At three o'clock in the afternoon, a gong sounded.
The 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.
"Please be patient, everyone, 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"
Crowd Bustling out of the bidding area.
Gu Weijing saw several police cars followed by a blue and black anti-riot armored vehicle driving into the door of the warehouse.
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, gathered in a group, and lazily smoking there.
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. I don't feel at ease without the police."
The uncle noticed Gu Weijing's eyes. , patted his nephew on the shoulder, and looked like he had seen a big event. "The annual jade auction is the big event. Those jewelry merchants from the Eastern Xia Mainland and Eastern Xia Hong Kong and Taiwan are often billionaires. In order to ensure For the stability and safety of the public, there will even be MiG-29s flying overhead."
Gu Weijing nodded.
Boss Wu’s handicap is a white deal.
No one in the audience, except for the young woman dressed as a working woman, wanted to take another look at the old church in the thunderstorm.
Logically, 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 also a big business in the local area. How 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 placed a bid in the miscellaneous area."
Gu Weijing held the No. 69 number plate he received when entering the venue and glanced at the miscellaneous area to one side. white board in front of.
Many staff 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, hehe, that’s what kids play with.”
When he learned that Gu Weijing didn’t hug Brother Hao’s lap, Boss Wu’s attitude changed. He was much taller, and he didn't even say "Mr. Gu". He had an attitude of giving advice to the younger generation, "How can you do business if you don't have any courage?" The starting price is over 10,000 US dollars, which is too expensive.”
“You can’t say that, the price of Impressionist works has indeed increased in recent years. Lun's private collection sold for a total of 1.6 billion U.S. dollars, including several Impressionist paintings.Works account for 30% of the transaction volume.
Boss Wu puffed out a smoke ring calmly, "If it's too expensive, you can go to the miscellaneous area like your nephew. You can book the venue there for as little as one or two thousand dollars." ”
“Send a few thousand dollars to the rubbish dump”
The uncle shook his head, “No one’s money comes from the strong wind. Your miscellaneous area is quite complex, how can you even connect it?” Coca-Cola bottles are available. "
"Maybe some fools would like this. "A businessman next to him interrupted with a smile.
The air was suddenly filled with a happy atmosphere.
About twenty minutes later, all the bids in the number box were counted. Completed.
The host started holding a small notepad and read out the winning number of each booth.
"Congratulations, Mr. No. 06, for purchasing it for US$27,001. This calligraphy and painting auction is titled "The Mountain in the Snow". ”
As the number of the winning bidder came out from the loudspeaker, a sparse polite applause burst out from the crowd.
Gu Weijing discovered that the buyer was not one he was familiar with. Any of the local top noodle galleries in Yangon.
It turned out to be the man who handed me toilet paper and said he would rather eat a bite of fairy peaches than buy a basket of rotten peaches.
This strange man seems to be quite powerful. He was able to win the entire auction. No wonder he looks like a master collector.
"It is said that a rich old man came to Dongxia for vacation. I am in the building materials business and am fond of collecting. I bought a lot of good jadeite in Myanmar during this period. ”
Boss Wu glanced at the thermos cup man and explained, “It’s really a dragon crossing the river.” "
"Congratulations to Boss Wu for making a fortune. ”
The uncle glanced at the old man.
It is normal for collectors to pay more than their galleries.
Collectors only need to consider buying Whether they like the work or not, even if they want to invest in it for appreciation, they usually hold it for a long period of ten years.
The gallery is in business.
Uncle estimates that this is the case. If you find a suitable buyer, the painting may be sold for about 30,000 US dollars, and there is at least a profit margin of more than 10%.
But you must consider how long it will take to sell the painting.
To spend tens of thousands of dollars on a painting for a long time is likely to strain the store's capital chain.
The public bidding is still going on.
My uncle placed two bids in total and won once. The other print was bought by another gallery for a difference of US$350.
The v6 Impressionist painting that Gu Wei had seen before. The oil painting.
It was also bought by the old man for US$2,700.
Although the old man could not see the beauty of the old church painted by Gu Weijing, it was still popular among ordinary people. Zhong's eyesight is indeed not bad.
If Gu Weijing had not attended the dance at the Pancake Mill, he would have almost competed with that person.Zhang's work was missed.
He was impatient 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.
Every time someone wins a bid, everyone will applaud, both out of politeness and to satisfy the vanity of the winning bidder.
There is not so much attention to detail in 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 walked to the toll booth.
"Booth No. 159 in the miscellaneous area, buyer No. 69 quoted US$2,500"
Gu Weijing immediately handed over the envelope containing the money and the number plate in his hand.
The toll boy looked at Gu Weijing for a long time like he was a fool.
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 I got the receipt, the formal ownership of all the items on booth No. 159 was transferred to Gu Weijing.
A big stone fell to the ground heavily in his heart.
When Gu Weijing was about to quietly take away the painting, an accident happened.
"Is there a shady secret behind this public sale? 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 disrupted. interrupt.
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 an implicit tone in his tone. anger.
What he doesn’t like the most is someone accusing him of having a shady story.
"I"
The woman O, who dressed like a working woman, knew that what she said was inappropriate in her urgency.
However, there are police officers not far away, and she is also a government employee, so the woman is not afraid of Boss Wu.
"I want to check the bid. This should be my right."
She raised her head and looked directly at the people in the field.
"Booth No. 159, my bid amount is 300 US dollars. I want to know who has a higher bid amount than me. I suspect that you have made a mistake in your work."
The woman found After the oil painting requested by the master, I 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.
Every time I learn something, I gain wisdom. This time, I don’t want to go out again.Unexpectedly, she even decided to put in a full three hundred dollars as the bid amount.
Is there a higher number than mine?
“You invested 300 US dollars”
Boss Wu glanced at booth No. 159 not far away picture tube and scrap candlestick.
If no one buys these scraps of metal, he is going to throw them away as construction waste.
Boss Wu immediately stopped being angry.
Nowadays, even foreign tourists are not easy to deceive. They are willing to spend three hundred US dollars to buy these things. Such scammers are rare.
"Miss, this is an item that was leaked from the Great Writers Hotel. Maybe it was an item used by a famous writer. It is normal for someone to offer a higher price."
Boss Wu said this, but in his heart he really doubted whether his younger brother made a mistake while he was busy.
Is there anything worse than three hundred dollars?
“Bring over the winning bid form and the bid box, and check the amount of the winning bid.”
< p>Boss Wu gave an order.Unexpectedly, the boy responsible for counting the bid boxes in the miscellaneous area spoke immediately.
"Boss, there is no need to check. The winning bid is No. 69. US$2,500 is the highest bid of all the booths in the entire miscellaneous area. I was deeply impressed when I counted it. There is absolutely nothing wrong with it."
"Are you sure the US$2,500 is not Myanmar currency?"
The working woman opened her mouth wide.
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?”
“Are you kidding me, for 2,500 US dollars, there won’t be two idiots who really take the slogan on the booth seriously.”
< p>"No, even if it is really a pen used by Maugham, it is not worth the price."Boss Wu was also shocked by this number.
"Quiet"
He is a businessman and 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 sale of calligraphy and painting are all prominent figures in Myanmar’s local art circle. Ordinary tourists who want to enter need to pay an admission fee of 200,000 kyats.
This money is equivalent to a deposit.
If items are purchased, two hundred thousand kyats, equivalent to one hundred US dollars, can be deducted. If you didn’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 obtaining the ownership of all the items on booth No. 159 for US$2,500. No. 69 Who is Mr. Let us congratulate this literary lover?The good ones. "
The crowd applauded again, but the applause was mixed with bursts of meaningless laughter.
"Alas"
Gu Weijing He raised his hands helplessly.
He didn't want to make the purchase of the painting known to everyone.
He didn't care about the ridicule of these people. Monet, Van Gogh, The works of great painters like Gauguin have not been ridiculed by everyone.
Who is the master and who is the clown? Time will prove it.
The problem is that his uncle knows how to spend time. After paying two thousand five hundred dollars to buy a painting, he would definitely discipline himself.
Sure enough, when Gu Weijing raised his hand to receive the exhibit at booth 159.
p>
The uncle's voice mixed with disbelief and anger immediately sounded from the audience.
"Gu Weijing, you are fucking crazy. You want to buy this pile of junk and go home for $2,500." ”
Uncle, he only spent a total of three thousand dollars from home to participate in the painting and calligraphy auction this time. A fine woodblock print that he had been studying all morning was not sold because it was a few hundred dollars short.
I didn’t expect that my nephew would spend such a large amount of money to buy a bunch of junk.
“Grandpa gave me the money and asked me to do so. Making my own choices, I found a very nice Impressionist painting that I thought was worth the money. ”
Gu Weijing explained patiently.
“Why do you call a very good painting a very good painting? Is it signed Monet or him on the frame? Damn Van Gogh.
The uncle was anxious and turned to Boss Wu and said, "Boss Wu, children are not sensible. We 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 something if you have already bought it. Who will dare to do business with your family in the future? ”
Boss Wu easily pushed the uncle back with a soft nail.
He ignored the previous painting of kingfishers singing in bamboo.
The old man of the Gu family is a connoisseur with a sharp eye, and he explained the problems and shortcomings of the painting in detail, as if he had seen the painter paint with his own eyes.
In this way, Boss Wu still looked at the recent work. I heard that Gu Tongxiang's grandson was interested in Yangon's tycoon Brother Hao, so he reluctantly returned the money.
The calligraphy and painting auction he is now openly offering is also in black and white.
It’s hard to find a good thing like this with a lantern, so there’s no reason for the other party to swallow it up.
As for what he wrote on the label, it’s impossible. Is it a pen used by Somerset Maugham? Please, he is a businessman. Does he want to write the word garbage in front of his goods?
When this kind of thing spreads to the world, people in the industry will only They will think that the people who believe it are stupid, but they will not think that Boss Wu is dishonest in his actions.
Mustache Wu.The boss turned his head and looked at Gu Weijing, who was still expressionless despite being laughed at by everyone and criticized by his elders.
"Master, now that you have stepped into the door of this public company, you are not too young or young. There is no age or youth in the business world. You can have no money, but you will be looked down upon if you have no integrity." Well, you can tell yourself whether this is true."
Boss Wu knows that young people like this are the most competitive and vain.
He immediately stopped Gu Weijing with words and did not give the other party a chance to regret.
Sure enough.
That Gu Weijing just raised the receipt on his palm.
"No refund, and I have already paid. Can you give me the painting?"
"What a pity, Lao Gu is such a shrewd person, this is What kind of stupid grandson has been born?"
Boss Wu was disdainful, but on the surface he was praising you. "You must be good at doing big business in the future. Let's encourage him. Applause."
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? He is the one whose 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 prodigal son."
The crowd laughed and commented one after another.
The uncle was so anxious that he wanted to come over and slap his nephew twice, but he was stopped by a businessman who was familiar with him.
"Calm down, calm down, you also said that children are not sensible, everyone is watching here, let's talk about it when we go home."
"It's useless for you to be anxious now, think about it Open up, just think of spending money to buy a lesson."
"Buy a lesson, two thousand five hundred dollars to buy a lesson."
The uncle was so angry that he didn't care about him. Looking at the joke, he felt that his nephew was really stupid after learning painting in elementary school.
Two thousand five hundred dollars was spent on a worthless piece of junk.
Does he think he is some kind of prince who is passionate about art? How much money his family has is wasted on him like this.
"Gu Weijing, do you know how difficult it is for adults to make money? How much money does our family earn in a calligraphy and painting shop in a month? In order to pay for you and Gu Lin's tuition fees for international middle schools and future universities, our family People work hard from dawn to dusk and live frugally. At such an old age, your grandfather still has to run the business himself, and he can’t even afford to hire a helper to drive an old car for forty years.”
“I’ll pay two thousand eighty-eight yuan. One hundred dollars."
The uncle was still scolding his nephew angrily when he heard a woman's voice.
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 of the sound in astonishment.
The person who first questioned the shady nature of the public offering was wearing a brown coat.working woman, holding her handbag tightly with both hands.
She glanced at Gu Weijing with a bit of resentment, and then repeated to Boss Wu, "I'm offering you $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 there is one person who is willing to pay a high price, there is a high probability that he has met a fool, but if there are two people who are willing to pay a high price, what is the situation?
Having played with art for so long, could it be that he had 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 there, it has nothing to do with you." Gu Weijing walked over directly and took away the painting tube.
"Let me see."
Boss Wu smiled coquettishly.
"Uncle, I'm going home first."
Gu Weijing said hello to the stunned uncle 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 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 US dollars, 3,500 US dollars, no, I’ll give you four thousand US dollars.”
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 jumped out of nowhere and interfered with her affairs.
Gu Weijing stopped talking, walked around the workplace, and wanted to leave through the gate.
"No, you must sell this painting to me."
The woman grabbed Gu Weijing's sleeve. "Otherwise"
"Otherwise what?"
Gu Weijing was a little unhappy being entangled.
"This is a work that a foreign master specifically wanted, and I am his translator." The woman's tone sounded arrogant.
"Foreigners are superior to others"
Gu Weijing asked rhetorically.
In fact, in Myanmar, foreigners are really superior to others.
And truly superior in the literal sense.
Tourism is the main industry in Yangon. The consumption here is low and there are many backpackers from Europe, the United States and Canada.
Many Western European tourists can spend a year comfortably in Yangon by working casually for a month in the original high-welfare society.
You can often see an old white man surrounded by a group of local girls in nightclubs.
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 party told Gu Weijing.
His local hotel in Yangon is 23 kilometers away from the sightseeing cruise ship that boarded the Yangon River on Google Maps. The French tourist only walked 19 steps in the whole journey, and the rest of the time was spent like an emperor. Local coolies carried the sliding pole.
Gu Weijing has always disliked such an atmosphere.
This kind of admiration for foreigners actually means that you think very low of yourself, and others will look down on you even more.
"My master has great international influence. He is here to participate in government projects. He has even met the mayor of Yangon." 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 was choked. Redness.
Gu Weijing shook his sleeves, turned around and left.
"What's the fuss about? Let's take a look at the painting."
On one side, some bystanders finally couldn't bear it any longer. They were very curious about what Gu Weijing was unwilling to sell for even $4,000. What does the painting look like, not to mention that it was chosen by some master.
"Mr. Xiao Gu, let's open our eyes"
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 doesn't figure out the specific situation of the matter, he won't be able to sleep well tonight.
These people had just laughed at themselves, and Gu Weijing had no interest in satisfying their curiosity.
Besides, this painting was just 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."
A companion behind Mr. Thermos Cup patted his shoulder. The scene in front of Gu Weijing and the female translator was indeed a bit like a street performance A con man selling family heirlooms.
"No, I know it in my heart. In the afternoon, I did see this guy looking at a dirty painting."
The uncle said An expression of unbearable itching on the face.
“Young man, I like you, you are tough in your words, but can you let me see the paintings you are talking about? I like collecting. I am very curious about what kind of paintings the master likes. If you enter Baoshan without knowing it, I want to learn a lesson, right?”
After Gu Weijing hesitated for a moment, he still took off the painting tube behind him.
"You can see the painting if you want. I want a small brush, varnish for maintenance, and you have to find me a frame."
Put it in the painting tube and transport it. Gu Weijing was also a little worried about the painting, and he planned to maintain the painting on site.
"Of course, it should. "The mustache nodded.
An ordinary picture frame doesn't cost much, but he has plenty.
Gu Weijing took out the drawing paper from the painting tube.
“It’s so dirty, and there’s no point in it. ”
“This painting is worth thousands of dollars and I’m not selling it yet”
The crowd was like a group of mosquitoes talking about each other. Gu Weijing ignored everyone’s comments and quickly Take out a small brush and clean up the loose dust on the drawing paper.
"Back up, back up. This is our family's painting. It's worth several thousand dollars. What should 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 and hesitated for a long time. ,
Just picked up a small brush and varnish, and helped his nephew clean up the stains on the screen with a complicated expression.
To be honest,
If it weren’t for Gu Wei. He was his own nephew, and he even doubted whether the female translator was hired to sing the double act.
This dirty painting didn't look valuable to him. < /p>
“Hey, this painting is a bit interesting. It is an impressionist hand-painted oil painting that is indeed different from the other two paintings. ”
Suddenly someone in the crowd let out a sigh, and gradually, many people saw the fame of this painting.
Basically, those who can participate in this calligraphy and painting fair They are all insiders in the painting industry.
They may not have high appreciation ability, but it is not difficult to distinguish whether a painting is hand-painted or printed.
“But this tone, this dark theme and church theme are really rare. ”
“It’s either rare and high-quality products, or it’s garbage that follows the trend. ”
Someone commented sharply.
Then the warehouse fell into a brief silence.
An oil painting that can be so scrambled for, even if People who don’t know how to paint can also tell whether it is a treasure or a piece of trash.
Not to mention, good art works have the ability to be appreciated by both refined and popular people.
As Gu Weijing said. Use a small brush to clean away the floating dust on the canvas. The strong yet subtle changes in light and shadow during a thunderstorm, and the hazy and uncertain diffuse colors formed by a flickering candlelight hitting the glass, will reappear as the dust disperses.
Everyone immediately felt that this painting was beautiful and coordinated.
Boss Wu’s face turned green at this time. p>
A businessman pursues profit, but when he sees a fine oil painting right in front of him, he treats it as rubbish.
This feeling of frustration and loss is worse than that of money. The loss made him even more heartbroken.
“What a great young man.”
The thermos cup man stared at the painting for a long time, “This painting is really beautiful, although I can’t really see it very well. 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 painting that can make me not understand it means this painting itself. The value of the work. How about I pay $30,000 and the painting belongs to me. ”
Coax
Everyone immediately exploded.
In just a few minutes, the two thousand five hundred US dollars doubled tenfold.< /p>
Thirty thousand dollars, this price directly exceeds today’s top bids. This can even buy some low-end Picassos.
Picasso painted tens of thousands of works in the market. The quantity is huge, and the price of many works is not as expensive as ordinary people imagine.
Monet's worst paintings usually cost over a million dollars, while Picasso can be bought for 30,000 dollars.
The moment the thermos cup man reported the price, everyone knew that the young man who came to Gu's Book Gallery today had made a big mistake.
This kind of story has always been true. The things that gallery practitioners are most jealous of are enough to be circulated in this industry for several years.
But there is nothing you can do about it, because you don't have the same vision as others.
"Lao Gu's. This 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.
Favors Warm and cold, this is the reality.
Boss Wu’s expression became distorted. The more valuable this painting was, the more it stabbed his bleeding heart.
" Sorry, I don't sell. ”
What surprises people even more is that Gu Weijing still looks like he is indifferent.
Of course he is not willing to sell,
Sell After receiving the painting, he went to copy it, and Gu Weijing didn’t think the painting was worth only thirty thousand dollars.
The uncle’s lips trembled, but in the end he said nothing.
"Okay, when you are willing to sell your paintings, you can come to me. ”
The uncle handed the painting back with both hands.
Thirty thousand dollars is already a lot.
After all, there are too many Impressionist-style paintings in the twentieth century. Yes, just to buy this painting skill, thirty thousand dollars is neither high nor low.
If the painting is not signed, the uncle is even willing to gamble with some money, if he can recover it. If it was a work by a famous artist, it would be a big profit.
But unfortunately, it was painted by a female artist.
He handed over a business card at the same time. Ten thousand dollars, I put this price here, and I will buy it whenever you ask. "Please remember to bookmark, the latest and fastest website without anti-theft and free reading