Almighty painter

Chapter 224

"Anna?"

A young woman's carefree voice came from the other end of the phone.

"My best friend, Xiao Nizi thought of calling me so late. By the way, did you receive the cheese I sent for my birthday? The best product in our family is almost sugar-free. It is delicious with ham or made into cheese fondue. If you can't eat it, you should store it in the refrigerator. Oh, you should have a separate cellar..."

Aurora is a little chatty.

Anna just said hello and made it clear that she came, and she heard the other party talking a lot like pouring a bucket.

People who can study art at the best universities in Austria have good family conditions.

Aurora's family is also very wealthy. Of course, it must not be compared with Elena's family, but it is also as rich as a multi-millionaire.

The gallery in Bern is the property of her cousin.

Her father has a dairy farm of more than [-] acres under the Alps, which produces the famous Swiss Emmental cheese.

in school,
Aurora had told Anna.

She struggled for a long time in high school before choosing between studying art and going to her uncle's gallery, or studying ranch management and going home to make handmade cheese.

"Thank you. I'll give you a thank you card. I should receive it in a few days."

Anna remembers the big 93kg round piece of cheese she received on her birthday.

She listened with a gentle smile.

The dormitory building of WYN Academy of Fine Arts is like an independent small villa with three or four floors. There is an independent small dormitory assigned to each person, and everyone shares the open kitchen on the first floor.

A dorm is like a big family.

When entering school, Miss Irina was slightly younger than students of the same level.

Aurora, the head of the dormitory with a round face and a chubby face who likes to wear skinny jeans and bucket boots like a cowgirl, is three grades older than Anna, with the natural enthusiasm of growing up on a ranch under the Alps.

Aurora is one of the few seniors who can make Anna feel like a big sister, and she is a good friend who can be called a best friend in her student days.

This year, the gallery at the other party's home will hold a spring academic seminar, so I couldn't come to Anna's birthday ceremony.

"Oh, by the way, you want to know which gallery's contract, what a strange request. Send me the contract by email."

Aurora remembered business.

She didn't ask why, but just clicked on the file.

"Let me see, it's not a Gagosian contract, nor a template contract from Pace..."

Aurora murmured softly on the phone.

"Can you be more detailed?" Anna raised her tone slightly.

"More detailed, well, it's definitely not our home gallery." Aurora smiled.

"Aurora, I'm serious." Anna said helplessly.

"Sister Anna, your request itself is very weird, okay? Contracts are not a fingerprint identification, but experience. You shouldn't ask me about this. You should post it on Reddit and ask the Sherlock Holmes group."

"I have practiced at Gagosian, and I have also dealt with Pace's contract, so I can exclude these two. It looks quite formal and detailed, and it is not modified from a template directly found on Google. However, some small galleries will also hire professional legal counsel to write the contract."

Aurora in the microphone complained speechlessly.

"If you can't find it, forget it."

Anna originally wanted to give it a try.

She promised not to find out the identity of the other party, but... it was really itchy.

"Okay, okay. Don't worry, I will seriously think about it for you. Anna, do you have any other information?" Aurora asked.

"It should be a large gallery, maybe an Intercontinental gallery." Anna said.

“The scope is much smaller. Those who can establish their own branch galleries across continents must have a capital of at least US$2000 million. I read the reports during my internship, and Gagosian’s branch galleries in Tokyo, Rome, Paris, and London each cost more than US$[-] million in annual operating expenses. Only those few in the industry can be called intercontinental galleries.”

"Gagosian and PACE have been excluded just now, and it should not be Perrotin or Alberto. These two galleries are very proud of their Parisian attributes. I heard that even all legal texts are only available in French..."

on the phone,
Aurora studied for a few minutes, and finally concluded: "I think, if it is really a large-scale Intercontinental Gallery, there is a high probability that it should be one of the Saatchi Gallery, Mas Gallery, Tokyo Gallery or New York Lehmann Maupin Gallery. My judgment may not be right. You can also ask other people."

Anna called up the notepad on the computer, and wrote down the four names of [Saatchi Gallery], [Mashi Gallery], [Tokyo Gallery] and [New York Lehmann Maupin Gallery].

One of these four galleries?

She felt as if she had captured a corner of the mysterious veil of Big Sister Detective Cat.

"I just found out by the way while researching the contract, it's not a breach of promise." Anna comforted herself in her heart.

"Say hello to August for me, that dog of yours is super handsome, show Rua his dog's head for me."

Aurora yawned and was about to hang up.

"I'm sleepy, my boyfriend is still waiting for me in bed. Welcome to come and play with me in summer, you can't ski, I can teach you how to make cheese on the ranch, let you go for a ride on a snowmobile in the back seat, and dog sledding, it's fun."

"Wait a minute, I have something else to do. I remember, Aurora, you went to North America to study law after graduation. You have a lawyer's license, right?"

"Strictly speaking, I have a Master of Laws. I did a one-year LLM, not a three- to five-year JD."

After Aurora finished university in Austria, she spent a few years in the United States.

Her cousin hopes that after Aurora graduates, she will be able to come to the family gallery to be in charge of administrative affairs in the future.So Aurora, in addition to her internship at the Gagosian Gallery, also completed a law course at New York University.

In North America, there are often postgraduates or above to have professional law disciplines.There are two degrees: LLM and JD. The main difference is that the latter can directly become a practicing lawyer.

"Can I ask you some legal questions?" Anna asked.

"If it's about your huge property that makes me envious and jealous, you'd better not ask me in the attitude of being responsible to both of us. But if it's about this contract, it's right to ask my mother!"

Aurora said with a smile.

Regular courses such as "maritime law" and "intellectual property law" are offered by any law school.

But New York is one of the centers of modern art, and it is also the international headquarters of large galleries such as Gagosian and Lehmann Maupin, and the location of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, one of the major art temples such as the Vatican, the Louvre, and the Metropolitan.

High-end art industries gather here.

Therefore, New York University is one of the few universities that offers a special legal subdivision elective course of [art and antique agency, sales and insurance].

That's why Aurora went to study.

"This contract was sent to me by a sister. She wanted to know if it would be okay to work part-time outside to contribute to a publishing company after signing this contract. She felt that this agreement only stipulated that she could not cooperate with other galleries and auction companies."

"She really thinks so?"

Aurora smacked her lips: "This silly girl is really innocent and cute."

"How to say?"

Anna slightly raised her chin.

Senior sister Aurora's daily work is to handle this aspect of duties for the gallery.

Miss Elena trusted the other party's professional judgment.

"Being a gallerist is exactly the same as grazing. Our big Simmental cows, from small to large, supply the cow dung to the organic fertilizer factory. The milk squeezed out can be used to make fresh milk and cheese. When they are old, they can be used as meat and milk cattle to supply to the meat and poultry market. The cowhide is stripped and kneaded to make furniture, and even the bones are made into bone meal to make money."

Senior Aurora gave a cold smile that belonged to a black-hearted capitalist: "Is there any reason for it to be secretly milked by others?"

Anna didn't expect to get such feedback.

She didn't study law, and she was just worried that Detective Cat would not be able to enter the auction house in the future.

Now, according to what the senior sister said, there are still pitfalls in this seemingly ordinary contract.

The answer was unexpected and reasonable.

If the twists and turns in commercial contracts are so easy to understand, why do you need to study law?

In the past, the Elena family signed a long-term consultation contract with a law firm, which was 15 euros per year. They only dealt with simple formulaic affairs, and professional legal consultation was charged by the minute.

The legal team is asking such a high price.

It couldn't be easier to let others step on a pit without knowing it.

"Isn't it possible?" Anna asked strangely.

"It's very dangerous, it depends on whether the gallery wants to bite off a piece of meat from you."

Aurora snorted twice: "For example, you see, the gallery agreed that during the contract period, it naturally enjoys full ownership of the works created by its agent artist using the gallery's art resources."

"This contract seems normal, but what is 'use of gallery's art resources'?"

"Sorry, Sister Anna, it's not only the works drawn with the gallery's pen and paper that use the gallery's art resources. For example, our family holds academic seminars for the agent artist. After attending, his skills have improved or he has new creative inspiration. Does this count as using the gallery's art resources?"

Aurora gave an example casually: "Judging whether to use company resources is complicated, and some companies are involved in customs clearance. In the early days of Silicon Valley, many programmers who secretly used the company's computer to do private work at night died miserably on similar terms. Art is even more complicated."

"...There is also this article. The commercial copyright and adaptation rights of the works created by the artist during the contract period belong to the gallery. If she draws illustrations, it will easily cause disputes with the publishing house. And these few articles, why not create works that violate the social image of the gallery balabala..."

Aurora scratched casually in the contract, grabbing a lot of questionable clauses.

"When great artists sign contracts, they hire someone to draw up the contract. They never use the template contract prepared by the gallery. They are not idle."

"That's it."

Anna nodded.

It is indeed a very wise choice to ask professionals for Detective Cat.

Otherwise, even Anna herself didn't realize the potential risks of these clauses.

"In short, gallerists are very strict with their painters. There is no precedent in the industry for serious painters to draw illustrations for secret publishers, just because it is relatively rare and basically does not make a lot of money. Galleries don't want to show their greedy face for the benefit of tens of thousands of dollars at most.

"If there is a KAWS, you can try to see if they sue you, then it's over."

"Based on these terms, winning is not guaranteed. It is not difficult to tear a few pieces of flesh from her, and it is not difficult to force an out-of-court settlement."

"It's really dark."

Anna took a sip of her coffee and gave her own comments.

"Of course, the gallery business is what you get for this money. Do you think everyone is Hearst, and he is qualified to negotiate terms with his gallery?"

Aurora gave a sly smile like Grandet's: "If the painter under my contract does something like this, and I can't squeeze money out of her, I will look down on myself."

"Anyway, little sister, I don't like small money, but big money can't escape."

"So how to avoid this kind of thing from happening?" Anna only cared about this matter.

"It's best to clarify directly with the gallery... If you think his painting is good enough, or simply let her sign it to our gallery? I don't want her ownership of the illustrations. I believe in Anna's vision, signing this kind of painter will definitely be worthwhile."

Aurora suggested.

Anna smiled.

It's a choice.

She can't recommend Detective Cat to Gagosian, but it's okay to recommend her to Aurora's gallery.

It's just that Aurora's gallery is only an independent gallery in a city, with assets of several million Swiss francs, and the publicity resources it enjoys are not as good as Komatsu's gallery.

If Ms. Detective Cat can really sign an Intercontinental gallery.

Or the latter has a bigger stage and better exposure resources.

"If you want to completely construct the identity of an anonymous illustrator without letting the gallery owner know about it, can you do it?" Anna asked.

"Well, I knew Miss Irina didn't like our poor workshop." Aurora sighed in a fake manner.

She wasn't curious about the illustrator's request.

After 010, anonymous illustrators are very popular.

The public loves gimmicks with a sense of mystery.

KAWS is neither called by his real name nor KAWS. These four letters are the code name he gave himself when he became popular on INS.

And there are so many anonymous illustrators in the blockchain NFT virtual digital collection exchange that it is impossible to count them.

"In that case, I'll find a way for you."
-
Later, Gu Weijing received an email from Mr. Sloth in his mailbox.

[Ms. Detective Cat:

Based on your needs, I consulted a professional.

If you want to separate the virtual identity of "Detective Cat" from the contracted painter system of the gallery, the best way to avoid future troubles is that you need to clearly indicate the following terms in the contract.

"I hereby indicate that before I signed the contract, from March 2023, 3, I own the paintings, network accounts, virtual IP and surrounding intellectual property rights. At the same time, without using the gallery's publicity channel, my anonymous creations on the Internet in the future, and all commercial activities based on this, have nothing to do with the gallery, and all rights and responsibilities belong to the artist himself—"

In addition to the terms of the statement, there are some points and rules that need to be paid attention to when signing the contract.I have sorted them all out for you and recorded them in the Word document in the appendix at the end of the email.

I know this may not align with your desire not to draw extra attention from the gallery.

But sometimes there is no optimal solution to the things in life, and we can only choose the most favorable option according to the situation.In order to avoid possible troubles in the future, I strongly recommend that you note this treaty in the contract.

In addition,

The 15-year contract period is too long. I suggest that you can make concessions on the share and allowances in exchange for a larger contract margin.

A shorter contract means more room for choice, and signing a contract of less than ten years is a suitable choice.

I believe you have a talent that will amaze the art world and collectors alike.

The first contract should only be your entry ladder for Detective Cat, not your lifelong support.If you talk about a short contract of about three years, even if you only take 10% or even 5% of the share in exchange for the resource tilt of the big gallery, it is not unacceptable.

Good luck with your signing!

Your forever friend, Mr. Sloth]

[PS——If the negotiation process is not smooth, I have a good personal friendship with a city gallery in Switzerland. Although it is not Intercontinental Gallery, it should be willing to give you a satisfactory contract.This might be worth PlanB for your consideration. 】

"Sure enough, you can't sign directly, Mr. Sloth is still reliable."

Gu Weijing read the email twice from beginning to end, and saw Mr. Sloth reminding him of all the noteworthy points in the contract in the attachment.

He knew that he had taken it for granted.

Gu Weijing sent a thank you message to Mr. Sloth with his mobile phone.

"Well, it seems that I need to have a good talk with Hanks."

Although it was different from what he had imagined, knowing where the pit was buried was definitely better than signing it directly.

"Should I make a request directly with the gallery to see if the other party can agree, or should I discuss it with Mrs. Sakai first?"

Gu Weijing pondered for a moment.

He thought he had a better idea.

There is a big thick leg with real hair thicker than his waist, waiting for him to hug.

In the field of art, my biggest backer is not Mr. Sloth, nor Mrs. Sakai, but——

Old Mr. Cao Xuan.

(End of this chapter)