Chapter 0632 – Needle Point (I)

The reason why Qin Xuanbing had deep resentment towards Picasso, because for Picasso, women were nothing but the sacrifices on the altar of his art, and also the source of his artistic creation, which was unacceptable to Qin Xuanbing.

Undoubtedly, Picasso is a real genius, and the 20th century belongs to the century of Picasso, who came from Spain to Paris, the art capital of the world at that time, at the beginning of this changeable century, and began the discovery journey of his life’s brilliant art.

In the 20th century, no artist can be as well known as Picasso for his varied painting styles. Picasso’s fame is not only due to his early fame and such heirloom masterpieces as The Maiden of Avignon and Guernica, but also due to his abundant creativity and colorful life, Picasso left behind a large number of multifaceted art works.

The statistics of Picasso’s completed works are about as many as 60,000 to 80,000 pieces, which include sculpture, pottery, printmaking, stage costumes and other modeling expressions in addition to paintings and drawings.

After Picasso’s death in 1973, the world’s major art museums have continuously launched retrospectives of various kinds of different natures about him, and the topic of Picasso has been constantly discussed, often with new arguments, as if he was still alive on earth.

But Picasso was a man who always aroused controversy, except for his extraordinary talent that made people fall in love with him and admire him. He painted many pictures for his wives, lovers and children, and his relatives had mixed feelings about the talented painter.

Picasso died in 1973 at the age of 92, and while he was alive, people were clamoring to befriend him, and a quarter of a century after his death, the world is still arguing over his story and reputation.

Picasso’s accomplishments in painting were at the top of his game, but his private family affairs made a mess of things.

His tragic story is well known; Picasso’s widow Jacqueline committed suicide, as did one of his lovers, Mariette, who bore him a daughter, Maya, and his grandson, Pablito, committed suicide after Jacqueline threw him out of his grandfather’s funeral.

Pablito’s sister, Marina, wrote some memoirs two years ago revealing her tragic teenage years and blaming Picasso for everything.

Frances was the only woman in Picasso’s life to abandon him, leaving him in 1953 with her children.

Later, she collaborated with an art critic to write “My Life with Picasso”, a bold and detailed book, almost everything, even with the painter’s sexual adventures, which was rare at the time, and thus caused an uproar, and as a retaliation, Picasso refused to see the pair of children she gave birth to from then on.

Women are sensual, Qin Xuan Bing precisely read that book similar to the biographical body of the book, so from a woman’s point of view, the kind of Picasso see one love one character, is extremely disgusted.

“Right, Zhuang Rui, how can you be sure that these paintings are Picasso’s?”

Qin Xuan Bing suddenly remembered this question, it seems that Zhuang Rui appraised not very long at that time, to say that Zhuang Rui was proficient in Chinese antiques, Qin Xuan Bing believed, but Zhuang Rui also showed such familiarity with foreign works of art, let Qin Xuan Bing was a bit shocked.

“What’s this, you think that old Renault can paint such works?”

Zhuang Rui smiled and shook his head, picked out a few old Renault’s works and Picasso’s works together, the highs and lows are immediately seen, and then took out the two paintings with Picasso’s casual signatures, now without Zhuang Rui saying more, Qin Xuanbing also understood.

“Zhuang Rui, this luck of yours is really too good, right?”

Looking at the more than thirty black and white sketches on the table, Qin Xuan Bing really couldn’t find any language to describe Zhuang Rui’s magic, the whole process of the event she was following, I’m afraid no one would have thought that a small shopkeeper’s house would be left with Picasso’s authentic paintings.

These days, not to mention Qin Xuan Bing who once worked in England and France as a student, even a small commoner in the country is estimated to have heard of Picasso’s fame, after all, those 4 oil paintings worth more than billions of RMB are too shocking.

“Xuan Bing, how much do you think these sketches can be worth?”

Zhuang Rui divided the sketches on the coffee table into categories, in total they could be divided into three, one category was character sketches, there were six in total, all of them were young women without clothes.

Zhuang Rui can’t figure out why Picasso gave his woman’s sketch to old Renault? Could it be that the two were so close that they could even share their women?

The second type of sketch is a child, Zhuang Rui knows that Picasso is a person who likes children very much, so many of his works are children playing in the streets and alleys, and this type of sketch is more, there are eighteen sketches, and a total of six boys were drawn.

There is another category of sketches of still objects, from apples to vases, from room furniture to windows and doors, eight such works in all.

All the sketches are in black and white, with dark and shadowy layers of color, and Picasso uses extremely simple brushstrokes to draw a picture that makes people go crazy.

Whether it was those women with bare bodies and slightly shy faces, or those innocent, chasing and playing children, they all seemed so realistic that they seemed to leap out of the paper.

Although Zhuang Rui can identify the authenticity of these sketches, but he has no understanding of the foreign art price market, and the market value of these Picasso masterpieces, of course, is also a black eye.

“Zhuang Rui, I can’t help you with this, but last year I heard that a seven-sheet sketch album of Picasso’s was auctioned at a price of eight million dollars, and you have thirty-two of them here, so I’m sure it will be even more expensive, right?”

Although jewelry and Picasso’s paintings, are the same as works of art, Qin Xuan Bing really didn’t know much about them, she had only seen some news about Picasso on some auction house’s information.

“So?”

Zhuang Rui carefully put the painting away and lowered his head in contemplation, after a while Zhuang Rui raised his head and said, “Let’s go! Let’s go take a bath first, turn around and I’ll make an appointment with Huangfu Yun, let’s have dinner together in the evening.”

Qin Xuan Bing nodded her head obediently, she knew that Zhuang Rui’s heart must have played something in his mind again, because in the morning, the two of them had originally said that they would enjoy a candlelight dinner.

“Picasso’s painting?”

Zhuang Rui obviously underestimated Picasso’s influence abroad, and after he gave Huangfu Yun a near-whisper that he had more than thirty Picasso’s sketches, Huangfu Yun practically roared out the question, drawing the crowd in the western restaurant, who all looked over.

“I said can you keep your focus steady?”

Zhuang Rui glared at Huangfu Yun without any good reason, fortunately Huangfu Yun used Chinese, otherwise if people here knew that they had Picasso’s painting, maybe those international thieves would find their heads.

This kind of thing is not unheard of, some foreign billionaires, in order to get their favorite works of art, often hire some international thieves to steal those precious works of art hidden in museums or private homes.

Of course, even if they get these works of art, they can only appreciate them within their own small circle, and keep them extremely secret, otherwise, I’m afraid that Interpol will be on them soon.

“Elder brother Zhuang, brother I just have a good heart, I can also be scared to death by you, first is the stereoscopic sword, now is the Picasso’s sketches, how come all the good things went to your place ah?”

Huangfu Yun indignantly cut a piece of steak with his knife and fork, put it into his mouth and chewed vigorously, as if this could vent his heart’s depression.

“By the way, can you be sure that all those sketches are real?”

Huangfu Yun suddenly thought of this question after swallowing that piece of steak with Zhuang Rui as the imaginary enemy, he thought the same as Qin Xuan Bing, Zhuang Rui might be very proficient in Chinese antiques, but comparing to foreign artwork, those were two almost completely different fields.

Zhuang Rui slowly and methodically drank a mouthful of red wine, nodded and said: “Ninety percent should be true, Huangfu brother, if you can not believe, you can find someone to identify it!”

Huangfu Yun a little do not understand Zhuang Rui’s meaning, said open-mouthed: “You find to the treasure, about what I do? What do I have to trust to trust?”

“Hey, I say brother Huangfu, aren’t you familiar with people abroad? I was thinking of this, you invite the organizing party of this auction tomorrow, and then invite the people from the Jimei Museum, I want to talk business with them.”

Zhuang Rui looked around and said his idea, in fact, from the arrival of this batch of sketches, Zhuang Rui has been thinking about how to dispose of these sketches.

To say that they stay in the collection, right? Zhuang Rui really do not really appreciate this style of foreign sketches, then again, if you face those naked women sketches all day long, the backyard of the family is certainly not stable.

They are not willing to stay, then only sell, but Zhuang Rui is not short of money, he did not want to simply sell these sketches, for some people, money can not measure the value of these drawings.

Although he didn’t know the market price of these paintings, but Zhuang Rui knew that Picasso’s person, the position in the mind of foreign collectors, that is absolutely the attention of all people, if he released the wind to auction Picasso’s sketches, I’m afraid that collectors all over the world, will be shaken by it.

Compared with Picasso’s works, the Chinese artwork that appreciates quite fast in recent years seems to be nothing, and there is no comparability between the two in the minds of foreigners.

Zhuang Rui had an idea in his mind, can he use these sketches of Picasso to exchange for the Chinese collections that will be auctioned or exist in the Jimi Museum?

Those precious cultural relics are robbed by the robber ancestors of foreigners, but these works of Picasso, Zhuang Rui is also like picking up for nothing, the tip of the spear, no one suffers.