Qin Haodong said: "Of course it is true, Manager Tian, I have no need to joke with you."
Tian Ye realized that he had lost his temper and said quickly: "I'm sorry, Mr. Qin. I'm just too shocked. Please forgive me."
"It's okay. Can you come over and give me an appraisal now?"
"No problem, I will take the appraiser there now, please wait a moment."
Tian Ye hung up the phone and immediately called someone to call appraiser Zhang Chaohui.
As the largest auction house on Hong Kong Island, he has more than a dozen appraisers here, and Zhang Chaohui is the top one. He is best at appraising European ancient paintings.
"What's the matter, manager? I'm about to get off work. You don't want me to work overtime, do you?"
A young man in his thirties walked in. He was Zhang Chaohui. He usually had a very good relationship with Tian Ye, so he was not polite when he spoke.
Tian Ye said: "Take the guy you are eating with me and come with me. There is an important collection that you need to appraise."
Zhang Chaohui said: "Can't you wait until tomorrow? I finally got an appointment with a beautiful girl today."
"Of course we can't wait." Tian Ye pulled him up and walked out, saying as he walked, "The person who comes to us for identification is the old man's distinguished guest. We must treat him carefully."
The two people got in the car and drove towards the Li family villa.
"These rich people really don't care whether we working people live or die." Zhang Chaohui sat in the passenger seat and vented his dissatisfaction before asking, "What are you going to identify this time?"
"Picasso's painting."
"What?"
Zhang Chaohui, who was still lazy at first, suddenly sat upright, and then lay back down like a deflated ball, and said, "How is this possible? Who would sell Picasso's paintings now? I guess it must be this one."
Rich people with no brains were deceived, and they just picked up a painting and said it was painted by Picasso..."
It's not surprising that he said this. As the chief appraiser of an auction house, he has seen many wealthy people being deceived by charlatans over the years, spending a lot of money, and ended up buying a bunch of fakes.
Tian Ye said: "I don't know whether it is true or not, so I brought you along. I tell you that this is a distinguished guest that the old man particularly likes. You must be careful what you say and your attitude must be respectful."
As a professional manager, Tian Ye still had his qualities and did not reveal Qin Haodong's identity. Soon they arrived at the Li family's villa and were led by Zhang Tieniu to Qin Haodong's room.
Knowing that a guest was coming, Nalan Wushuang went to the inner room to practice. He was the only one in the room.
"Boss, I brought the guests."
After Zhang Tieniu finished speaking, he stood respectfully behind Qin Haodong.
Tian Ye said: "Mr. Qin, this is Zhang Chaohui, the chief auctioneer of our auction house. He is particularly good at appraising ancient European paintings."
"Both of you, please take a seat." After Qin Haodong asked the two of them to sit down, he reached for a painting on the table, which was the nude sketch that Nalan Wushuang had just seen.
"Mr. Zhang, please help me identify whether this painting is an authentic work by Picasso."
After speaking, he sent the nude sketch to Zhang Chaohui.
From the moment he saw Qin Haodong, Zhang Chaohui began to look down upon him, thinking that this must be the rich second generation of some family who had been deceived by others. In his opinion, Qin Haodong's painting could never be authentic.
However, as a professional appraiser, he still had basic qualities. With a very serious expression, he took out a white glove from his pocket and put it on his hand, took Qin Haodong's painting, and then took out a magnifying glass to look at it.
Zhang Chaohui didn't pay much attention to it at first, but the moment he saw the painting, his whole person immediately became serious.
He did not check what was painted on the painting first, but looked at the sketch paper first, folded it gently with his hands, and felt the hardness and flexibility of the paper. This was an appraisal by an excellent appraiser.
The procedure to follow.
After checking the material of the sketch paper, Zhang Chaohui's expression became more and more solemn. He was already sure that the sketch paper in his hand was produced in Europe in the 1940s and 1950s. He believed that this could never fool his eyes.
Now he can be sure that even if these sketches are not Picasso's works, they were copied in the last century. From this point of view, they can be regarded as ancient paintings.
Tian Ye watched from the side, and his expression became solemn. He had cooperated with Zhang Chaohui for many years, and he had already seen some clues from his friend's expression. Now it seems that the painting Qin Haodong took out is definitely extraordinary. Is it really good?
Picasso's handwriting.
"Jacqueline, this is Jacqueline!"
When Zhang Chaohui turned his attention to the naked woman on the scroll, he immediately let out a scream, attracting everyone's attention.
Hearing the commotion outside, Nalan Wushuang had no intention of practicing. She came to the door and eavesdropped. She also wanted to see if these ancient European paintings made by Qin Haodong could still be fake.
Zhang Tieniu stood behind Qin Haodong and couldn't help but curl his lips. These Hong Kong Islanders are really ignorant. Isn't she just a naked woman? What's the fuss about.
Nowadays, you can easily find a large number of short movies on the Internet. Have they never seen them?
Zhang Tieniu is a layman, but Tian Ye still knows a little bit about it. When he heard the name, he immediately realized that the woman in the painting was Picasso's last wife.
Picasso had countless women in his life, and Jacqueline was his last wife. During the 8 years they were together, although this perverted old man always had mistresses, Jacqueline accepted this, and the two of them walked hand in hand through Picasso's life.
the last days of.
Jacqueline created a warm world for Picasso in his later years. Picasso often found inspiration from her and painted a large number of portraits of her.
Thirteen years after Picasso's death, Jacqueline committed suicide. After her death, the sketches and oil paintings that Picasso made for her flowed into the auction market. It was during that time that the value of Picasso's paintings increased.
It can be said that it was these paintings related to Jacqueline that helped Picasso's works reach a higher level.
Qin Haodong also didn't know the woman in this painting and was not interested in anyone. He just wanted to know if there were any flaws in his ancient paintings.
"Mr. Zhang Chaohui, have your identification results come out?"
Zhang Chaohui, who was obsessed with this sketch, came to his senses and carefully put down the painting in his hand. He grabbed Qin Haodong's arm and shouted excitedly: "I guarantee it with my reputation as an appraiser."
, this painting is absolutely authentic, it must have been painted by Picasso, and it is a portrait of his wife.
Dear Mr. Qin, can you tell me how this painting came about?"
A smile appeared on the corner of Nalan Wushuang's mouth behind the door. It seemed that Qin Haodong had succeeded again this time. Qin Haodong was also very happy, smiled and said: "This is what I just drew."
"Uh..." Zhang Chaohui said with an embarrassed look on his face, "I'm sorry Mr. Qin, I was too excited and violated your privacy."
As a good appraiser, asking about the origin of a collection is taboo.
Even in the international art market, the authenticity and origin of privately traded items have never been important, and the upper class in society pay more attention to personal privacy.
Because of this, in Zhang Chaohui's view, Qin Haodong was mocking himself, and he would not realize that it was the truth anyway.
"Nothing." Qin Haodong took three more scrolls and said, "Please help me identify whether these pictures are genuine or fake."
He imitated Picasso's works and drew forty paintings, including ten human figure sketches, ten children's sketches, ten still life sketches, and ten oil paintings. He took one from each group as a representative and asked Zhang Chaohui to identify it.
Zhang Chaohui showed a look of astonishment at first. Each of Picasso's works is now worth a lot of money. It is great to be lucky enough to collect one. Unexpectedly, Qin Haodong actually took out four of them at once.
He took the three paintings with excitement and began to evaluate them seriously.
Tian Ye also showed a look of astonishment. Yesterday Qin Haodong said that he had some Picasso paintings, but he didn't expect that he actually had some paintings, not just one.
If he knew that there were 36 such paintings in Qin Haodong's drawer, he wonders whether his eyeballs would fall to the ground.
Zhang Chaohui appraised it very carefully. After ten minutes, he raised his head and said excitedly: "Mr. Qin, you are really amazing. I can assure you that these paintings are all authentic works by Mr. Picasso."
, and it is very well preserved, with almost no flaws.”
Nalan Wushuang, who was behind the door, almost laughed out loud, thinking that these paintings had just been freshly baked, and they were less than a few hours old, so they were naturally well preserved.
After making sure that he had left no flaws, Qin Haodong also breathed a sigh of relief and said to the two people in Ye Ye: "Both of you, I'm not very good at art. Can you help me estimate how much these paintings are worth?
"
Tian Tian said: "There is no specific price for the artwork and can only be estimated. About five years ago, seven sketch albums by Picasso appeared at an auction, and they were sold for US$8 million.
Although your paintings are a little short, only 4, they are more complete in variety, covering all types of Picasso's paintings. If it were made into a picture album, taking into account the increase in art prices in recent years, the value should be about 1,000.
Between 10,000 US dollars and 15 million US dollars.”
"How much money does it cost?"
Qin Haodong was shocked by this number. Although he knew that Picasso was famous, he did not expect that his paintings were so valuable.
"Of course."
Zhang Chaohui took up the topic and said: "Picasso is a true artistic genius. The 20th century belongs to him. No artist can be as varied and well-known as Picasso.
Although he was a prolific painter and created more than 60,000 works in his lifetime, this number is too small compared to the number of collectors in the world.
When Picasso was alive, all of his tens of thousands of works had been acquired by others, and there were basically no circulating works on the market.
It is precisely because of this that the value of Picasso’s paintings is created.”