Almighty painter

Chapter 85 Winning the Bid
At three o'clock in the afternoon, with the sound of a gong.

A man with the appearance of a host stepped on a simple rostrum made of a few tin boxes, holding a big speaker to officially announce the end of the bidding process.

"Don't be impatient, everyone. We are counting the bids in each dark box. It will take about half an hour. We have prepared a rest area for everyone, with refreshments and fruits..."

The crowd left the bidding area in a bustling manner.

Gu Weijing saw several police cars driving into the front of the warehouse following a blue and black anti-riot armored vehicle.

The door of the armored vehicle opened, and a group of patrolmen in black uniforms came down.

These people leaned against the car, gathered together, and smoked there lazily.

They don't look elite, but they're real guys with guns on their belts.

"There will be a large cash transaction later. You also know the security situation in our place. Don't feel at ease without the police."

The uncle noticed Gu Weijing's gaze, and patted his nephew on the shoulder, as if he had seen a big scene: "The jadeite fair every year is a big scene, those jewelers from the Eastern Xia Mainland and Eastern Xia Hong Kong and Taiwan regions , is a billionaire at every turn. In order to ensure the stability and safety of the public market, there will even be MiG-29s flying overhead."

Gu Weijing nodded.

Boss Wu's handicap is white business.

In the audience, except for the young woman dressed as a working woman, no one is willing to take a second look at the "Old Church in a Thunderstorm".

It stands to reason that the robbery can't grab him.

"Do you two have something you like? Your Gu Tongxiang's vision is quite tricky. Gu's Book Gallery is also considered a big business in the local area. How about it? Can you eat the king of bids?"

Boss Wu appeared from nowhere at this time.

He held a half-burned cigarette in his mouth, puffing away.

"I just bid in the miscellaneous area."

Gu Weijing held the No. 69 number plate he received when he entered the venue, and glanced at the whiteboard in front of the miscellaneous area on one side.

Many staff members are checking the number boxes in the miscellaneous area.

After a while, after the bidding amount of each booth is counted, the winning bid number will be written on the whiteboard.

"Miscellaneous area, huh, that's a kid's play house."

Knowing that Gu Weijing didn't hug Brother Hao's thigh, Boss Wu's posture suddenly became much higher, and he didn't even call out Mr. Gu, with an attitude of pointing out the younger generation: "How can you do business without courage?" .”

The uncle also smiled wryly: "Biao Wang..."Mountain in the Snow" has a starting price of more than [-] US dollars, which is too expensive."

"You can't say that, there is a reason why you are expensive. The prices of Impressionist works have indeed risen in recent years. Some time ago, the private collection of Microsoft founder Paul Allen sold a total of 16 billion US dollars, including several Impressionist works. It accounts for 30% of the transaction value.”

Boss Wu breathed out the smoke ring calmly, "If you think it's too expensive, you can go to the miscellaneous area like your nephew, where you can rent it out for just one or two thousand dollars."

"Thousands of dollars chartered and sent to the garbage dump?"

The uncle shook his head: "No one's money comes from the wind. Your miscellaneous area is quite miscellaneous. Why do you even have Coca-Cola bottles?"

"Maybe it's good to have a fool." A businessman next to him interrupted with a smile.

There was an air of joy in the air.

After about 10 minutes, all the bids in the number box were counted.

The host began to hold a small notepad and read the winning bid number of each booth.

"Congratulations, Mr. No. 06, at a price of 27001 US dollars, you have purchased the king of the calligraphy and painting auction "Mountains in the Snow"."

As the winning bidder's number came out from the loudspeaker, there was a burst of polite applause from the crowd.

Gu Weijing discovered that the buyer did not belong to any of the several leading local galleries in Yangon that he was familiar with.

It turned out to be the uncle who handed him the toilet paper and claimed that he would rather eat a bite of fairy peach than buy a basket of rotten peaches.

This strange old man seemed to be quite capable, he was able to win the bid of the whole fair, no wonder he looked like a master collector.

"The rich old man who came to Dongxia for vacation is said to be in the building materials business and likes to collect. During this time, he bought a lot of good jadeite in Myanmar."

Boss Wu glanced at the thermos mug uncle, and explained: "It's really a dragon."

"Congratulations to Boss Wu for getting rich."

The uncle looked at the old man.

It is normal for collectors to pay more than their galleries.

Collectors only need to consider whether they like the works they buy. Even if they want to invest in appreciation, they often hold them for a long time in units of ten years.

Galleries are in business.

Uncle estimated that if this painting meets a satisfactory buyer, it may be sold for about [-] US dollars, and there is at least a profit margin of more than [-]%.

But you have to think about how long it takes to sell the painting.

Storing tens of thousands of dollars on a painting for a long time is likely to overwhelm the store's capital chain.

The opening of the public offer is still going on.

Uncle made a total of two bids and won one. Another print was bought by another gallery with a shortfall of $350.

And that Lv. 6 impressionist oil painting that Gu Weijing had seen before.

It was also won by the old man for $2700.

Although the old man failed to see the name of Gu Weijing's previous painting "Old Church", his eyesight is indeed not bad among ordinary people.

If Gu Weijing hadn't appreciated "The Ball at the Pancake Mill", even he would have almost missed that work.

He didn't have the patience to wait for the host to read one by one, and he took the lead to wander to the whiteboard in the miscellaneous area on the side.

Each winning bidder and the winning bid amount at the main booth will be read by the host to the audience through a loudspeaker.

Whenever someone wins a bid, everyone applauds, both out of politeness and to satisfy the vanity of the winner.

There is not so much attention to the miscellaneous area, just look at it yourself.

At this time, some people had started to stick the winning bid plates on the whiteboard with magnets one by one. Gu Weijing's bid was booth No. 159.

As expected and within reason, the winning bidder for the booth was No. 69 in his hand.

He went to the toll booth.

"Booth No. 159, Miscellaneous Section, Buyer No. 69... offer $2500?"

Gu Weijing immediately handed over his envelope containing money and the number plate in his hand.

The little brother who paid the fee stared at Gu Weijing for a long time like he was looking at a fool.

He repeatedly used the banknote detector to confirm that the stack of US dollars was not a fake banknote, and then handed Gu Weijing a receipt for charging.

At the moment of receiving the receipt, the official ownership of all the items on booth 159 was transferred to Gu Weijing.

A large stone fell heavily to the ground in his heart.

When Gu Weijing was going to quietly take the painting away, an accident happened.

"There must be something shady about your public offering! Who is No. 69?"

As a woman's angry voice sounded in the venue, the originally quiet and stable order in the venue was suddenly interrupted.

Everyone looked curiously at the direction from which the voice came.

"Miss, you are responsible for your nonsense."

Boss Wu came out from the crowd and looked at the woman standing by the whiteboard, with anger hidden in his tone.

What he dislikes the most when opening such a place is when someone accuses him of being shady.

"I……"

The female Ol, who was dressed like a working woman, knew that what she said was inappropriate when she was in a hurry.

However, there are police not far away, and she is also a government employee, so the woman is not afraid of Boss Wu.

"I want to check the bid, it should be my right."

She raised her head and looked directly at the people in the field looking over.

"Booth 159, my bid was $300, and I want to know who won a higher bid than me. I suspect you have made a mistake in your work."

After the woman found the oil painting that the master wanted, she basically wandered around booth No. 159.

During this period, only the child who looked like a student showed interest in things at the booth.

Others didn't even have the intention of staying in front of this booth.

This time, because she didn't want to make any mistakes again, she even made up her mind to invest a full three hundred dollars as the bidding amount.

Is there a higher number than yourself?
"You put in $300?"

Boss Wu took a look at the painting tubes and waste candlesticks on booth No. 159 not far away.

If no one buys these rags, he is going to clean them up as construction waste.

Boss Wu immediately stopped being angry.

Nowadays, even foreign tourists are not easy to be fooled. They are willing to spend three hundred dollars to buy these things.

"Miss, this is an item from the Dawen Hao Hotel. Maybe it is an item used by a famous writer in the past. It is not unusual for someone to offer a higher price."

Boss Wu said so, but he really doubted whether his little brother made a mistake in his busy schedule.

Could there be a more wronged person than three hundred dollars?
"Bring over the bid winning form, and the bid box, and check the amount of the winning bid."

Boss Wu gave an order.

Unexpectedly, the younger brother who was in charge of counting the bidding boxes in the miscellaneous area spoke immediately.

"Boss, there's no need to look it up. The winning bidder is No. 69. $2500 is the highest bid for all the booths in the miscellaneous area. I was impressed when I counted it, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with it."

"$2500? Are you sure? Not Myanmar currency?"

The working woman opened her mouth wide.

She immediately thought of the student-looking boy, scanning the crowd behind him.

As those words were spoken, the crowd seemed to be poured into a pot of boiling water, boiling at a speed visible to the naked eye.

"Who is bidding here?"

"Just kidding, $2500, no two fools really take the slogan on the booth seriously."

"No, even if it is really a pen used by Maugham, it is not worth the price."

Boss Wu was also shocked by this number.

"Quiet!"

He is a businessman, someone who is willing to pay a high price to buy garbage, for him, naturally, the more the better.Mustache is just a little worried about whether he will meet someone who messes up the quotation.

probably not.

Those who can participate in the calligraphy and painting fair are all famous figures in the local art circle in Myanmar. Ordinary tourists need to pay 20 Myanmar currency tickets if they want to enter.

This money is equivalent to a security deposit.

If the item is purchased, 20 Myanmar Kyat is equivalent to one hundred US dollars and can be deducted from it.If you didn't buy anything, you can return it to you when you leave under normal circumstances.

Boss Wu jumped on the tin box and personally took the loudspeaker from the host: "Congratulations to Mr. 69, for obtaining the ownership of all the items on booth 2500 at a price of 159 US dollars. Who is Mr. 69? We congratulate this literary lover."

The crowd applauded again, but the applause was mixed with bursts of inexplicable laughter.

"Ugh……"

Gu Weijing helplessly raised his hand.

He originally didn't want to make the trouble of buying paintings known to everyone.

I don't care about the ridicule of these people, Monet, Van Gogh, Gauguin...the works of these great painters have not been ridiculed by everyone.

Time will tell who is the master and who is the clown.

The problem is trouble - my uncle knows that he spent $[-] on the painting, and he will definitely discipline him.

Sure enough, when Gu Weijing raised his hand in full view to receive the exhibits on booth 159.

Uncle's voice mixed with disbelief and anger immediately sounded from the audience.

"Gu Weijing! Are you fucking crazy, $2500, are you going to buy this pile of junk home?"

Uncle, he only paid [-] U.S. dollars from his family for participating in the calligraphy and painting auction this time. A high-quality woodblock print that he had been studying for a whole morning was missed because he was short of a few hundred U.S. dollars.

Unexpectedly, my nephew still had $2500 in there, and the other party used such a large sum of money to buy a pile of junk.

"Grandpa granted me the money and let me choose freely. I found a very good impressionist painting, which I think is worth the money."

Gu Weijing explained patiently.

"A very good painting? How can you say it's a very good painting? Is it signed Monet or the fucking Van Gogh on the frame?"

The uncle became anxious, turned his head to Boss Wu and said, "Boss Wu, children are not sensible, so I don't want this painting anymore, we want a refund."

"Mr. Gu, what you said is meaningless. You are also an old man in the industry. What we pay attention to in this kind of business is to buy and leave. If you buy everything, there is no reason to say no. Who will dare to fight with you in the future? Your family is in business."

Boss Wu easily pushed Uncle back with a soft nail.

He didn't care about the picture of "Kingfisher Singing Bamboo" before.

The old man of the Gu family is a connoisseur with vicious eyes, and he explained the problems and shortcomings of the painting exactly, as if he had seen the artist's painting with his own eyes.

In this way, Boss Wu reluctantly refunded the money because he heard that Gu Tongxiang's grandson was favored by Yangon's tycoon Hao Ge recently.

He is now frankly opening the calligraphy and painting public auction, and the grandson of the Gu family is also bidding in black and white.

This kind of good thing that is hard to find even with a lantern, there is no reason for the other party to swallow it back.

As for what he wrote on the label, it might be Maugham's used pen or something-please, he is a businessman, does he want to write the word garbage in front of his goods?

If this kind of thing is spread to the sky, people in the industry will only think that those who believe are stupid [beep-], and will not think that Boss Wu is not righteous.

The mustache boss Wu turned his head and looked at Gu Weijing, who was ridiculed by everyone and criticized by his elders, who was still expressionless.

"Master, since you have stepped into the door of this company, there is no such thing as young or young. There are no seniors in the business field, and you can have no money, but you will be looked down upon if you have no integrity. Do you think so?" This principle."

Boss Wu knows that young people like this are the most competitive, vain and face-saving.

He immediately used words to hold Gu Weijing back, not giving him a chance to repent.

really.

That Gu Weijing just raised the receipt in his palm.

"No refund, and I have already paid, can you give me the painting?"

"It's a pity, Lao Gu is such a shrewd person, he gave birth to such a stupid [beep-] grandson."

Boss Wu was disdainful in his heart, but on the surface he had an expression of praise: "Great. You must be a material for doing big business in the future. Everyone applaud him."

There was another burst of applause mixed with mocking laughter, among which the few galleries in Yangon and Gu's Painting and Calligraphy Store that competed with each other laughed the most.

"Who is this?"

"Do you know Gu Tongxiang, the one whose ancestor was the court painter of the Qing Dynasty, this is the grandson of Lao Gu. The family is unfortunate."

"Big business, I think it's a prodigal."

There were jokes and discussions among the crowd.

The uncle was so anxious that he wanted to come over and slap his nephew, but he was still held back by a familiar businessman around him.

"Calm down, calm down, you also said that children are ignorant, everyone here is watching, let's talk about it when we go home."

"It's useless for you to be anxious now. If you want to open something, just spend money to buy a lesson."

"A lesson, $[-] for a lesson?"

The uncle was furious, and regardless of the jokes on the faces of the people around him, he felt that his nephew was really stupid when he learned painting in elementary school.

A piece of junk with no value cost $[-].

Did he think he was some kind of art-loving prince?How much money does his family have for him to waste like this.

"Gu Weijing, do you know how hard it is for adults to earn money! Our painting and calligraphy shop only earns so much money a month. In order to pay for the tuition fees for you and Gu Lin to go to international middle school and future university, the whole family worked from dawn to dusk, saving food and money. No. Your grandfather is so old, and he still has to manage the business himself, so he can’t bear to hire a helper. An old car has been driving for 40 years..."

"I'll give you two thousand eight hundred dollars."

The uncle was still scolding his nephew so angrily, when he heard a woman's voice.

These words were like a block of ice, quickly freezing the atmosphere of the audience.

The second half of the uncle's sentence got stuck in his mouth.

He looked in the direction of the sound in astonishment.

The professional woman in a brown coat who first questioned the shady scene in the public offering was holding her handbag tightly with both hands.

She looked at Gu Weijing with a bit of resentment in her expression, and then repeated to Boss Wu: "I offer [-] dollars, and sell it to me."

"Uh... what?"

Boss Wu felt that he couldn't understand today's matter.
He turned his gaze back to the booth with broken copper and iron.

If one person is willing to pay a high price, there is a high probability that he has met a fool, but if there are two high prices...

What is this.

After playing with artworks for so long, could it be that he lost his sight.

He jumped off the iron box and walked over to check the items on the booth, but was stopped by someone.

"Boss Wu, since you have decided to leave, then no matter what is inside, it has nothing to do with you." Gu Weijing walked over directly and took away the painting tube.

"Let me see."

Boss Wu smiled embarrassingly.

"Uncle, I'm going home first."

Gu Weijing greeted the stunned uncle, and put the painting tube on his back.

"I just want this painting tube. If you like other things, everything on the booth is yours." He said something to the working woman and was about to leave.

"I'll give you $3000, and you sell me the painting."

The translator stopped Gu Weijing.

"Sorry, I don't want to sell this painting."

Gu Weijing shook his head.

"$3200, $3500... No, I'll give you $[-]."

There was a bit of hatred in the translator's tone.

Now half of her heart is regretting that she was coveting the small gain of one hundred dollars, and the other half is hating this kid who popped out of nowhere and disturbed her good business.

Gu Weijing stopped talking, walked around the side of the workplace Ol, and wanted to leave through the gate.

"No, you must sell me the painting."

The woman grabbed Gu Weijing's sleeve. "otherwise……"

"Otherwise what?"

Gu Weijing was a little unhappy to be entangled.

"This is a work specified by a foreign master, and I am his translator." The woman's tone was arrogant.

"A foreigner is superior to others?"

Gu Weijing asked back.

In fact, in Myanmar, foreigners are really superior.

And it's literally superior.

Tourism is the main industry in Yangon. The consumption here is low, and there are many backpackers from Europe, the United States, and Canada.

Many Western European tourists work casually for a month in the original high-welfare society, which is enough to comfortably spend a year in Yangon being served by others.

You can often see an old white guy surrounded by a group of local girls in nightclubs.

In order to practice French, Gu Weijing once chatted with a French tourist visiting the Yangon River in a shop, and the other party told Gu Weijing.

His local hotel in Yangon is 2.3 kilometers away from the Google map of the sightseeing cruise ship on the Yangon River. The French tourists only walked 19 steps, and the rest of the time was carried by the local coolies like an emperor. .

Gu Weijing has always disliked such an atmosphere.

This kind of admiration for foreigners actually means that you look down on yourself, and others look down on you even more.

"The master has a great international influence. He is here to participate in government projects. He even met the mayor of Yangon." The female translator's tone was faintly threatening.

"First, you are just a translator. Second, even if the master came to me in person, my answer is that I don't sell it."

The female translator blushed from choking.

Gu Weijing flicked his sleeves, turned around and was about to leave.

"What's the noise, let everyone take a look at the painting!"

Some onlookers finally couldn't help it anymore. They were curious about what kind of painting Gu Weijing would not sell for 4000 dollars, let alone what kind of masters were attracted by it.

"Mr. Gu, let's open our eyes?"

Boss Wu also came up and rubbed his hands.He now has a [-]% hunch that maybe he really treats the boutique as a rag.

At this time, if he didn't figure out the specific situation of the matter, he wouldn't be able to sleep well tonight.

These people laughed at themselves just now, Gu Weijing originally had no interest in satisfying their curiosity.

Besides, this painting was just put on the exhibition stand, and they didn't have that aesthetic attainment to discover.

But he noticed that it was the thermos mug who first requested to see the painting.

He moved closer to Gu Weijing's side with an itchy look on his face.

The paper I used to plug my nose was given by others.

"Be careful, don't be a double spring."

A companion behind the mug patted him on the shoulder. The scene in front of Gu Weijing and the female translator was indeed a bit like a liar playing a double reed on the street selling heirlooms.

"No, I have a clue. In the afternoon, I did see this little brother looking at a dirty painting."

The uncle had an itchy and unbearable expression on his face.

"Young man, I like you and speak hard! But can you let me see the paintings you are talking about? I am a person who likes to collect. I am very curious, what kind of paintings the master likes. I am in Baoshan and I don’t know it. , I also want to learn a lesson, don’t I?”

After a moment of hesitation, Gu Weijing untied the painting tube behind him.

"If you want to see a painting, it's fine. I want a small brush and varnish for maintenance. You have to find me a frame."

Gu Weijing also felt a little distressed about transporting the painting in such a painting tube, and he planned to maintain the painting on the spot.

"Of course, it should." Mustache nodded.

He didn't have much money for an ordinary picture frame, but he had plenty.

Gu Weijing pulled out the drawing paper from the painting tube.

"It's dirty, and it doesn't have a name."

"How many thousand dollars can this painting be worth? Still not selling?"

The crowd was like a group of talking mosquitoes, Gu Weijing ignored everyone's talking, he quickly took out a small brush to clean up the floating dust on the drawing paper.

"Back, back. This is a painting of our family. It's worth thousands of dollars. What if you break it?"

Seeing that things had turned around, the uncle immediately drove the crowd back a few steps.

He walked up to Gu Weijing,

After hesitating for a long time,
Only then did he pick up a small brush and varnish, and help his nephew clean up the smudges on the screen with a complicated expression.

honestly,
If Gu Weijing hadn't been his own nephew, even he would have doubted whether the female translator was hired by him to sing the oboe.

No matter how he looked at this dirty painting, it didn't look like it was valuable.

"Hey... This painting is a bit interesting. It's an impressionist hand-painted oil painting... It's really different from the other two paintings."

Suddenly, someone in the crowd let out a light sigh, and gradually, many people saw the name of this painting.

Those who can participate in this calligraphy and painting auction are basically insiders in the painting industry.

They may not have a high appreciation ability, but it is not difficult to distinguish whether a painting is hand-painted or printed.

"But this tone, this theme... this kind of dark theme and church theme are really rare."

"It's either a rare boutique, or a trendy piece of trash."

Someone commented sharply.

So the warehouse fell into a brief silence.

An oil painting that can be so scrambled by others, even those who don't know how to paint, can know whether it is a treasure or a piece of rubbish.

Not to mention, good works of art have the ability to appeal to both refined and popular tastes.

As Gu Weijing cleaned up the floating ash on the canvas with a small brush, the strong and subtle light and shadow changes in thunderstorm weather, and the hazy and diffuse colors formed by a jumping candlelight hitting the glass, followed the dust. Go, rejuvenated with new life.

Everyone immediately intuitively felt that this painting is at least beautiful and harmonious.

Boss Wu's face turned green at this moment.

A businessman is chasing profit, and when he sees a high-quality oil painting that is clearly in his hand, he disposes of it as garbage.

This sense of frustration and loss hurt him more than the loss of money.

"The lad is amazing!"

The uncle of the vacuum flask stared at the painting for a long time, "This painting is really beautiful, although I actually... still don't quite understand how this painting shows such characteristics. It is a thunderstorm day, but there is a warm feeling .”

He raised his head, looked straight into Gu Weijing's eyes, and stretched out three fingers.

"A painting that I can't understand, in itself means the value of the work. I will pay [-] dollars, and this painting belongs to me. How about it?"

coax……

Everyone immediately exploded.

In just a few minutes, the $[-] was multiplied tenfold.

Thirty thousand dollars, this price directly surpassed today's bid king.This can buy some low-end Picasso.

Picasso painted tens of thousands of works in his life, and the market circulation is huge, and the prices of many works are not as expensive as ordinary people imagine.

Monet's worst paintings usually cost millions of dollars, while Picasso can be bought for thirty thousand dollars.

The moment the thermos cup uncle quoted the price, everyone knew that the young man who came to Gu's Book Gallery today had picked up a big leak.

This kind of story has always been the most jealous thing among gallery practitioners, enough to circulate in this industry for several years.

But there is no way to be envious. Who told me that I don't have the eyesight of others.

"This grandson of Lao Gu is capable."

People burst into exclamations one after another. Just a few minutes ago, they called Gu Weijing an ignorant child and a prodigal son.

The warmth and coldness of human feelings is such a reality.

Boss Wu's complexion twisted for a while, the more valuable this painting was, the more it stabbed his bleeding heart.

"Sorry, I don't sell."

What surprised people even more was that Gu Weijing was still in a state of resignation.

Of course he didn't want to sell it.
After selling the painting, what would he copy, and Gu Weijing didn't think the painting was only worth [-] US dollars.

The uncle's lips trembled, but in the end he said nothing.

"Okay, when you are willing to sell paintings, you can come to me."

The uncle handed the painting back with both hands.

Thirty thousand dollars is already a lot.

After all, there are too many Impressionist-style paintings in the [-]th century. If you just buy this painting skills, [-] US dollars is neither high nor low.

If the painting is not signed, the uncle is even willing to add some money to gamble. If it can be traced to the work of a famous artist, it will make a lot of money.

But unfortunately, this is a painting by a female artist.

He handed over a business card at the same time. "[-] US dollars, I will put this price here, when you ask, when will I buy it."

(End of this chapter)