National Tide 1980.

In the decades since the Japanese bubble economy, this period of time has always been unforgettable to the Japanese who experienced it.

Aside from the painful lessons they learned, it was also because they had such a great time back then.

It was a period when the whole nation was immersed in the wealth that was readily available, glowing with light and colorful bubbles.

From high to low, from the rich to the common people, almost everyone has become rich because of the increase in assets and bonuses caused by the extremely loose monetary policy.

Even in the most depressed Japanese companies, the annual bonus is half a year's salary.

What's more, there is the huge Chinese market responsible for absorbing the home appliances and automobiles exported from Japan.

The Japanese have all heard that in populous China, there is nothing that cannot be sold as long as it has something to do with Japan, as if everything produced in Japan glows.

Even though the Japanese yen exchange rate continues to rise day by day, home appliances and cars will continue to be sold.

Who made China lag behind Japan by thirty years and be unable to produce it on its own?

Moreover, Japan is so close to China that even if it cannot build a factory in China immediately, the logistics costs will offset many of the advantages of Western products.

To put it bluntly, for contemporary Japanese, known as the “bubble generation,” work may be hard, but it does pay off.

Because money comes too easily.

The right time, right place and right people all destined the world's wealth to flow into Japan.

So even as an outlier in the bubble economy, even though the executive director of the Composers Association, Masahiro Mihara, did not speculate in real estate or stocks.

But because of his artistic taste, he always sticks to his hobby and focuses his energy and wealth on niche art collection, and his assets have also increased exponentially.

To be honest, the art market in 1987 was purely triggered by the Japanese.

This spring, Japan's largesse in art purchases made international headlines.

Yasuda Fire and Marine Insurance Company bought Van Gogh's "Sunflowers" for nearly 40 million US dollars.

This is almost three times as much as any previous Western painting.

This was like a fuse that not only ignited the overseas art investment market, but also made the Japanese famous in the art collection world for their lavish spending.

It can be said that what followed was the various sales techniques in the minds of Western auctioneers and the pockets of Japanese speculators filled with money brought by the bubble economy. The two sides hit it off and together created the most indulgent art market in the world's history.

Japanese art collectors actually have simple goals. The paintings they like must be able to display 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 works they purchased overseas were by French Impressionist or Post-Impressionist painters.

For example, Picasso, Chagall, and Renoir.

For no other reason than that these paintings by Impressionist masters are more suitable for modern decoration.

This simple taste for representative works of art lowers the threshold of the art market and makes it open to everyone.

It also ensures that speculative enthusiasm remains concentrated, thus helping to drive up the prices of a few selected artists.

To put it bluntly, the Japanese can work together to act as the market maker and push them to support the painter's works.

Of course, this also shows that when deciding to buy shares in works of art, Japanese speculators are not particularly concerned about the identity of the artist.

All they really want is capital gains, not a painting.

Needless to say, this form of speculation in the international art market has proven to be successful and effective.

Its impact will of course be transmitted back to Japan, and may even tend to be amplified.

Art speculators in Japan followed suit and quickly drove up the prices of cheaper works by famous Japanese painters to staggeringly high prices.

And unlike what the Japanese have done in overseas markets, the domestic art market in Japan is seeing a general increase.

After all, the capacity of Japanese paintings is limited, so the prices of works by any well-known Japanese painter who has a certain reputation in the industry will skyrocket exponentially.

In fact, Sanyuan Masahiro became a beneficiary by catching this trend. His collecting hobbies coincided with the evolution of this mainstream trend, and he sat on the cusp of it.

In addition to the 80 million yen he had just received from Ning Weimin for the transfer of part of his collection, he basically invested it in the works of Somei Aoki and Kawai Gyokudō, who specialized in Japanese paintings.

The works of these two famous painters have strong personal styles and are easily recognizable, so the prices have skyrocketed.

In just half a year, the total value of the artworks in Mihara Masahiro's hands reached 500 million yen.

It has been proven that the current lack of regulation in Japan's art market means that artworks, as commodities and investment products, have inherent conditions that make them easier to manipulate and have greater profit margins than financial markets.

This further fostered Mihara Masahiro's ambition. This pig that dances with the wind even thought of growing wings - trying to unite with auction houses, control the price of a famous painter's works, and set up a high-price scheme together.

On the evening of May 5, two senior executives of the newly established auction house New Art East were invited to the home of Masahiro Mihara, where they smoked cigars and drank whiskey in the study of this music bureaucrat who was known as an artist.

But in fact, what several people got together to discuss was the specific implementation steps of this plan.

"Mr. Mihara, may I ask how your negotiation with Mr. Somei went? Is this feasible?"

The person who asked the question was named Ashi Jian, and he was the director of the business department of this art auction company.

"The matter has been resolved. I have roughly negotiated with him that he can give us 40 paintings every year for a period of three years, and each painting will be purchased at a price of 3 million to 5 million yen. Do you think it's okay?" "Ah, it's worthy of Mr. Mihara. He really has a special prestige in the art world. I didn't expect to reach a consensus with Mr. Somei so quickly, so three years means 120 paintings."

The other person who said this was Monkura, the director of the auction company's research department.

"Haha, art is universal. Although I have never met Somei before, I have always loved his paintings. As far as art is concerned, we are close friends. Our conversations are very speculative, and we have a lot of common views on art and the art market. 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."

Although Masatsune Mihara remained silent, he actually pointed out the essence of insider trading. Based on their equal status and driven by their respective interests, they naturally had a need and tacit understanding to cooperate.

"Yes, what Mr. Mihara said is absolutely right. Artists should respect each other. Only with Mr. Mihara's help, Mr. Somei would give such conditions."

There were no fools here. As a member of the sales department, Ashimi immediately understood Mihara Masahiro's subtext.

"Yes, yes. If we were to negotiate, we would definitely not get such good terms. Although compared to the gallery's selling price, Mr. Somei's offer is not very cheap based on the current market price, it is only equivalent to reducing the agency fee. But judging from the market trend, Mr. Somei's agreement to such conditions is almost equivalent to monopolizing the supply channel for us, which is already worth doing."

Menkura from the research department was more down-to-earth, and although he just agreed, he was also complimenting.

But soon a critical issue was realized from a technical perspective.

"But... Can Somei-sensei guarantee that he can produce so many works in three years? The time seems to be very tight. If there is a problem with the quality of the paintings..."

In fact, he was indeed a little too worried, because the darkness in the industry was simply beyond the imagination of a "technical guy" like him who had just started to fall.

"It's okay. Who among these masters doesn't have a few disciples? It's not a new thing to use the disciples' works to sign the masters' masterpieces. Under the premise that everyone wants to benefit, you have to allow these art masters to fish in troubled waters and make some easy money. Otherwise, what's the point of becoming famous? Anyway, everyone in this industry is doing this. In order to get good collections to auction, many auction houses sometimes have to provide convenience to customers and help dispose of those not-so-good collections. In comparison, your worries are completely groundless. Anyway, as long as the master himself is willing to admit it, it will not have any impact on us." Business expert Ashi Jian immediately pointed out the trick to him.

However, Mihara Masatsune not only did not take it as an offense, but instead explained the inside story more bluntly.

"Don't worry. You know, our target, the 'big fish' we want to catch, is originally those new collectors. For example, the new rich who made their fortunes through land and stocks, are very rich but have no knowledge of art, and only want to be pretentious, how can they have basic artistic appreciation? These people blindly intervene in the art market, and only make impulsive bids in the way of speculating in stocks and real estate, and they are only looking for profits brought by the appreciation of art. There are not many such people in the current auctions, and there will be more and more in the future. Do they know what is a good work? Aren't they influenced by people like us in their judgment? Besides, I have many friends. As long as those professional art connoisseurs and master-level experts advocate for us, such as publishing in the "Japanese Art" magazine, which is a relatively authoritative art magazine in the industry. As long as any work is introduced in this magazine, it is equivalent to obtaining an authoritative guarantee. Then entertain reporters from newspapers and magazines and ask them to write about it. No one will doubt that there is anything wrong with Somei's new work."

These words immediately inspired Monkura like an epiphany. Not only did he feel relieved, he also smiled and agreed happily.

"Yes, yes, Mr. Mihara knows the art market too well. I am really ashamed. What you said is so right. I think about it carefully. These new rich people made too much money too quickly. At the beginning, they loved art but didn't understand it very well. But they have strong personalities and make decisions based on their personal feelings. Many of them are pure nouveau riche. Moreover, they are all very arrogant. Naturally, they think that the auction prices of new Japanese art should be in line with those of Europe and the United States. They are willing to spend money at auctions to promote Japan's new cultural image and international status. This kind of innocent and generous nationalist sentiment 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 some additional comments.

"So, let's just set up the trap without any worries. There's nothing to be afraid of. Even if someone finds out, no one will really expose the truth. No one is a fool. The person who bought the expensive painting may know that he was cheated, but he doesn't want to break the trap because he wants to use it to pass the "hot potato" in his hand to the next buyer. And the new "victim" will create the next new "victim" to take the blame for himself. This is the foundation of our thriving art market."

After hearing these words, even Mihara Masahiro couldn't help but raise his glass and spoke excitedly.

"That's right. Teammates are very important when doing big things. It seems that you are all very knowledgeable professionals. I am very fortunate to be able to work with you two. I believe that our cooperation will be extremely smooth!"

"cheers!"

"cheers!"

Following a few crisp collisions, several people couldn't help laughing, as if those stupid upstarts had fallen into the hunting trap set by them, who were smarter.

Yes, this is how the “high-price game” is played in the art auction market.

Normally, an art speculator or group with a target in mind will first look for a painter who has a certain reputation in the art circle and whose market price is relatively suitable, and sign a contract with him for several years.

Then when the number of works reaches a certain level, they will start to be hyped at auctions. It is normal for a painting purchased for 3 million yen to be auctioned for tens of millions of yen.

Then gradually push the price up until it finally reaches 50 million yen, or even over 100 million yen.

  What if no one buys at such a high price?

It is easy to do. As the party planning the hype, you can arrange for "our own people" to sit together with a group of real buyers and pretend to raise hands to bid to create an atmosphere of "many people rushing to buy".

This is called the "sky-high price scheme" at art auctions.

Therefore, it is very easy to achieve the goal. When a work worth 3 million yen is hyped up to 10 million yen, all the costs can be recovered as long as one-tenth of the work is sold at the high price.

Of course, there is no need to rush for the remaining paintings. You can slowly "fish" at the auction using the sky-high price game. If you sell one more, you will make huge profits.

But then again, the most important thing about this kind of game is the financial expenditure of both parties.

Because even this kind of fraudulent arrangement is not a cost-free business.

If you want to sell calligraphy and painting at a high price, you first need to use catalog books to promote them.

Currently, the catalogs and brochures of Japanese auction houses are being printed more and more exquisitely, which is an unavoidable layout cost.

Especially for an auction house like Xinyi East, which has only been established for a few years, it is not stingy in investing in publicity funds.

Every auction costs a lot of money.

Moreover, it is impossible to pay a 10% commission for this kind of "fake bidding".

Confusing the true value of the auction items in publicity is just a prelude to the unspoken rules of the auction, and repeatedly inflating the transaction price is a means of confusing the true value of the auction items.

The fundamental reason for doing this is that after many auctions, the prices of the items are getting higher and higher, and the popularity of the items is getting bigger and bigger.

Therefore, this kind of auction where the price of the items is artificially inflated is usually negotiated as a fixed commission.

The client, the buyer and the auctioneer all gain their own benefits through the auction, which is known in the industry as "pouring from the left hand to the right hand".

Just like the agreement that Masahiro Mihara had negotiated with the auction company.

No matter how high the price of the "fake bidding" was, the people arranged by Mihara Masahiro only paid a commission of 200,000 yen, which was just a token of his appreciation.

Otherwise, if the commission for a painting is 10 million yen, it would be at least 1 million yen. Mihara Masahiro is not likely to be such a sucker. (End of this chapter)