(Updated, please vote at the end of the month!)
"The old count had a very good relationship with this aunt who often took him out to play when he was a child. He watched the other person die beside him under both mental and physical torture. That must have had a great emotional impact on him."
The white rose bouquet in front of Anna swayed slightly in the wind.
Elliot tapped his toes on the floor nervously.
She is the kind of girl who has a little bit of a wealthy family background. She has been fond of the romantic nineteenth century since she was a child.
Records in middle school textbooks call this period of history the "Golden Age," which was the last prosperous time of good old Europe before the war.
The imagination in her mind is often filled with the scene style of Proust's "In Search of Lost Time".
A handsome young officer wearing riding boots and carrying a saber and a pistol dances in the salon at sunset with a girl wearing a pleated skirt with a silver brooch on her chest, bathing in the music of the waltz.
But imagination and reality are always different.
When the heir of the Elena family told this past event in Elliot's ear.
The smoke and dust of history with the smell of grit and blood will rush towards your face and cover the secretary's head.
She realized it instantly.
When people recall historical figures, they always put on subjective filters.
There are many monarchs and lords in the history books who are named as benevolent, but they will treat human life as nothing. Bishops and monks canonized by the Vatican also sold indulgence scrolls and placed witch-burning racks on both sides of the Rhine.
Even the great and immortal Tolstoy repeatedly repented in his memoirs for his behavior in his youth when he used whips to whip servants and serfs like wild dogs.
The feudal era was the feudal era.
Even the Irina family, the most gentle, civilized and art-loving nobles, have done such cruel and inhumane things.
"That Ms. Kara died like that? Nothing was left? Not a single painting?"
Ana was silent for a few seconds, shook her head and nodded again.
"According to records, Grandma Kara died of tuberculosis within a few years of being imprisoned. It's hard to say whether she was lucky or unfortunate."
"If she had held on for a few more years, she might have been able to survive her brother's death. Or maybe death would have been a relief for Grandma Kara at that time."
"When I was a student, I once read a set of photos. They were news photos of an illegal imprisonment case exposed by the French police in the last century. A wealthy lady was locked up in the attic by her mother for sixteen years. In the photo, she was originally beautiful. The girl who looks like a fairy has been detained and tortured like a ghost."
Anna took off the soft woolen hat on her head and held the brim of the hat with her hands.
"I want to say that the Elena family is not a noble sage. My ancestors have done many right things and many irreparable wrong things. So "Oil Painting" magazine does not have to be related to Elena. These names cannot be bound together."
"It's just that this magazine started from the moment it was founded. It is just a container for the artist's soul, rather than the hands that control the art market. In the eyes of the old count, the editor of the magazine is not really writing art reviews, but just Serve as a bridge between excellent works of art and the audience, allowing the painting to tell its own beauty to the world.
At the same time, they will uphold their perseverance and show outstanding painters from all corners of the world to collectors all over the world, regardless of wealth or poverty, origin or gender. Help the next possible painter like Grandma Kara.
Without this persistent quality, Oil Painting Magazine would be dead. All that's left is an empty shell. That's why I'm here today even though I know the outcome of the shareholders' meeting. "
"In honor of... Kara."
Anna took off her hat to the bronze statue, then turned sideways and bowed slightly to express her gratitude to the street band who played "The Blue Danube" for her not far away.
The girl turned around and let the wheelchair go towards the door of the oil painting magazine.
——
Ten minutes later, there was a large conference room on the top floor of the magazine.
"Mr. Al-Khelaifi, I heard that you successfully persuaded the Metropolitan Museum of Art Foundation to mobilize US$36.55 million in funds to buy Monet's "Haystack" at the Poly Paris Spring Auction at the beginning of the year? But? What a generous act. If my memory hadn't been faulted by age, the Met would have already had a Haystack and two Water Lilies."
"Exactly, Sir Brown, don't worry, your memory is as accurate as a young boy. I have always believed that Impressionism is a stable and value-preserving gold in the field of art investment, which is much more stable than Pop Art at a similar price. Yes. The opportunity to own a Monet is always very rare, not to mention that in 2019, another "Haystack" was sold for US$110.6 million."
"Hey, I heard that the "Haystack" you bought is not in very good condition and has signs of later repairs?" Another person with an Asian face wearing a dark blue formal suit said.
"You get what you pay for, and US$3,600 is much cheaper than US$100 million. Four Monet paintings, two Degas, one Renoir, two Seurats, one Mademoiselle Marie, and three horses Nye. Counting this painting, the Met’s current collection is large enough to open a small special exhibition on Impressionism.”
The Chief Art Advisor of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Al-Khelaifi, turned his head and asked: "Speaking of which, Professor Sakurai Rikiya, you are a senior curator and you are also very knowledgeable about the Impressionist art style. You are in "Asian Art" The tonal analysis of Pissarro’s works is very impressive. If I invite you at this moment, I wonder if Professor Sakurai is interested in organizing this special exhibition.”
"Well, maybe the time is not right. Sorry, I also want to fight for the position of chief curator of the Japanese National Pavilion at the next Venice Biennale. It is difficult to find time..."
With the arrival of Miss Elena, all shareholders of the magazine were present.
Big names in the art world gathered here.
Any ambitious art student who walks into this conference room may faint from excitement.
An artist's career requires noble people.
And every shareholder present here is such a noble person.
Art professors, art experts, top curators...some of them are also academicians of the French Academy or judges of the Turner Watercolor Prize.
Any one of them, to the outside world, is the kind of boss who can make people soar in place with just a flick of his finger, saving them ten years of detours.
The composition of shareholders of "Oil Painting" magazine is very fragmented.
Before the entry of Kruger Brothers Bank, the only major shareholders were the Austrian National Publishing Group, the European Art Association and the Jelena family.
And there are many small shareholders.
Almost all of them are famous art masters and art critics.
This ownership structure has been a feature of Oil Painting magazine in recent years.
Sufficient top experts and scholars usually hold important positions. Who has the time to spend so much energy writing for a magazine for no reason?
Anna's grandfather and aunt ran the establishment for the past half century.
In order to hire some scholars with sufficient weight to be the lead authors or special commentators.
They sometimes offer the opportunity to purchase a certain share of the magazine's equity at a relatively low price, attracting world-class experts and scholars to write long-term reviews for "Oil Painting."
In addition to maintaining their independence, they rejected requests from gallerists to inject capital into the company.
That leaves all kinds of high-end art people.
Almost all the shareholders of "Oil Painting" are fully occupied.
It even includes an academic who came to politics and is now a senior adviser to the Spanish Ministry of Culture.
There are rumors that the other party has a close relationship with a certain prime ministerial candidate and is expected to join the cabinet and become the top leader of the cultural department in the next government.
Five hundred years ago, it was the church that controlled the artistic aesthetics of European society.
Was king three hundred years ago.
So in the past century, it was the shareholders of this "Oil Painting" magazine.
If there are terrorists at this time, detonate a bomb in this conference room.
Then this bomb destroyed not only the physical body, but also the abstract concept of "artistic aesthetics". Tomorrow morning will trigger a huge earthquake that will affect the global art world.
The management of "Oil Painting" magazine holds the supreme right to determine the quality of gold in an art market that has over ten billion US dollars of capital inflow every year, and the amount is still rising.
The profitability of the entire magazine is not high.
Before Kruger Bank considered taking a stake, even the market valuation only stayed at a conservative 70 million to 100 million euros.
Perhaps this can rank among the top ten in the world in the entire magazine media field.
But the shareholders want more than just some bullshit top ten magazine in the world. With the resources they have, they can easily become one of the most valuable magazines.
Compared with "VOGUE" in North America, a leading fashion magazine with a history of more than 100 years, which was founded in the same year as "Oil Painting".
But it may not even be half of the brand valuation given by investment banks on Wall Street.
There is still a lot of room for commercial value to be tapped.
Compared with their outstanding achievements in the field of art, the Elena family is indeed too cautious in finance.
People's hearts are always greedy.
therefore,
From the moment Anna's wheelchair was pushed into the conference room by Elliot, the atmosphere in the room was extremely weird.
The conference room is very large.
There are red curtains, thick carpets, and an antique walnut bar table in the middle dividing the room in half.
A pair of comfortable armchairs were placed opposite each other on either side of the long table.
Sitting on one side of the long table were a group of old men with an average age of over fifty-five.
Sitting alone in the opposite row were two young girls whose combined total was less than 50 years old.
The old men have gray hair.
The girls are so tender that they can squeeze out water.
At this time, the scene in the conference room looked incongruous, like dead old trees confronting two bright hyacinths.
The composition is like some kind of religious painting with strange meanings.
These art giants who can influence the trend of contemporary art, while whispering to each other, their eyes always look to the opposite side of the table involuntarily.
None of them spoke to Anna.
The shareholders' meeting did not undergo any advance rehearsal.
All seats are formed spontaneously.
The atmosphere in which these people whispered and talked to each other, deliberately isolating the two girls across the table, also formed spontaneously.
"Alas...what a pity."
Someone sighed quietly in their hearts.
Many of them had no personal prejudices against Miss Anna.
Even in the past, there was a good personal friendship with Anna's aunt.
But today, with a strange tacit understanding, they all maintained a deliberate distance from Elena.
Even when the other party looked over, he took the initiative to turn his head, completely treating the other party as an invisible ghost.
"Why do you have to come here to attend and witness yourself being kicked out?" Professor Sakurai, who was sitting diagonally across from Anna, showed sympathy and intolerance on his face.
The shareholders' meeting has not yet been officially convened.
It will be completely clear what the outcome of the vote will be after a while.
"It's too much! These old things are too much!"
Sitting across the table, Elliot gritted his teeth.
She saw Anna saying hello to the old guys on the opposite side one by one, but they completely ignored them.
The secretary hated it so much that she could smash the hot teacup in her hand on the heads of the old guys across from them.
Elliot began to regret not persuading Miss Elena to bring a legal team. Even if he didn't do anything, it would be good to build up momentum.
perhaps……
In this scenario, it may be wiser to simply abstain from voting at this shareholders' meeting.
"By the way, Miss Elena..."
The female secretary couldn't bear the embarrassing calm around them at this time, so she took off the Apple Pencil adsorbed on the tablet.
Elliot swiped a few times on his electronic wallet and pulled out the file he was looking for.
“You asked me to pay attention to the information about new agent artist members of [Saatchi Gallery], [Tokyo Gallery], [Lehmann Maupin Gallery in New York] and [Muse Gallery]. I downloaded these galleries from their official websites. All updates to the latest artist list have been taken down. But I can only count all the public information, so I don’t know if this list can satisfy you.”
Elliot handed over the tablet.
She is the full-time personal secretary hired by Miss Elena. A few weeks ago, the lady specially asked her to pay attention to the lists of agent painters in these galleries.
She asked herself to sort out all the new names, and it would be best to write down a detailed personal information.
This request is strange.
Elliot didn't know what the lady was doing mysteriously.
She didn't ask any more questions.
She is just a person who is responsible for doing things and only needs to care about how to carry out Anna's orders.
The work itself is not complicated.
After a large gallery signs a new artist, they will immediately update the relevant signing information on their official homepage and establish a personal webpage for the new agent painter.
A detailed creative resume is often attached directly to the personal homepage to increase collectors' understanding of the painter and facilitate the sale of paintings in the future.
Elliot just needs to be careful, stare at the web page every day, and just copy and paste any new information.
In the conference room, the scene of my young lady being left there without anyone paying attention was really too sad.
Elliot wanted to change the subject, anything.
At least don't let Anna stay there seemingly unnoticed.
"Oh, any new news?"
Anna's eyes lit up as she looked as calm as an ice sculpture.
Her slender eyebrows were slightly raised, and a vivid expression of excitement and curiosity flashed across the girl's face.
Elliot captured this scene with wonder in his heart.
She vaguely felt...
Compared to the changes involving tens of millions of euros in assets, this small list seems to concern Miss Anna more.
"Well, except for the Tokyo gallery's agent list, there has been no change. The remaining three have all represented a new artist's work this month."
"That's it."
Anna took the tablet.
Only three people?
No,
It should be said that there are three people?
Every artist represented by the top intercontinental galleries has been carefully selected for a long time. Gagosian Gallery can't wait for the list to remain unchanged from year to year. Three major galleries have signed new artists recently. .
It seems that the high-rise art market is quite lively this month.
"There is Africa...there are only three in total, let me see for myself."
Anna quickly swiped through the files organized by the secretary on the tablet.
Newcomers to all three galleries are filed separately in a document, along with accompanying photos.
[Gallery: Saatchi Gallery]
[Name: Maliuk Johnlevich]
【Age: 35】
[Oil painting buyer rating: two stars]
The first document is of a middle-aged Caucasian man.
In the photo, he has a beard with a very artistic temperament. From the appearance, he is not at all similar to the detective cat sister.
Anna did not close the document immediately.
"THE Detective Cat" is just an online name.
The personal information registered on Fiverr is not necessarily true.
Since he can change his voice into a middle-aged uncle on the Internet, Detective Cat may not be a Russian.
However, after the girl read two pages of Maliuk's personal information, she shook her head in disappointment.
"The temperament doesn't match. This guy has been hanging out in art galleries for many years."
This guy graduated from the Repin Academy of Fine Arts, specializing in watercolor painting. He had already signed a contract with a medium-sized gallery in Eastern Europe, and this year he was hired by the Saatchi Gallery.
Maliuk's situation is normal, and InterContinental Gallery has high standards.
Unless you have a reliable recommender or a supernova who made a splash at the Biennale.
They rarely sign amateurs from the bottom of the art market.
Most of them are poaching some middle-level painters who have already established a certain reputation from small galleries and medium-sized galleries with joint agency agreements.
There are only a few like Ms. Detective Cat.
No matter from the message in the words or the feeling the words bring to Anna.
In her heart, she thought that this eldest sister was more like a young newcomer who had never signed a contract with a serious gallery.
Miss Elena moved to the next document.
The "new" painter at Lehmann Maupin in New York is also in a similar situation to Maliuk, a 41-year-old French female painter.
The age and gender are both right.
Algeria was France's most important colony in Africa.
Logically speaking, she is most likely to be a detective cat.
Miss Elena only drew for a few seconds, scanned the file, and then closed it altogether.
This is an artist with an avant-garde art style. Her masterpiece is not even a painting, but a specimen of swordfish soaked in formalin in an aquarium.
Anna didn't believe that the other party could possess the outstanding skills of a detective cat.
more importantly.
Before he joined Lehmann Maupin in New York this month, he was a three-star painter in the "Oil Painting" magazine buyer's guide. After joining, he was directly adjusted to three-and-a-half stars.
The swordfish specimen alone was bought by a Lebanese businessman for 170,000 euros.
This kind of artist can't draw illustrations online for ten dollars.
"There's only one left."
Anna opened the last document with anxiety.
Then an old bald face with a smile like a meat bun came into the girl's eyes.
[Gallery: Ma Shi Gallery]
[Name: Gu Tongxiang]
【Age: 68】
[Oil painting buyer rating: one star]
"Gu Tongxiang?"
Anna pondered this unfamiliar name.
The girl browsed the old man's personal information.
Its creative resume is very thin, and it seems that Mashi Gallery has racked its brains to make the background information of this elderly agent artist more convincing.
Regrettably,
Although this Mr. Gu Tongxiang is more than twenty years older than the first two on the list, his creative background is pitiful.
He doesn’t have any important works or awards, and he has never been signed by a serious gallery before.
Didn't even go to college.
He is a rare wild fox Zen type painter in modern times.
According to the background information, he lives in Yangon, Myanmar, in a land that was once recognized by the United Nations as the poorest in the world.
"...I have been engaged in painting and art management for many years in the market. I have rich experience beyond that of young painters, and I have my own profound and unique insights into Asian art trends..."
Looking at the resume information that Mashi Gallery painstakingly prepared for Mr. Gu.
Anna almost wanted to laugh.
This is a contract with a painter, not an agent. Since when can being engaged in the art management field for many years count as an advantage in creative style?
The second half of the sentence, changed to a lower EQ expression, clearly means that although the old man I signed is an unknown "little" guy, he is older!
Of course, a person who is almost seventy years old has more experience than a thirty-year-old painter.
Miss Jelena knows the style of these galleries.
This is obviously because this old gentleman really has nothing to put on the table in his past information, so he has no choice but to write this kind of vain copywriting.
Anna also noticed.
This Gu Tongxiang's recommendation page in the "Oil Painting" magazine buyer's guide is all newly created. There is only the information of "Mashi Gallery's agent painter", and the transaction price of the painting is also 0.
This means that even the editorial department of "Oil Painting" has never known or paid attention to this old man before.
It has not been three days since the one-star artist rating was updated.
"Oil Painting" magazine's buyer's guide star selection adopts a dual scoring system of "market objective + editorial subjectivity".
Those who can be signed by Mashi Gallery are endorsed by the super gallery's century-old reputation, and the minimum starting point is one star. If he can be signed by Gagosian, he will even start with three and a half stars.
Gu Tongxiang was noticed by "Oil Painting" purely because of Ma Shi's reputation.
"It's really not easy for this old gentleman to be picked by Ma Shi in a remote country. I don't know what makes him stand out."
Anna scrolled down the page.
A peony picture jumped into view, and she couldn't help but blink again.
(End of chapter)
