to enjoy the treatment of a great artist.
Hanks' original plan was to wander along the Yangon River, visit the Shwedagon Pagoda, and have fun in the past few days.
By the way, he hoped to see if he could have a relationship with Mrs. Sakai and leave a personal phone number to establish some connections. It would be a worthwhile trip.
So when Hanks received a call from the gallery in the early hours of the morning, he was shocked.
Not just shocked.
That's when Hanks discovered that not only had the gallery given instructions in the middle of the night under dark lights, but the person who called him was actually the big boss, Mas III himself.
Hanks' face turned green.
That's the head of one of the largest galleries in the world!
Hanks also took advantage of his last name and raised a champagne glass to the big boss Neng every year at the gallery's annual meeting. He would just give a general nod to a large number of people on the podium and forget about it.
For events such as family dinners held at Christmas, collateral relatives like him would not be invited at all.
Hanks even vaguely remembered that Mas III bought a small winery in the south of France. At this season of the year, Mas III should spend his vacation in the lavender fields that are about to open in southern France.
You stay up late to make work calls while on vacation. Do you work that hard as a boss?
"Sign him!"
Max III's majestic voice came from the far end, awakening the surprised and overwhelmed agent, "Hanks Max, right? If you can't sign him, I will be very disappointed, so don't take the trust." ”
"WTF..."
Mashi is a big family.
Ma Shi, the sugar tycoon in the first half of the 20th century and the founder of the Ma Shi Gallery, established a family trust fund when he passed away. Future generations can receive money according to their bloodline and use the trust money to go to college. , see a doctor or something.
The Ma Shi family has long ceased to operate in the industrial field, but the trust has remained. People like Hanks can also get one or two thousand euros from it every month.
It's very troublesome for the company to fire someone, and they have to pay various compensations, but deactivating the trust is the right of parents of the generation of Limashi III stipulated in the bank contract.
These collateral relatives can give parking to whomever they want.
"Sign him, and this year's outstanding staff and bonuses at the gallery will be yours. I also invite you to this year's Christmas dinner."
Ma Shi III was worthy of being a capitalist. He was deeply impressed by the idea of using a whip and a carrot to drive a donkey to grind hard, so he casually promised benefits.
"come on."
When Hanks was wondering whether he should be happy or worried, the administrative director called.
Then there’s the operations director and exhibition planner.
Then there is the company’s legal director.
Hanks didn't know why.
He just knows.
This night,
All the senior managers of Ma Shi Gallery are staying up late and working overtime to get a contract for an art amateur.
Ma Shi III did not hang up the line and was always connected during the conference call. Occasionally he would express opinions and give instructions on some specific terms.
What was baffling to everyone on the call was that Mas III was not always working for the interests of his gallery.
Many times he asked his team to make greater concessions and share more benefits and benefits with Gu Weijing.
Especially the moment when the big boss finally said the welfare conditions that he could agree to.
Even the operations director and exhibition planner, two old men who have worked for Ma Shi Gallery for more than 30 years, are a little confused.
An unknown artist.
Even though he has a close relationship with Professor Sakai and Cao Xuan's second disciple Lin Tao, in the final analysis he is just a newcomer.
It’s not like Mashi Gallery doesn’t have a number of great painters in its ranks.
Is this really necessary?
The conference call had just ended at dawn.
Hanks simply stopped sleeping, washed his face twice, got a taxi and went straight to Gu's calligraphy and painting shop.
"I'd like to ask you how you did it."
Hanks was let into the room by Gu Weijing, and when he sat down on the sofa, he couldn't help but say.
"What are you referring to?"
"With all due respect, Mr. Max III personally called overnight to deal with the situation of a newly signed amateur artist. This is the first time I have encountered him in so many years of work." Hanks yawned while leaning on the cup in his chair, and rubbed his neck as if for free. And sprinkle toilet water on your arms.
Gu Weijing did not answer. He turned his back to the window and looked at the Yangon River in the morning, leaving Hanks with a back full of rising sunlight.
He is not pretending to be mysterious or profound.
Gu Weijing really didn't know that the big boss of Ma Shi Gallery was so interested in him.
He could guess that this should be the handiwork of Mr. Cao Xuan, but he didn't know any more about the specific details than Hanks did.
Gu Weijing took out his mobile phone from his pocket.
The reply that Lao Yang sent not long ago contained only a few words - "Lao Cao understands, OK." The content was very cold.
"As per your request, I have already written out the contract. I have obtained the authorization from Mr. Mas III. We can sign the contract at any time as long as you are willing."
Seeing that he couldn't get the answer from Gu Weijing, Hanks put away his curiosity and opened the password-protected briefcase at hand.
"Wait a moment, I have sent a message to Mrs. Cruz, she will be here in a moment."
——
"The contract period is five years? Including a place at the booth of the 2024 Swiss Spring Art Fair to display your works?"
Mrs. Sakai stared with suspicious eyes, scanning the paper contract in front of her up and down, trying to see the trap under the honey cake.
This is...the sun comes out from the west?
When Mrs. Sakai put forward the conditions yesterday, she knew that according to the habits of large galleries, it would not be so easy to agree directly.
The two sides will definitely have to test and pull each other for a long time.
Mrs. Sakai raised such high conditions to give Ma Shi Gallery room to bargain.
What kind of personal art exhibition, publishing a special album?
These conditions are for negotiation.
If the negotiation is good, they will get an advantage. If the negotiation is not good, Gu Weijing will not suffer anyway.
If he is capable enough, he can get these exposure resources by himself even if they are not specified in the contract.
If you can't hold up the wall with your own mud, even if the face stipulated in the contract is met, the gallery can just muddle through.
If we can negotiate the main points, we have achieved the psychological goal of satisfying Mrs. Sakai.
The gift she gave this boy was enough to last him for a long time.
But this...what's going on!
Mrs. Sakai looked at the signature and authorization seal of Mashi Gallery below.
If this was a scene from a Japanese comic book, a whole row of question marks would have appeared on her head.
Not only were every condition she set out yesterday met without any discount, the gallery even took the initiative to adjust the contract period from the seven years she proposed to five years.
"A contract that you stayed up all night to come up with? It seems like you really want to sign Xiao Gu."
Mrs. Sakai used the corner of her eye to glance at Hanks, who was sitting there so tired that he was about to take a nap, and asked pretending to be nonchalant.
"100% sincerity, 120% patience, only providing the best service to Mashi's artists."
The blond agent hung his head and kept drinking half a dozen bottles of Nescafe coffee bought from the hotel front desk. He used caffeine and the urge to urinate to fight his sleepiness, and casually recited a slogan from the gallery.
Looking at his confused look, Mrs. Sakai knew that the other party might also be confused.
"I see in the contract, you have decided to take Gu Weijing to participate in next year's art fair?" Mrs. Sakai asked curiously.
"Well, the gallery has rented a booth, and we can promise to give Mr. Gu a quota of no less than three works for the exhibition."
Hanks held up three fingers.
Art fair is the abbreviation of international art fair.
Since Queen Victoria held the high-profile World Industrial Exhibition in the Crystal Palace in 1851, art fairs modeled on the World's Fair were born.
Nowadays, art fairs are not held every four or five years like the World Expo and the Olympics. Instead, dozens of art fairs are held every year in major countries and developed cities around the world.
The painter wants to be famous,
Except for things like opening a special personal art exhibition, which has a very high threshold.
There are only two channels for painters to face the public - participating in biennales with a very large flow of people or participating in art fairs where works can be sold at high prices.
There is no distinction between the two, many things are similar. During the exhibition period, a large number of art masters and wealthy collectors will visit.
If I have to say the difference,
The former is more like an artistic competition, while the latter is more of a purely commercial sales exhibition.
Moutai won the gold medal at the XX World Expo and has been selling well overseas ever since. The story of how many bottles were sold has been spread to this day.
Art fairs are a similar occasion.
It is because the business atmosphere is more intense, and all the participating galleries on this big stage are here to sell paintings for large sums, so the sales cost of participating paintings in art fairs is very high.
To participate in the Biennale, just register directly.
As long as you can pass the audition of the organizing committee, you can participate in the exhibition even with no money and paintings.
There is no audition at the art fair, everyone can participate, and if you participate, you will basically be able to sell your paintings. It is common for small painters to see the average price of their works double or triple once they participate.
Everything is great, except...booths cost money.
Naked price tag.
It costs a lot of money, a lot of money.
The Ota Art Gallery where Professor Kazunari Sakai works participated in the San Diego Art Fair in the United States the year before last, which is one of the more popular art fairs in the world.
Several major galleries in North America participate almost every year.
At that time, Daejeon Art Gallery received an offer of US$600,000 for a week’s rent of a small booth that could not fit several artists’ works on the edge.
The shops a little further to the center are priced at US$800,000 to US$1 million, and double that further in. The large booth in the center is even auctioned by direct bidding.
The cost is no less than US$3.5 million per week, which is equivalent to thousands of US dollars spent every minute the paintings on the stand are in front of the audience during the exhibition.
How many art students have spent their entire lives painting but still can't sell a piece of work for $1,000!
High-end art is a crazy money-burning game from beginning to end.
The ridiculously expensive participation costs of art fairs have almost prevented scattered independent painters from participating in the exhibitions.
Large-scale art fairs often only have booths assigned to the national teams of various sovereign countries, as well as official booths rented by various large galleries or small and medium-sized galleries that want to compete in the art fair, a magical place where money is everywhere. .
Every artist who can be brought to an art fair by a gallery is the heart of the gallery owner.
They are the gallery’s most important high-quality assets.
nonsense,
In the past, the little painters made money by painting works by unknown little painters, but the gallery couldn't even collect the booth fee, and lost so much money.
"The booth of the 2024 Swiss Summer Art Fair? The spring art fair here refers to the Basel Swiss Art Fair, right?"
Mrs. Sakai couldn't help but want to confirm.
In the evaluation report of Oil Painting magazine, Art Basel was listed as the art fair with the most outstanding growth rate in the number of visitors and total transaction price after 2015.
Every year, four art fairs are held in spring, summer, autumn and winter at Victoria Harbor in Hong Kong, Basel City, the Swiss headquarters, Miami Beach in the United States and the banks of the Seine in Paris, making it convenient for Europe, East Asia and the United States, which have the largest number of art fairs in the world. The market is visited by collectors and wealthy groups of tourists.
The scale and volume are not lower than the San Diego Art Fair that Datian Art Gallery participated in.
"Oh, of course, what else could it mean but Art Basel?" Hanks asked in a confused tone.
"In this case, please write the accurate name of the art fair on the contract. If it is convenient, make sure that the booth location for Yu Gu Weijing's more than three works is also written down."
Mrs. Sakai was afraid that the other party was organizing a pheasant show with a similar name, and was pretending to be nothing.
Halfway through the words,
She didn't even think it was necessary.
Li Gui impersonates Li Kui’s trashy cheap art fair, which is also seen in the industry.
But participating in this kind of exhibition will bring shame to Mashi Gallery.
"Okay, no problem. I will change this in a moment and print it out again. I will indicate that Mr. Gu will be given more than three art exhibition quotas."
Hanks doesn't want to dwell on such trivial matters.
During an early morning conference call, he was given full authority to sign the contract.
There is no need to ask your superiors for instructions on such trivial matters.
The big boss, Ma Shi III, looked eager to fly over from South France directly on the phone. What kind of villain is he, a wage earner?
The savings for the gallery went back to Hanks.
"Do you have any other questions, Mrs. Cruz?" Hanks yawned again, looking like he was letting Mrs. Sakai flatten and round him.
"I don't have a problem with it. It's indeed very sincere."
Mrs. Sakai thought she had nothing more to say.
It's simply too sincere.
Today is a school day, and Sakai Katsuko didn't come with her. The blond aunt glanced at Gu Weijing, who was sitting quietly next to her, reading the contract.
"Is this kid really that good?"
Mrs. Sakai kept humming in her heart.
I'm not only afraid that my son-in-law will have a hard time, but I'm also afraid that my son-in-law will drive a Land Rover.
This description is not appropriate, but it fits Mrs. Sakai's complicated mood at this time.
She came to be a middleman to negotiate the contract for Gu Weijing. The more favorable the conditions, the better. But when the conditions were so generous, Mrs. Sakai felt a little sour.
The first time her husband was taken to an art fair by Ota Art Gallery was a long time after he joined, and the eldest daughter Katsuko Sakai could even run around on the ground.
Also because the booth space is not enough.
One piece of work was taken down on the spot, and only a 30-foot large oil painting was installed in the corner of the booth rented by Datian Art Gallery.
The oil painting was bought by a wealthy Lebanese businessman for 270,000 pounds.
That year's art fair was also the first work in Mr. Sakai's life that sold for more than 300,000 US dollars. From then on, the average price of works began to enter a stage of rapid growth.
This precious opportunity, obtained after so many years of hard work, was given to Ma Shi Gallery as soon as Gu Weijing was signed.
Mrs. Sakai recalled the hard struggle she had with her husband.
Suddenly I felt like life was so fucking unfair.
"The sales target is US$200,000. If you are lucky, you can get it at an art fair." Mrs. Sakai curled her lips.
"This is a direct recommendation to enter the ranks of international artists."
The reason why she initially set the number of US$200,000 was because if the cumulative sales exceed US$200,000, the art world would generally consider her to be a painter with a certain international reputation.
He's just a very low-end international painter.
The age where care is the norm.
The gallery can sell him works worth 200,000 U.S. dollars. Even if he makes no money at all, he will not get a penny, and he will not lose anything to gain this reputation.
"Mr. Gu, do you have any additional needs? The terms you proposed have been added to the back of the contract. If it is anonymous, we will not interfere with your online illustration creation and we will not ask for any rights."
Hanks scratched his hair: "Actually, there is no need for this. Ma Shi Gallery also has the intention to develop into virtual blockchain art. If you are willing to cooperate with us, we also have good resources and platforms."
Gu Weijing flipped through the contract and added the corresponding terms according to his own opinions.
There isn’t any arcane legal jargon, and a lot of it is simple, concise vernacular.
Simple and straightforward, nothing fancy.
Mr. Sloth told him in the email that the more vague and futile the technical terms, the more room there would be for debate in court.
Ma Shi Gallery completely added Gu Weijing's request to the contract without modification, and they probably didn't want to tamper with it.
"Gu Weijing, are you still drawing illustrations? It's not easy to illustrate anonymously. The Murakami Takashi and KAWS I know, they are both geniuses who can market themselves crazily in front of the media."
Mrs. Sakai also saw these clauses appearing in the contract.
She finally couldn't help her desire to criticize others, and mocked a little: "Just by painting, without a suitable opportunity and stage to show myself, it is not enough to paint to the level of the female painter in Mr. Haibo's video." Selling cheap paintings for ten dollars a piece online?”
"I draw serious art with Katsuko and support each other. I want to play, but when I become famous and have money, I will have plenty of time to play."
She and Mr. Cao have the same view, believing that children have nothing to do and are just playing for fun.
Gu Weijing didn't explain, just smiled at Mrs. Sakai.
"I don't have any problems anymore. Very satisfied."
All of his hopes were reflected in the document, and even went beyond.
Gu Weijing had no reason to be dissatisfied with the contents of this contract.
"You can sign this contract now, but Mr. Mas III thought maybe we could play a little coin toss."
Speaking of which,
Hanks suddenly wasn't sleepy anymore.
He took out a one-euro coin from his pocket and pointed at the contract in front of Gu Weijing.
"This is side A."
Then he took out another document from the briefcase.
"This is side B." Hanks pushed it in front of Gu Weijing's eyes.
"Since you want to participate in the Singapore Art Exhibition, Mr. Mas III said, if you are confident enough, you can choose a more challenging gameplay. We sign an agreement. If you can win the prize, then we will execute Contract A, If you cannot win the prize, we will execute Contract B."
"Tch, I also asked why you suddenly became so generous. It turns out that this is the trap."
Mrs. Sakai scoffed.
It turns out that such good contract conditions are just conditions for fishing in front of you.
Gu Weijing's current works are eye-catching but far from perfect.
Can you win an award?
It depends on whether Mashi Gallery is willing to use cost marketing?
"What is contract B, a contract for the sale of black slaves? We will not sign such a contract." Mrs. Sakai was unhappy.
"No, no, no, madam, let me say it again, we come here with full sincerity. All the terms in the two contracts are the same. Even if Mr. Gu fails to win the prize at the exhibition, we are still willing to sign the contract on the terms you proposed. Regardless of the other party, we are still willing to take Mr. Gu to participate in the Swiss Art Fair next year."
"Well?"
This completely troubled Mrs. Sakai.
"It's just Contract B that we have to sign for fifteen years. Ma Shi Gallery is really optimistic about you. We hope to cooperate with you in a longer and stable manner."
Hanks looked directly into Gu Weijing's eyes.
"I know you are wondering now why you didn't just sign contract A."
"If you are willing to bet, if you win, Mr. Mas III likes young people with courage. Winning the Masters category at the age of 18 should also create history."
"For such an outstanding artistic talent, it is our honor to serve you. Mr. Mas III is willing to give you a gift that you can't even imagine."
With a mysterious smile on his face, Hanks handed an exquisite Christmas card-like thing to Gu Weijing.
"To be honest, when I heard Mr. Mas III say what he was willing to give you yesterday, even my boss thought Mr. Mas was completely crazy."
(End of chapter)
