In the decades after the bubble economy, this period has always been remembered by Japanese people who experienced it.
In addition to the painful lessons they learned from it, it was also because they had such a great time when they were there.
It was a period when all the people were immersed in wealth at their fingertips, glowing with light and colorful bubbles.
From top to bottom, from the rich to the common people, almost everyone has become rich due to the rise in assets and bonuses caused by the extremely loose currency.
Even in the most depressed Japanese companies, the annual bonus is equivalent to half a year's salary.
What's more, the huge Chinese market is responsible for digesting Japan's exports of home appliances and automobiles.
The Japanese have all heard that in China, which has a large population, as long as it has something to do with Japan, there is nothing that cannot be sold. It seems that everything produced in Japan will shine.
Even if the yen exchange rate gets higher every day, home appliances and cars will still be sold.
Who allowed China to lag behind Japan for thirty years and not be able to create it on its own?
Moreover, Japan is so close to China. Even if it cannot build a factory in China immediately, the logistics cost will offset many of the advantages of Western products.
To put it bluntly, for contemporary Japanese people known as the "bubble generation", work may be hard, but it does pay off.
Because money comes so easily.
The right time, right place, and right people all destined the world's wealth to flow to Japan.
Therefore, even as an alternative member of the bubble economy, Mihara Masahashi, the executive director of the Composers Association, neither speculates in real estate nor stocks.
But because of his artistic style, he always insisted on his hobbies and focused his energy and wealth on niche art collections, and he also achieved a rolling doubling of his assets.
To be honest, the art market in 1987 was purely triggered by the Japanese.
This spring, Japan's art-buying spree made international headlines.
Yasuda Fire & Marine Insurance Company purchased Van Gogh's "Sunflowers" for nearly $40 million.
This is almost three times that of any previous Western painting.
This was like a fuse, which not only detonated the overseas art investment market, but also allowed the Japanese to become famous in the art collection world for their lavish spending.
It can be said that what followed were the various sales techniques in the minds of Western auctioneers and the Japanese speculators whose pockets were filled with money from the bubble economy. The two sides hit it off and jointly created the most indulgent art market in the history of the world.
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The goal of Japanese art collectors is actually very simple. The paintings they like must show wealth and exclusive privileges, and most importantly, they must be visible to others at a glance.
Therefore, Japanese art speculators have always been loyal to so-called "brand" painters.
Most of the paintings they purchased overseas were French Impressionist or Post-Impressionist painters.
Such as Picasso, Chagall, Renoir.
For no other reason than because the paintings of these Impressionist masters are more suitable for modern decoration.
This simple taste for representative artworks has lowered the threshold of the art market and made it open to everyone.
It also ensures that speculative enthusiasm remains concentrated, thereby helping to increase the value of a few selected artists.
To put it bluntly, the Japanese can work together to take over the throne and encourage them to appreciate the painter's works together.
Of course, this also shows that Japanese speculators do not particularly care about the identity of the artist when deciding to purchase equity in artworks.
What they really want is capital gain, not a painting.
Needless to say, this method of international art market speculation has proven successful and effective.
The impact will of course be transmitted back to Japan, and may even be amplified.
The art speculators in Japan also followed suit and quickly promoted lower-cost works by famous Japanese paintings to jaw-dropping highs.
And unlike what the Japanese have done in overseas markets, Japan's domestic art market is generally rising.
Because the capacity of Japanese paintings is limited after all, as long as it is a famous Japanese painter with a certain reputation in the industry, the price of his works has doubled exponentially.
In fact, Masahiro Mihara became the beneficiary of this trend. Because of his collecting preferences, he coincided with the evolution of this mainstream trend and sat on the trend.
In addition to the 80 million yen he had just received from Ning Weimin for transferring part of his collection not long ago, he basically invested all of it in the works of Somei Aoki and Kawai Gokudou, who specialize in Japanese paintings.
The works of these two well-known painters have strong personal styles and are easily identifiable, so the prices have skyrocketed.
In just half a year, the total value of the artworks in Mihara Masahiro's hands reached a huge 500 million yen.
Facts have proved that the lack of supervision of the Japanese art market makes art, as a commodity and an investment profit product, have innate conditions that are easier to manipulate and have greater room for profit than the financial market.
This further fueled Masahiro Mihara's ambition. He, a pig that dances with the wind, even had the idea of growing wings - trying to unite with auction houses to control the price of a well-known painter's works, and set a high price together.
On the evening of May 2, two executives from the newly established auction house New Art East were invited to the home of Masahiro Mihara and smoked cigarettes in his study with this music industry bureaucrat who was known as an artist.
Cigars and whiskey.
But in fact, what several people got together to discuss was the specific implementation steps of this plan.
"Teacher Mihara, may I ask, how is the negotiation between you and Teacher Somei going? Is this feasible?"
The person who asked the question was named Ashimi, and he was the head of the business department of this art auction company.
"This matter has been resolved. I have roughly negotiated with him. Within a three-year period, he can give us forty paintings every year, and each painting can be purchased at a price of three million to five million yen.
Do you think it’s okay?”
"Ah, as expected of Mr. Mihara, he indeed has special prestige in the art world. I didn't expect that we would reach a consensus with Mr. Somei so quickly, and that would be one hundred and twenty paintings in three years."
The other person who said this was Kadokura, the director of the research department of the auction company.
"Haha, art has something in common. Although Somei and I have never met each other, I have always loved his paintings. As far as art is concerned, we can be regarded as irreconcilable. Our conversation was very speculative. We have a lot of opinions about art and the art market.
There is consensus in many places. Moreover, although I am in the music industry, I also have many friends in the painting industry. In terms of fame and status, he has no reason to doubt my sincerity, nor can he ignore my friendship."
Mihara Masahiro kept his secret, but actually pointed out the essence of insider trading. Based on equal status and driven by their respective interests, they naturally had the need and tacit understanding for cooperation.
"Yes, what Mr. Mihara said is so right. Artists and artists should cherish each other. Only Mr. Mihara can take action, and Mr. Somei will give such conditions."
There are no fools here. Ashimi, as a sales department employee, immediately understood the subtext of Masahiro Mihara.
"That's right, if we go to negotiate, we will definitely not be able to get such a good condition. Although based on the current market price, Mr. Somei's quotation is not very cheap compared to the gallery's selling price. It is only equivalent to a reduction in agency fees. But
Judging from the market trend, if Master Somei can agree to such conditions, for us, it is almost equivalent to monopolizing the supply channels, which is already worth pursuing."
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Kadokura from the research department is more practical, and even though he agrees, he is also complimenting me.
But soon I realized an important problem from a technical perspective.
"But... Mr. Somei can guarantee that he will produce so many works within three years! Time seems to be very tight. If there is something wrong with the quality of the paintings..."
In fact, he is indeed a bit unfounded, because the darkness in the industry is simply beyond the imagination of a "technical man" like him who has just started to fall.
"It doesn't matter. Which of these masters doesn't have a few disciples? It's nothing new to sign the master's masterpiece with the disciple's work. On the premise that everyone wants to gain benefits, you have to allow these art masters to fish in troubled waters and make some easy money.
It’s money, otherwise what’s the point of being famous? Anyway, everyone in this industry is doing this. Many auction houses can get good collections for auction, and sometimes they have to provide some convenience to customers and help dispose of those that are not very good.
What about the collection? In comparison, your worries are completely unfounded. Anyway, as long as the master himself is willing to admit it, it will not have any impact on us." Business expert Ashimi immediately revealed the trick to him.
Mihara Masahiro not only did not feel dissatisfied, but told the inside story more straightforwardly.
"You can rest assured. You know, our goal, the 'big fish' we want to catch are originally the new collectors. Those who make their fortunes by relying on land and stocks, who are rich but don't understand art at all.
, the nouveau riche class who only want to be arty, how do they have basic art appreciation? These people blindly intervene in the art market and only make impulsive quotations through stock speculation and real estate speculation. What they picture is nothing more than the appreciation of art.
It’s just the profits that come from it. Such people are not uncommon in today’s auctions, and there will be more and more people in the future. Do they know what a good work is? Their judgment is not influenced by people like us. Besides, I still have many friends.
As long as those art connoisseurs and master-level experts give us a few words of advice, such as being published in "Japanese Art" magazine, which is a relatively authoritative art publication in the industry. As long as any work is introduced in this magazine,
That would be like getting an authoritative guarantee. Then we would entertain reporters from newspapers and magazines and ask them to write about it. Then no one would doubt that Somei's new work would have problems."
These words immediately inspired Kadokura like a revelation. Not only did he feel relieved, but he also happily agreed with them with a smile.
"Yes, yes, Mr. Mihara knows the art market so well. It really makes me ashamed. Your words are so right. I think about it carefully. These new rich people have too much money too fast. They just started to love art but don't know much about it."
Art, but the personality is very strong and only depends on personal feelings. Many of them are pure nouveau riche. And they are very arrogant. Naturally, they feel that the auction prices of Japanese new art should be in line with Europe and the United States. They are willing to spend money on
The auction is used to promote Japan's new cultural image and international status. This very innocent nationalistic sentiment that does not hesitate to spend a lot of money is most suitable for us to use to make huge profits."
And that's not all, Ashimi also mastered something deeper. At this time, in order to show off, he also made supplements.
"So, let's just play it safe. What's so scary about this kind of thing? Even if it is discovered, no one will really expose it. No one is a fool. People who bought high-priced paintings may know that they are
He was cheated, but he didn't want to break the game, because he also wanted to use this game to throw the 'hot potato' in his hand to the next buyer. And the new 'victim' would create the next new 'victim'
Come and support yourself. This is the foundation of our thriving art market."
After hearing these words, even Mihara Masahiro couldn't help but raise his glass and said excitedly.
"That's right. It's very important to be teammates in big things. It seems that you are all very knowledgeable professionals. I am very lucky to be able to cooperate with you. I believe that our cooperation will be extremely smooth!"
"cheers!"
"cheers!"
Following a few crisp collisions, several people burst out laughing uncontrollably, as if those stupid upstarts had fallen into a hunting trap set by smarter people like them.
Yes, this is the way of playing the game of "high price" in the art auction market.
Normally, when an art speculator or speculator has a target, he or she will first find a painter who is well-known in the art circle and has a suitable market price, and sign a multi-year agreement with him.
Then when the number of works reaches a certain amount, they will start to be speculated at auctions. It is normal for each painting purchased for 3 million yen to have an auction price of tens of millions yen.
Then gradually push it up until the final price reaches 50 million yen, or even hundreds of millions yen.
What should I do if no one buys it at such a high price?
It’s also easy to handle. As the party planning the hype, you can arrange for “one of your own” to sit with a group of real buyers and pretend to hold up placards to bid to create an atmosphere of “many people rushing to buy”.
This is called the "sky-high price" of art auctions.
Therefore, it is very easy to achieve the goal. When a three million yen work is sold for ten million yen, as long as one-tenth of the work is sold at a high price, the entire cost can be recovered.
Of course, there is no need to worry about the remaining paintings. You can slowly play the "fishing" game at the auction with sky-high prices. If you sell one more painting, you will get a huge profit.
But having said that, the most important thing about this kind of gameplay is the financial expenditure of both parties.
Because even this kind of fraudulent layout is not a costless transaction.
If you want to get high prices for your calligraphy and paintings, you first need to use catalog books to promote them.
At present, the catalog brochures of various Japanese auction houses are printed more and more beautifully, which is an unavoidable layout cost.
Especially an auction house like New Art East, which has just been established a few years ago, does not hesitate to invest in publicity funds.
Every auction costs a lot of money.
Moreover, it is impossible to pay a commission of 10% for this kind of "fake shooting".
Confusing the true value of auction items in publicity is just a foreshadowing of the hidden rules of the auction. Repeatedly inflating transaction prices is a means of confusing the true value of auction items.
The fundamental reason for this is that after many auctions, the prices of the auction items are getting higher and higher, and the auction items are becoming more and more famous.
Therefore, this kind of auction that inflates the price of the lot is generally negotiated for a fixed commission.
The consignor, buyer and auctioneer all obtain their own benefits through auction activities, which is called "left hand versus right hand" in the industry.
Just like Masahiro Mihara, he has negotiated an agreement with the auction company.
No matter how high the price of the "fake photo" is, the person arranged by Mihara Masahiro only pays a commission of 200,000 yen, which is just for the sake of it.
Otherwise, a painting of 10 million yen would cost at least 1 million yen based on such a commission. It is impossible for Masahiro Mihara to be taken advantage of like this.
