The Uber taxi drove up the embankment of the Yangon River, honked its horn a few times, passed between two stalls selling tropical fruits on the street, and entered the commercial street on the left.
In the passenger seat,
the translator quietly turned his head and looked at the thin-looking blond man with filigree glasses in the back seat.
In the next seven days, the other party will be his customer.
Professional business translation is not very popular in Yangon. In an era when the political situation was relatively peaceful, Yangon was actually a very leisurely tourist city.
During the cold winter in Europe, Southeast Asia is a traditional summer resort.
It may not be as prosperous as Bangkok, and the consumption level is correspondingly one-third or even two-thirds lower.
A large number of old white men who are about to retire will flock to this city via international flights.
They took steamboats along the criss-crossing river network deep into the primitive jungles around Yangon and Mandalay, or were carried around this ancient city by local coolies on sliding poles, sipping from straws in their hands. with a glass of freshly squeezed mango smoothie.
If you don’t worry about safety issues,
This is a traditional tourist destination in Southeast Asia where you can get high-quality services at a very cheap price.
The official language here includes English. Not everyone can speak it, but as long as you spend hundreds of thousands of kyats, you can get a "escort translator" girl with a curvy front and back.
Sneak in a few green dollars as a tip.
The female translator during the day will get into your quilt at night.
Whether it is Thailand or Myanmar, compared with these Southeast Asian cities, considerate services have been created like city business cards.
Serious business translators like him are expensive, and they can’t sleep with him, so they rarely receive personal business.
The translator was very curious.
From the moment he was picked up outside Yangon International Airport, the guest neither went to the hotel nor the tourist destination, but directly handed over a Small note.
He looked it up on Google Maps.
The address on the small piece of paper seemed to be that of a little-known small gallery
"How long?"
"五六Just a few minutes, the store on the map is in the tourist area along the Yangon River. If the location is correct, we will be there soon."
Hank Smash clicked in the back seat. nod.
With a bit of vigilance, he looked through the vendors who were still noisy and busy in the dusk all around, and reached for the briefcase on the seat next to him.
A solid and heavy feeling came immediately, as if a cast-iron dumbbell from the gym was stuffed into the leather briefcase.
Hanks gently placed his work bag between his legs and unzipped a corner.
The brand-new green-blue banknotes have the golden lion logo of the Central Bank of Myanmar printed on the top, and "tenthoand" is printed in ink black fonts on the corner.kyats" in English letters and the Burmese for 10,000 kyats.
The largest denomination banknote ever issued in this country.
One hundred sheets in a stack, this medium-sized portable official document There were a total of twenty-five wads in the bag, which was twenty-five million kyats.
The first thing Hanks did when he got off the plane was to check in at the foreign currency exchange office at the airport. After exchanging a large amount of kyat cash, he actually realized that he should have been cheated.
In Yangon,
US dollars and euros were actually used. It is a hard currency like gold. It can be circulated normally without having to specifically exchange it for local currency.
And in the local black market here, the exchange rate is much more valuable than the official exchange rate. He at least exchanged it for less. Several million kyats.
But it doesn’t matter.
If it’s less, just a little less. This big briefcase should be enough at the critical moment.
There is also a trick on how to maintain a good relationship between gallery managers and represented artists.
The trick to giving gifts is to not only penetrate the other party’s psychological bottom line, but also be able to do so. It's a waste of money to spend on a little famous painter.
Everyone has a suitable price.
Giving Professor Sakai a car that is worth the price of a Porsche 911. Richard Mille watches, Hanks didn't even blink, because what such an artist can bring to Mashi Gallery cannot be measured by hundreds of thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars.
However, it would be outrageous to give away a piece of Richard Mille to any small artist.
This is not how the sponsor’s products are used.
Cash has always been the only way to travel at home, buy murder, bribe and give gifts to win people's hearts.
25 million kyat is less than 20,000 US dollars, so take it. It already holds a lot of weight in his hand.
This is the signature fee that Hanks prepared for the kid Gu Weijing, who has probably never seen the world. It is specially made without electronic payment. It is all in one piece.
Many people underestimate the impact that a pile of heavy bills has on a person's heart.
When a person refuses. When Zhang Qingpiao writes a series of zero checks and refuses a stack of physical cash in front of him, the willpower required is not at the same level.
The tangible wealth has a huge impact.
Seeing so much money in front of them made most people’s legs weak.
If this place wasn’t unsafe for robbery, so much cash would be too much. It was too heavy, so he even thought of using the 1,000 kyat and 5,000 kyat banknotes that are more commonly used by locals.
Tens of thousands of banknotes were spread out like a sea, and the other party would definitely be too happy to find them.
"Hehehe, Brother Gu, you will be mine soon" Hanks happily considered the details of the contract in his mind.Festival.
"I don't know if this guy knows what he's doing. Can I just sign him for fifteen years?" The blond young man smacked his mouth.
From top to bottom, Ma Shi Gallery has signed a total of 196 artists.
From an interest perspective, while the external interests of galleries and their agent painters are almost identical, there are also various internal intrigues.
Gallery owners look at artists like an old farmer looks at the crops in the field, or a team leader looks at the donkeys of the production team.
There is essentially no difference between them signing new players and Premier League football teams operating youth training teams.
It’s just that EU regulations stipulate that athletes under the age of 16 can only sign once a year, and athletes under 18 can only sign once every three years. This protects young people from being ignorant and ignorant and selling themselves out for the rest of their lives in black shops and clubs. Went in.
The art industry does not have such regulations, and the water is very deep. There are many formal and informal ones, and there are also many pheasant galleries with cats and dogs.
No matter how big or small the gallery is, when facing newcomers who are in the "low-price period" of their careers, the principle they pursue is that life is mine and death is my ghost. If you can sign for five years, don't sign for three. If you can sign for ten, don't sign for five. It's better to just sign for life.
Artists are less willing to hang their careers on a crooked tree for a long time.
Water flows to lower places, and people go to higher places.
What if there is a better opportunity in the future?
Therefore, the contract period of each artist in the industry is different, and the content conditions are also completely different.
The common contract period for small galleries is three years, but for first-tier galleries such as Ma Shi Gallery, which is at the top of the industry pyramid, usually a contract period of five or even more than seven years can be signed with a good negotiation. .
Like this guy named Gu Weijing, a completely green newcomer, from being trained to becoming famous, to blossoming and bearing fruit.
It would be boring if it was a short contract.
Hanks’ trip was directly aimed at signing a long-term contract of more than ten years.
It is impossible for the production team of Mashi Gallery to raise the little donkey until it is plump and fat, and then turn around and work for other production teams.
"It should be no problem, with a commission ratio of 70%, a creative allowance of US$40,000 per year, a salary increase of about 35%, and a signing fee of 25 million kyats, it's really That’s generous enough, huh, if you don’t want to give Professor Sakai face as the introducer, it would be enough to give him a Category 4 contract.”
Hanks zipped up his briefcase with a smile, looking forward to it in his heart After receiving the offer from Ma Shi Gallery, the other party was so excited that tears filled his eyes.
Most of the little-known people who receive invitations from top galleries have this reaction.
After learning the relevant information about Gu Weijing from Professor Kazunari Sakai that day, Hanks hesitated for a long time at Narita International Airport, and finally flew directly to Myanmar without any hurry.
Anyway, in Yangon this kind ofplace, and cannot enter the sight of other competitors on a daily basis.
Hanks spent two days researching what kind of contract he should give.
The regular contracts of Ma Shi Gallery can be divided into four types of contracts.
The third and fourth categories are for painters without any market visibility.
After this type of painter is signed by Mashi Gallery, if it sounds good, they will be called "emerging artists" in marketing. If it sounds bad, it means that without a gallery, you are nothing.
The commission for the four types of contracts is generally over 85%. Or if they are not willing to share the works on consignment, the gallery will buy out their oil paintings for about US$1,500 a piece.
Sounds like the gallery is a vicious vampire.
In fact, maybe the commission ratio of nine out of ten is really cruel, but this is the confidence of first-tier galleries.
Faced with such towering trees,
ordinary low-level painters are like little ants leaning under the big trees to enjoy the shade, even using the description "vines wrapped around the big trees" Neither is qualified.
Think about those idol trainees who earn hundreds of dollars a month from entertainment companies, and you will understand.
There is also the fact that people who want to be sucked are not qualified.
Just ask any young painter if he would rather receive the industry standard 50-50 share ratio in a third-tier gallery or a basic salary in Ma Shi Gallery. Nine and a half out of ten would do both. There is no hesitation in choosing to work for free and jump on a big ship like Max.
The range of commissions for the higher third-category contracts is very wide.
From 6085 to 6085, the buyout price of the buyout system has also increased significantly, reaching four to five thousand US dollars for a work, and even as high as tens of thousands of US dollars.
A contract that can only be obtained by emerging painters who have become famous or art students with high potential.
The extremely high potential here often refers to the most outstanding handful of outstanding graduates from well-known art academies.
Similarly speaking, painters who have participated in graduation excellence exhibitions, various group exhibitions, and student groups in certain city biennales during their student years, only the self-recommended applications of these people may be noticed by galleries. .
Hundreds of other self-recommendations sent to Mashi Gallery every year are simply thrown into the trash can.
The cruel fact is that in the eyes of first-line giant galleries, those CDs containing portfolios of art students’ hard work and expectations, which may include hundreds of hours of hard work, do not even take the time to open. None.
This is true even if some of them even graduated from super prestigious schools such as the Repin Academy of Fine Arts and the Royal Academy of Fine Arts.
Becoming an artist and making a living from serious art, even if you just want to be an artist at the lowest level, will always be the privilege of a very small number of people.
The third type of contract is the ceiling of an ordinary painter’s life, and the unit price of the buyout system can alsoIt can be seen that the difference between it and the fourth category is not just that the amount has doubled or tripled.
The four-category contract gallery is willing to give a base price of about 1,500 dollars. It’s not that it can’t negotiate a lower price, it’s just because it’s not respectable.
Large galleries are unwilling to create the impression in the eyes of the paparazzi media that they have bought a bunch of junk and then sold it to collectors at a high price.
The acquisition price was a few hundred dollars, and Mashi Gallery felt embarrassed.
With a unit price of four to five thousand US dollars, you may not be able to find such expensive works that can be sold in small galleries in ordinary communities.
The three types of painters are still classified as emerging artists in Ma Shi Gallery.
Looking at the entire art industry, we can already live a relatively decent life.
At least the income is much higher than the average level in developed countries.
The second-category and first-category contracts are large contracts for mature artist groups with a certain international reputation.
The total number of painters in the world who can get such contracts will not exceed 1,000.
Including all the peripheral industries around the world, among the tens of millions of people working in the art industry, it can be said to be truly one of a million.
Just sign a second-category contract and the output will be higher.
After painting for a year or two, you can live in a villa and drive a Ferrari.
This is not just the decision that Hanks can make alone, the boss Mas III needs to make the decision himself.
There are also some special contracts further up, such as the contracts of big names like Sakai Kazunari, which are negotiated by one person and one case at a time.
Money may no longer be the key. From organizing exhibitions around the world, to cooperating with some top national art galleries for personal exhibitions, to creating i-culture with surrounding businesses, and whether to hold exhibitions at Sotheby’s and Christie’s Hold a joint auction.
Every detail must be finalized specifically, and it involves a wide range of things.
For those who are not practitioners in the industry, it is difficult to imagine how difficult it is for those truly top artists to take care of themselves.
Damien Hirst’s most popular era.
Gagosian Gallery has established a team of more than 160 people, including marketing, curators, legal lawyers, assistant brokers, yoga therapists, etc., to provide 24-hour service to Hirst alone.
Katsuko Sakai received a young artist contract from Tokyo Gallery bta, which is also a tailor-made special contract.
Of course, Sakai Katsuko is qualified to have Tokyo Gallery give her a special contract, but this does not mean that Gu Weijing has it. Sakai Katsuko is the daughter of Sakai Kazunari, and she has been in the art gallery since she was ten years old. In the eyes of Asian art media, this guy from Yangon is just an idiot.
Same person but different destiny.
The fifteen-year contract does seem a bit like a contract of betrayal, but the contract conditions themselves are still very sincere.
People say that he is the person introduced by Professor Sakai. Hanks is embarrassed to bully someone who has never met him before.The world has already given me a pretty kind price.
Otherwise, a four-category contract will definitely make the other party burst into tears.
It’s just that what Hanks wants to do is a long-term deal.
Painters are not slaves. If you form a good relationship, you will be easier to get along with if you become famous in the future. Please remember to collect it, the latest and fastest website is free to read without anti-theft