Chapter 0641 – Strange Goods (VI)

“Mr. Bass, please don’t get excited, sit down, sit down and talk.”

Zhuang Rui’s demeanor at this moment simply did not look like a young man in his twenties, it seemed as if he had confused his age with the agitated Bass Jimi, lightly waving his hand for Bass to sit down.

“Mr. Zhuang, I am very sincere in talking to you about the exchange of these works of art, but unfortunately, I don’t hear much sincerity in your words, so I wonder if you could explain?”

Half of what Bass Yoshimi had just done was true, while the other half was nothing more than a pretense.

Bass was responsible for the operation of the entire museum, and would sometimes go out and auction off some of the collections at auctions, so he was no stranger to business practices, and he was just using his behavior just now to show his dissatisfaction and add a little bit of psychological pressure to the young man sitting across from him.

“Hehe, could it be that Bass wants to exchange a sketch of Mr. Picasso for an ancient Chinese painting?”

A chuckle came out of Zhuang Rui’s mouth, while the disdain in the chuckle clearly reached Bas’s ears.

Without waiting for Bas Gimei to reply, Zhuang Rui asked immediately after, “Mr. Bas, may I ask, do you know the auction price of one of Mr. Picasso’s most expensive oil paintings, what was it?”

Bass froze for a moment and subconsciously said, “Of course I know, Picasso’s painting, The Boy with the Box Pipe, was auctioned for one hundred and fourteen million and sixteen thousand dollars, which is the world record for the auction of paintings, and that painting is likewise the most expensive painting in the world!”

Not to mention as a museum curator Bass, as long as the person who has a little understanding of artwork, will know these common sense knowledge, Bass answered extremely smooth, just after finishing, vaguely feel something is not right.

“That’s right, Mr. Bass, you answered completely correctly.”

Zhuang Rui smiled and snapped his fingers, giving Bass the feeling as if he was being led by the nose by the other party, making Bass very uncomfortable.

“But Mr. Bass, you probably don’t know, the highest price of a Chinese oil painting, the highest auction price, is just just more than 4 million US dollars, that’s Mr. Chen Yifei’s work ‘Ode to the Yellow River’ (Xu Beihong’s 72 million RMB painting was auctioned in 2007, the time doesn’t match, so I’ll just use Chen Yifei’s), the price of the Chinese oil paintings and the oil paintings of Mr. Picasso, there’s no need for me to compare them for you again, right?”

Zhuang Rui’s words dazzled Bass, the price difference was a bit outrageous, literally alone, the price of the Chinese painting was not as much as a fraction of Picasso’s.

“In addition I would like to tell you again, do not think that the price of Chinese art is as high as it is, not counting paintings and calligraphy, the highest price of Chinese art auctioned in the international market is 41.5 million Hong Kong dollars, this thing is in 2003 Sotheby’s Hong Kong auction happened. That Qing Yongzheng ‘famille-rose bat-peach olive vase’ valued at more than 40 million Hong Kong dollars already represents the highest artistic achievement in China, Mr. Bass, is it rare for you to think that your museum’s collection will be even better than that piece of exquisite porcelain?”

Zhuang Rui did not wait for Bass to react, and added a fire to him, burning Bass at the moment a little dizzy, if according to what Zhuang Rui said to calculate, it seems that the other side with five Picasso sketches, in exchange for their own more than ten pieces of Chinese art, they should still take advantage of a big bargain ah?

But Bass heart always feel a little bit wrong, but can not say, suddenly Bass brain light, interrupted Zhuang Rui words, said: “Mr. Zhuang, you can not be calculated in this way, each piece of art, have its unique place, and you have Picasso works, just sketches, and not Picasso’s oil paintings. ”

“No …… no, Mr. Bass, have you forgotten? Mr. Picasso’s works, whether they are oil paintings or sketches or prints, are equally unique. And there are far more people on the planet who seek out Mr. Picasso’s work than there are people who like those antique old paintings you’ve had in storage for decades. Okay! That is according to the value, those oil paintings collected by your museum, a maximum of several hundred thousand dollars, but these sketches of Mr. Picasso, a minimum will be in more than three million U.S. dollars, and these sketches are one and the same, even as a child’s model is a person, I think the value will be even higher, right?”

Zhuang Rui does not want to disparage the work of the country to raise their own offer, but what he said is the truth, Chinese court paintings were speculated at the end of 2006, and now is only 2005, the price of the Qing court paintings, in the international market is still relatively low.

Zhuang Rui’s analysis let Bas Gimme completely silent down, Zhuang Rui said right, from the influence alone, their own those pressed in the warehouse of Chinese ancient paintings, indeed there is no way and Picasso’s works compared to the two are not in a grade.

In terms of the benefits that both will generate in the future, Bass is of course also optimistic about Picasso’s works, and he definitely doesn’t think that displaying those oil paintings of the Qing court wearing strange clothes in the museum will be more appealing to tourists who spend 9 euros to buy a ticket to enter the museum to visit than Picasso’s sketches.

“Mr. Zhuang, I admit, you have a point, but the Yoshimi Museum is a semi-private museum whose ownership is half in the state. If you want to exchange collections with the outside, you have to go through the National Art Appraisal Association and conduct an assessment of the value of the items that both parties are going to trade, and since you are exchanging too many collections, I’m afraid that the Appraisal Association won’t agree and approve it.”

From Bass’s psychological point of view, he had basically approved of the deal now, but as a business practice, Bass still had to make an effort to fight for the maximum rights and interests for his side.

“Oh, Mr. Bass, this is the problem you’re trying to solve, isn’t it? To be able to use some of the Oriental artworks in stock and exchange them for Mr. Picasso’s works, I don’t know who would be unwilling to do so.”

Zhuang Rui laughed and kicked the ball back again, your National Art Appraisal Association’s matter, what’s it got to do with me? Can you solve that is your own thing.

And Zhuang Rui bit the dead stock two words, constantly in the language and psychological hints Bass, your collection of those things have no value, far less than the Picasso sketches in my hands, take it out to create benefits.

“This way!”

Bas lowered his head and calculated in his heart.

Zhuang Rui was not in a hurry, drinking coffee and Huangfu Yun and Qin Xuanbing chatting, he is now considered to understand the degree of Picasso’s works in the international market, as long as they have goods in their own hands, not afraid of other people do not rush to find their own transactions.

Don’t look at Zhuang Rui only put forward to exchange 21 pieces of Chinese cultural relics, in fact, Zhuang Rui is also a steady profit, like the Kangxi years of the Mulan map, a volume is more than a meter wide, more than 10 meters long large painting and calligraphy, even in the history of the world’s paintings, is also extremely rare.

And even Zhuang Rui himself does not know, after another year or two, a group of international antique dealers and auction houses, practicing speculation in Chinese art, they use the technique of rolling beads on a plate, first in the international market to speculate on the price, and then sold at a high price to domestic collectors.

This behavior of international speculators, so that from 2006 to 2010 between these years, Chinese works of art in the international market price, has been high.

If Zhuang Rui would have taken Picasso’s works to talk to Bass about the sale, not to mention one for five or six Chinese antiques, by then it would be one for two, and Bass wouldn’t have seen fit to take care of him.

“Mr. Zhuang, let’s put it this way! You can first report what kind of oriental artwork you need three in addition to the Frey donation, I’ll submit your opinion to the board of directors for discussion, the collection of mutual gifts is subject to a series of formalities, and the fastest is estimated to take more than a month to complete.”

Since Picasso’s works have appeared too little in recent years, the temptation was too great for Bass, after contemplating for a while, Bass took a decision and raised his head to speak his thoughts to Zhuang Rui.

“One month? Collections are given to each other? Mr. Bass, what’s going on?”

Zhuang Rui a little bit do not understand the meaning of Bass words, according to his idea, they give each other sketches, the other side to their own needs of Chinese antiques to self, the transaction is not even completed it?

“Zhuang Rui, these semi-private museums in the collection of goods, is absolutely not allowed to enter the market circulation, auction, or trading links, only as a donation to other museums this way to trade, not as simple as you think.”

Answer Zhuang Rui’s person is Huangfu Yun, he for Europe and the United States of America’s museums as well as auction venues extremely understand, private museums do not have these restrictions, but for the integration in 1945 for the French Museum Museum of Pavilion side of the member of the Guimet Museum, it is a lot of restrictions.

Even if the Guimet Museum agreed to and Zhuang Rui collection of mutual gifts, but also to report its details to the French government for official approval, of course, by that time, more is to go through a program only.

“Fuck me, where do I have any museum ah? Mr. Bass, if you’re so …… fucked up like this, there’s no way we can talk at all.”

Zhuang Rui heard this, immediately anxious, to his current collection, from the requirements of opening a museum, but also a hundred thousand miles away, this is not a force to be reckoned with?

“Hey, I say old brother, what are you excited about ah! Open a museum is not a difficult thing, the country in 1996 to liberalize this, you go back to apply for a not finished.”

Huangfu Yun patted Zhuang Rui’s shoulder, soothed him a bit, on Huangfu Yun’s own understanding, now the domestic private museum, at least not less than 50, to Zhuang Rui’s financial background, it should not be a big problem.