After the two of them finished eating and rested for a short time, they set off.
Chen Feng drove, and the two of them chatted and laughed all the way to the Provincial Museum first.
There are several museums in Xiuzhou City, and the Provincial Museum is undoubtedly the largest.
It was almost 1:30 in the afternoon, and there were not many people visiting the museum.
Today is not a holiday, and the museum is basically open during the day except Mondays. The tourists are spread out, so the number of tourists is naturally not very large.
Chen Feng originally had some expectations for the cultural relics put on display in the museum, but after looking around, none of the cultural relics gave him a similar feeling to the "Lanting Preface".
Many of the exhibits here are labeled as replicas, that is, imitations, but most of them should be genuine. Some are thousands of years old, but none of them gave Chen Feng that feeling.
Chen Feng was a little disappointed with this.
Originally, he was a little optimistic, thinking that a living artist like Master Wang Yi could create an "authentic" work like "Lanting Preface" and bring gratifying changes to his body and mind. Then, the more powerful artists in history, they
The artwork created should have the same effect.
But now it seems that Chen Feng's idea is wrong.
Because he didn't find what he wanted after walking around, Chen Feng was not in a good mood, so he just glanced at the next few exhibits and lacked interest.
Wu Mengting, who was with him, noticed something strange about him and asked with concern: "What's wrong with you? Are you feeling unwell?"
Chen Feng quickly shook his head: "No. I just think these look boring. Let's go to the art museum to have a look. There seems to be an exhibition of some great painter's paintings over there today."
Wu Mengting originally wanted to continue browsing in the museum, but after hearing what Chen Feng said, she had no choice but to nod and agree: "Okay. Last time we went there just to see the calligraphy and painting exhibition of Master Wang Yi. We also saw the artworks collected by the museum itself.
I haven’t looked at it carefully yet.”
"Well. Let's go over and take a closer look this time."
So, the two of them quickly left the Provincial Museum and drove to the Provincial Art Museum. The two of them had gone to the calligraphy and painting exhibition of Master Wang Yi last time.
In Chen Feng's view, since the artworks collected by the Provincial Museum are ineffective, the same should be true for the collections of other museums in Xiuzhou City.
Thinking again that "Lanting Preface" is a calligraphy painting, Chen Feng felt that instead of wasting time going to other museums, it would be better to go to the Provincial Art Museum.
The distance between the two sides is not very far, only four or five kilometers, and it takes about ten minutes to get there.
The Provincial Art Museum has many exhibition halls.
After the two of them entered, they began to walk around the exhibition halls one by one.
What made Chen Feng depressed was that he visited three exhibition halls in a row and could not find the paintings, calligraphy or other works of art he wanted.
Then there is no one in the fourth exhibition hall, and there is no one in the fifth exhibition hall.
When he arrived at the sixth exhibition hall, Chen Feng had given up all hope. It turned out that a painter's painting exhibition happened to be held here.
It should be the one Chen Feng found online.
Looking at the introduction on the sign at the door, the artist's name is Song Yi. He is an oil painter. He is fifty-eight years old. He graduated from a prestigious domestic art school. He then studied in France and then traveled around Europe and accumulated a certain reputation.
An oil painting once sold for $1.6 million at a Zurich auction house.
This time, he came to the exhibition here and produced a total of fifty-two paintings. It can be said that every one of them is his masterpiece.
After the two of them read the introduction for a while, they walked in and started exploring.
Chen Feng didn't have much hope at first, but after looking at each painting, he suddenly stopped in front of a painting in shock.
This is a painting called "Autumn Sky". The colors are bright, layer by layer, mainly golden and dark blue. The autumn sky is painted very abstractly, like layers of whirlpools.
Under this swirling sky, there is a winding abstract river and a dark forest.
The painting is very abstract, even a little distorted.
Therefore, it is certain that Song Yi should be an abstract painter.
Chen Feng stood like this for more than ten minutes. It was not until Wu Mengting pushed him that he recovered from his dazed state.
"What's wrong with you? You're so fascinated that you didn't even respond when I called you." Wu Mengting looked at Chen Feng in confusion.
"I'm fascinated by it." Chen Feng said with a smile in a good mood, "I like this painting very much and want to buy it. I just don't know if it's expensive. If it costs millions of dollars, I definitely can't afford it."
"You want to buy again?" Wu Mengting couldn't help but widened her eyes.
Chen Feng nodded affirmatively: "I will contact Director Huang now to find the painter Song Yi."
Chen Feng was determined to get this "Autumn Sky", and as long as the price was not too outrageous, he planned to buy it.
Just like the "Lanting Preface", he also felt that this painting should be of great collection value.
After buying it, as long as the price is not too outrageous, you should not lose money in the future.
Director Huang of the art museum exchanged contact information with Chen Feng last time.
Chen Feng left the exhibition hall and stood in the corridor to call. As soon as he told him, Director Huang immediately enthusiastically expressed his enthusiasm to contact Song Yi immediately.
A few minutes later, Director Huang personally brought Song Yi's person in charge, his manager, who turned out to be an old white man with a big nose.
Chen Feng spoke average English, and after a brief exchange with this old white man, he found out that his name was Lehman, and he was the agent of the great painter Song Yi.
Then Chen Feng went straight to the point and asked about the price of the "Autumn Sky". The other party was unambiguous and directly quoted US$1.2 million.
Chen Feng was speechless when he heard the price. According to the current exchange rate, it costs more than 8 million in China.
This damn thing is too expensive!
Chen Feng shook his head three times: no! no! no!
Then, he awkwardly negotiated the price in English, up to 3 million RMB.
The other party also shook his head and said no! Then he said the minimum was 1 million US dollars.
There's no way to talk about it.
Wu Mengting helped negotiate the price in fluent English, but the effect was not great.
Seeing this, Chen Feng had to give up the purchase and said regretfully: "Your price is too expensive, I can't afford it."
Such sincere words left the other party speechless for a while.
"I'm sorry to trouble you. We can leave our contact information. If I have money in the future, or if you are willing to lower the price, we can contact each other."
Seeing this, the old foreign man had no choice but to exchange contact information with Chen Feng, and then left with a look of disappointment.
"Director Huang, I'm really sorry to trouble you again this time. I should have quoted a price directly over the phone first, so you'd have made a trip in vain."
Chen Feng felt a little embarrassed and apologized to Director Huang, the middleman.
Director Huang waved his hand and said with a smile: "This is nothing. It's just a matter of a few steps. Mr. Chen can come to our museum often to watch exhibitions and pay for purchases, which is an affirmation of the work of our museum. It seems that Mr. Chen,
You love calligraphy and painting very much."
Chen Feng nodded: "Yes. I am very interested in artworks such as calligraphy and painting. For example, Master Wang's "Lanting Preface" last time and Song Yi's "Autumn Sky" are my personal favorites."
"Mr. Chen, you are really an elegant person. I don't know what kind of calligraphy and painting works Mr. Chen is more interested in. I know many calligraphers and painters. I can introduce you to Mr. Chen."
When Chen Feng heard what he said, his eyes lit up. This Director Huang was responsible for connecting the art museum with those artists' exhibitions. Of course, he knew many artists.
Chen Feng could completely use him to see the works of those calligraphers and painters.
So, Chen Feng quickly thanked: "Thank you so much, I couldn't ask for more. I am interested in almost all calligraphy and painting, but of course the prerequisite is that it must suit my taste. If it is convenient for Director Huang, you can introduce me to some capable people."
Calligraphers and painters. I can pay you a visit."
Director Huang agreed happily: "Okay. Let's add a WeChat account first. I will go back and sort it out before sending it to you. We will contact you via WeChat."
Chen Feng quickly took out his mobile phone and opened WeChat, added him as a friend, and then thanked him again: "I'm really troublesome this time, Director Huang. I wonder if you are free in the evening. Let's have a meal together."
Director Huang waved his hand and said, "I'm a little busy these days. Let's talk about it after dinner."
Chen Feng smiled and nodded: "Okay. I'll owe it first."
Director Huang also smiled: "You're welcome. Please contact me again."
Director Huang did not exchange too many greetings with Chen Feng. After speaking, he nodded to him and left.
"Brother Feng, why are you suddenly interested in art collecting?"
Wu Mengting was quite puzzled. No matter how you look at it, Chen Feng has nothing to do with art.
It was because of her that I came to see the calligraphy and painting exhibition last time.
"I'm just interested in paintings and calligraphy that suit my taste. Collecting them is just incidental."
Chen Feng told the truth.
Wu Mengting was still full of doubts, and kindly persuaded: "The water in these works of art is very deep. You don't understand anything and you will be deceived. Like the "Autumn Sky" just now, I don't think it is a masterpiece. And
The painter Song Yi is only slightly famous in Europe. He is not a big painter, and he is not even well-known in our country. The other party actually quoted US$1.2 million, which is really outrageous. He obviously wants to rip you off.
"
"Okay. I understand. I will remember what you said."
On the surface, Chen Feng humbly accepted Wu Mengting's persuasion, but in his heart he thought: If I didn't have a lot of money now, the other party would have bought it when he still had $1 million.
He didn't know the specific commercial price of the painting, let alone the artistic value of the painting. He only knew that the painting could bring great enjoyment and changes to his body and mind.
This is enough!
He still has tens of millions of dollars, and if he is destined to only have a few months to live, he wants to spend most of it.
It’s not about meaningless squandering or meaningful charity.
He just wanted to avoid dying young without enjoying anything.
Buying "Preface to the Orchid Pavilion" and "Autumn Sky" can bring him great physical and mental pleasure, and can even improve his mental and physical health.
Of course he is willing to spend money.
As for not wanting to spend $1 million to buy "Autumn Sky" this time, the main reason was that the price offered by the other party seemed a bit outrageous to him.
Moreover, even without spending money to buy it, he can actually enjoy the benefits that "Autumn Sky" brings to his body and mind.
Song Yi's painting exhibition will last for five days, and today is the first day of his personal painting exhibition.
At worst, starting today, Chen Feng will come over every day to "paint".
"Let's go in and look at the paintings."
Chen Feng said and couldn't wait to take the lead and go in first.
Song Yi has more than fifty paintings in this exhibition, and Chen Feng hopes that there are other works among these paintings that will surprise him.
Unfortunately, Chen Feng's expectations were doomed to fail.
There are fifty-two works in total. After reading the whole process, except for "Autumn Sky", the other paintings did not bring any surprise to him.
Although he was a little disappointed, Chen Feng was satisfied. He immediately came back to the painting "Autumn Sky".
However, before "entering concentration", he warned Wu Mengting in advance that he would be fascinated by the paintings, and asked her not to wake him up and let him read the paintings in peace.
Although Wu Mengting was confused, she still agreed.
So, Chen Feng stood in front of the oil painting "Autumn Sky", looked at it with concentration, and soon entered a dizzy state of "tranquility".
After he woke up from this state, he suddenly realized that more than a dozen people had gathered around him, all staring at "Autumn Sky" like him.
Seeing this, Chen Feng guessed that maybe he had been too absorbed and "obsessed" with the painting just now, which attracted these people to join in the fun.
But obviously, except for Chen Feng, no one else saw anything strange.
However, there were also a few of them who pretended to understand and talked in low voices about how awesome this "Autumn Sky" was, with shadows of Van Gogh's "Starry Night" and so on.
Chen Feng didn't want to look at paintings with this group of people who didn't know how to pretend to understand, so he immediately picked up Wu Mengting, who had been accompanying him all the time, and squeezed out of the crowd.
"How long has it been since I was looking at the painting?"
After getting out of the crowd, Chen Feng asked about the time with concern.
Wu Mengting thought for a while and said, "About half an hour."
After saying that, she asked curiously: "Did this painting really fascinate you so much? You actually stared at it for half an hour without moving. If I hadn't known the truth, I would have thought you were invited by Song Yi.
Trust.”
When Chen Feng heard that it was only half an hour, he felt a little disappointed, but when he thought that he had come here in vain, he suddenly became happy again, and said with a smile: "As the saying goes, a fish knows how to enjoy a fish.
This is what I'm in now. I feel very relaxed and comfortable just looking at this painting. The painting "Lanting Preface" by Master Wang Yi gave me this feeling. Otherwise, why do you think I spent so much money?
purchase?"
"Really?" Wu Mengting still didn't believe it.
Chen Feng said seriously: "I won't lie to you. There is no need."
Wu Mengting then nodded doubtfully: "Okay. I believe you."
Chen Feng smiled: "Speaking of which, it's all thanks to you. If you hadn't brought me to the art museum last time, I wouldn't have known that I was related to these two calligraphy and paintings."
Wu Mengting said with some worry: "I'm afraid that you will spend money randomly to buy calligraphy and paintings and be cheated by others in the future. If that happens, it will be my fault."
Chen Feng said quickly: "You don't have to worry about it. This time the other party sold it to me for US$1 million, and I didn't buy it either?"