In a few days, it will be Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, and the whole of Europe is filled with a relaxed atmosphere before the holidays.
In the northeastern suburbs of Zurich, in a private manor on an alpine meadow by Lake Constance, an aristocratic old man in his fifties was playing golf with a few friends.
Lake Constance is a very beautiful paradise on earth, located at the junction of Switzerland, Germany and Austria.
From the southeast corner of the lake, go south over a small ridge in the Alps, about ten kilometers away, and you can reach Liechtenstein, another famous small European country.
Like Luxembourg, Liechtenstein was once a vassal state under the Holy Ra Empire. In the end, it escaped the tide of German unification, so it still maintains the traditional aristocratic system.
Although the territory of Liechtenstein is too small, only 160 square kilometers, which is only one-fifteenth of Luxembourg (the land area of Luxembourg is as large as the Lanfang Islands), its noble title is not low. The title of the monarch of Liechtenstein is the same as that of Monaco.
They are all "princes", but Luxembourg is the same "grand duke" as Lan Fang.
This private castle estate on the shores of Lake Constance belongs to the South African tycoon Rupert family.
At this moment, the person who was playing golf at the manor's golf course was none other than the family patriarch, His Excellency John Rupert - he has many titles, such as South Africa's second richest man, a real estate and mining tycoon, and the world's second largest luxury goods group, Richemont.
The head of the group claims that his family wealth is close to US$14 billion.
John Rupert has loved golf all his life, and he especially likes to play golf in the pure environment of snow lakes in high mountain hot springs in the Alps. This is not because he is arty or pretends to be aristocratic, but because he truly enjoys playing this game.
It's December now, which is the colder season of the year. Even the skiers in the Alps have called it a day and won't come back until March or April next year when the weather gets a little warmer.
However, many alpine estates near Lake Constance can still be green and green, and you can even play golf. This is mainly because this generation is the area with the richest hot springs in Bavaria - the Alps are also an important transition zone for crustal plate movements and geological activities.
They are so frequent that there are mountain hot springs throughout Bavaria, Württemberg in southern Germany and Zurich in northeastern Switzerland.
Wherever there are hot springs, there are abundant geothermal resources. Even on the snow-capped mountains in winter, there are large areas of green grass, and the mist is shrouded like a fairyland. Later generations of onlookers from mainland China, even if they have never been to Zurich, Switzerland,
Just take a look at those Swiss Alpine blowers on Douyin. The short videos of clouds and mist captured by those people on snowy mountains and grasslands were all shot in places like this.
Therefore, in fact, these scenery are definitely not pastoral idylls belonging to the poor, but private manors and castles controlled by the major European wealthy families.
Although the Rupert family's castle estate is not comparable to the Bavarian royal palace Neuschwanstein Castle on the other side of the lake, in John's mind, he has always aimed at building his own resort with a legendary estate like Neuschwanstein Castle.
…
There was a crisp "pop~" sound, and John Rupert made an elegant swing and hit a birdie.
The other people present naturally all responded with compliments or sincere praise.
John took a sip of water in high spirits, and after a short rest, he swung another shot and flew directly to the green of the next hole.
So with a look from him, the battery car next to him quietly drove over, picked up the people in the car, and headed straight for the next hole.
This is also one of the main reasons why golf is suitable for business negotiations: few elderly golfers will walk to the green of the next hole after hitting a shot on the green.
Because there is a distance of nearly 300 yards between each hole in the golf course (the par-3 hole, which means "this hole can be reached by default with three strokes under standard conditions", the par-4 holes and par-5 holes below
Similarly), the distance is more than 400 yards (par 5 hole), which is almost a mile.
Those elderly men who have no physical strength to walk a mile every time they drill a hole naturally need to take battery cars frequently. Resting in the car is a good time to talk about things.
As soon as John Rupert got into the car and wiped his sweat, his son Anthony Rupert handed over a phone and whispered:
"Van Bilson was in Fessen yesterday. He heard that we were spending the winter vacation here. He wanted to show a few guests and a batch of new oriental goods. They may be useful during the Christmas jewelry show."
It turned out that the Van Bilson mentioned by Anthony was none other than Van Bilson, a Dutch businessman who had cooperated with Gu Kun on many cultural relics business before. Richemont Group, as the largest jewelry industry and luxury watch industry giant in Europe, is mostly related to those antiquities auction businessmen.
There is also friendship.
After all, the group holds some jewelry exhibitions and famous watch exhibitions every Christmas season. During the exhibition, some ancient cultural relics are decorated to enhance the atmosphere and attract the upper class visitors. These are all basic operations. Those top European art and antique players,
Basically, they are also in this circle.
As for John and Anthony, they actually bought some things that Gu Kun fished out from Van Bilzon before, but they didn't mind the source, and they didn't care about Gu Kun's situation.
Fessen is a small town in the southwest suburbs of Munich, not far from the border between Germany, Austria and Switzerland. It was the site of Neuschwanstein Castle, the royal palace of Bavaria. It is still a famous high-end trading center for antiquities and cultural relics in South Germany.
Therefore, with their previous identities, it was normal for Van Bilzon and Sophia to frequent Feisen. Before cooperating with Gu Kun, this group of people basically ran around three places: The Hague, Zurich and Munich to buy and sell goods.
Conduct an auction.
John Rupert took a sip of the champagne on the car and smiled scornfully: "I guess that guy Bilson took someone's favor again and wanted to lead others, but we must not take anything that is not worthy of our status."
The nouveau riche come in.”
Anthony was originally indifferent. He accidentally received the call just now when his father was concentrating on playing basketball, so he said: "Then I can refuse him."
John raised his hand and said, "It's not necessary. Let's listen to who it is. If it's really unpopular, I'll take a few other distinguished guests aside and don't taint their eyes."
The guests that John Rupert plays with are all very distinguished. There are many important officials from Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Austria and other countries. For example, the Christian Democratic Union, which is now dominating the South Germany area and is on the rise, is very distinguished.
That female cardinal often plays golf with Rupert.
Those photos of gatherings together at the Alpine Manor, in the future when the CDU takes office and the female cardinal becomes prime minister, will often be used by Richemont Group executives as evidence to show off their connections. (The predecessor of the CDU was the Catholic Church.
The central position is strong in southern Germany, and the traditional force in northern Germany is the Social Democrats)
Anthony immediately made arrangements, and after Rupert and his party played six more holes, Van Bilson arrived - it seemed that Van Bilson had been waiting nearby for an opportunity.
As soon as the two parties met, Van Bilson kept his attitude very low: "John, I'm glad to see you are in such good spirits. I'm really looking forward to the Montblanc/Piaget exhibition on Christmas Eve. I happened to get some 8 from the East recently.
Century Arab antiquities, and they are all jewelry, which are definitely worthy of the cultural heritage and class of your exhibition.”
When he heard about such ancient ancient Arabic jewelry, John Rupert finally showed a hint of joy.
It seems that even if Van Bilzon is here to make money this time, he is really here to make him better and provide solutions.
John smiled and teased: "Really? I haven't heard of any Arab relics from that era being discovered in the cultural relics industry recently, and there are no related special auctions - you haven't encountered something of unknown origin, right?"
Van Bilson quickly exclaimed: "How is that possible? You don't know the reputation of us Dutch people in business. We will not touch anything obtained through illegal channels. As long as you are willing to ask for it, every item you get
, it is definitely 'obtained in good faith by a third party', which is the old rule."
John waved his hand: "Let's play two shots together and tell us the specific source."
Van Bilzon also works in this field, so he must be able to play golf. He immediately took the club without any ambiguity and also drove a ball. Then he slowly explained: "Actually, it is not new. It has been out of the water for several months.
——It is the most luxurious ancient shipwreck in Southeast Asian waters so far, what is on the "Nanyang No. 1".
As you know, this ship is older than any Asian ship I have held at auction before, and the things on it are more historical. However, this ship belongs to China, and the Chinese people are very strict in protecting cultural relics.
So it won't be auctioned.
But my friend still obtained some things on the ship that did not belong to the ancient Tang people. They all belonged to the ancient Arabs, and he could legally dispose of them freely, which is completely in line with the principle of first-to-discover discovery in the international law of the sea."
Hearing the string song and knowing its elegant meaning,
Van Bilson elaborated this passage to this point, and an old fox like John had already reacted:
"The friend he wanted to introduce to me couldn't be Gu Kun, the boat fisherman, right? That person is quite famous, but unfortunately he is a nouveau riche and is incompatible with our circle."
Thinking of this, John was impatient to continue listening, and interrupted directly to confirm: "The person you want to introduce me to today is not the big star Gu Kun who interferes everywhere, is he? That kind of nouveau riche, the money is
Quite a few, it shouldn’t be possible for them to be willing to endorse our Richemont brand, right?”
Speaking of endorsements, Gu Kun actually did some brand endorsements back then. In addition to using Sony's disc-man and headphones, Armani in the luxury goods circle also approached Gu Kun for covert endorsements. That was all in 1996 when he just got the
n Olympic champions, the treatment they receive when they become the person with the most world records in human history.
Who would have thought that after just two and a half years, Gu Kun was no longer satisfied with making a little traffic money from soft implants. Instead, he wanted to be the manipulator himself and let those European designers make money for him.
Seeing that the other party had pointed it out, Van Bilson stopped laying the groundwork: "It is indeed Gu Kun, but he probably won't endorse any brands under your group - he wants to talk to you about the exchange of shares in certain brands.
."
John Rupert seemed to have heard a very funny joke: "What? Talk to me about the share swap of the subsidiary brand? Is he considered an insider? This is a business with aristocratic tradition. It is not just for the nouveau riche to get rich.
You can get in! I heard that he has only been rich for a few months, and he made trouble in Xiangjiang, but he can't even afford a luxury house in Xiangjiang. Are there any nobles in this world who have their own castle? Where is his fiefdom?"