Chapter 1055 – Art is Priceless

“Thanks.”

Zhuang Rui lifted the wine glass in his hand and gestured to Little Superman from afar, using the shape of his mouth to express his gratitude, Zhuang Rui understood in his heart that if he were to discuss his financial strength, he really couldn’t compete with the Li Group that was sitting on tens of billions of dollars in assets.

Of course, more money is one thing, willing to spend money to buy these objects can not eat and drink, that is another matter, the intention of the little superman is just to help his father to attend the charity auction, shot an item to do an account of just, now see Zhuang Rui attitude is resolute, naturally will not go to fight with the Zhuang Rui, that will only let outsiders look at the joke.

“21 million.”

After a moment of silence, sitting on the other side of the corner of the Watanabe Zenyo shouted out a price, which made the entire auction room become a little tumultuous.

It should be known that it was not uncommon for auctions held on such occasions to fetch tens of millions of dollars, but most of the high-priced items auctioned in the past were by foreign artists such as Picasso, Van Gogh and others, or jewelry that was extremely valuable in its own right.

But for an ancient book from China to fetch more than twenty million dollars was something that had never happened before in a private charity auction.

“Honey, what are those books for? Why are they so expensive?”

“Oh, God only knows why? All I know is that I’m not going to buy them.”

“Are all Orientals crazy? A few books cost twenty million dollars?”

“Maybe that’s an artifact from their country! But I prefer Picasso’s works.”

Around Zhuang Rui, there were constantly such conversations coming out, and those well-dressed or gaudily dressed gentlemen and ladies were puzzled by Zhuang Rui and Watanabe Mao Yao’s move, in their opinion, oriental artworks shouldn’t be this expensive.

On the side of the Zhuang Rui listen to is crying and laughing, the value of antiques is not only reflected in the market, many with the text of the antiques, for the study of history is more important, it can truly reflect a certain period of time of the social form, which is a lot of valuable antiques do not have.

Just like Chinese bronzes, the price of bronzes with inscriptions is dozens or even hundreds of times more than those without inscriptions, the reason lies in those few simple inscriptions, historians can decipher a lot of meanings from them to test the historical changes of that era.

“Mr. Shinyo Watanabe has bid 21 million, it seems that this ancient book from the East can already be compared to the precious artwork from the West.”

At this moment, the auctioneer William’s face, full of excitement, this high-end auction hosted is cool ah! There is no need for him to spit to recommend and encourage, and the price of the items auctioned, but also much higher than the previous auctions he presided over.

The only thing that makes William feel a little regretful is that the items that are auctioned off on such occasions cannot show off his auctioning skills at all.

Zhuang Rui raised his right hand and said expressionlessly, “22 million dollars.”

Although this price has far exceeded Zhuang Rui’s valuation, but a Japanese are willing to spend such a high price for China’s national treasures, Zhuang Rui is even more unreasonable to back down, that said, for the more than seven hundred million dollars Zhuang Rui just came into the account, this tens of millions of dollars is not so much as to make Zhuang Rui hurt his bones.

“25 million dollars, Mr. Zhuang, I really like the culture of your country, these six books of the Yongle Canon, should be placed together with the other Yongle Canons, I hope you can ……”

Sensing Zhuang Rui’s determination, Zenyo Watanabe directly raised the price to 25 million dollars, but this was already the highest psychological price he could offer, after all, the actual price of the “Yongle Grand Dictionary” was much lower than the current opening price.

Another point is that, although Watanabe Zeno is Sony’s senior, also owns a lot of shares of Sony, but we all know that the general shareholders are holding company shares, on the surface of the value of how much how much, in fact, those are book figures, in the stock did not sell sell sell transfer before, also do not see everyone is a billionaire.

Just like Bill Gates the nominal world’s richest man, is often will sell the hand of Microsoft shares, for their own cash, and Watanabe Mao is exactly the same, his more than a billion dollars in the company’s stock, and now can come out of the cash, but just a few tens of millions of dollars only.

“Mr. Zenyo Watanabe, although it is said that art knows no boundaries, and I also appreciate your understanding and pursuit of Chinese cultural relics, but I think …… that letting these cultural relics return to their place of origin is the most meaningful thing, I’m out $30 million.”

Zhuang Rui can feel out Watanabe Zhenyang is not like the general greedy Japanese, only think of using money to loot cultural relics from other countries, Watanabe Zhenyang should really like these “Yongle Dazhong”, his sincere attitude won Zhuang Rui’s respect.

Of course, respect is one thing, want to let Zhuang Rui give up these “Yongle Grand Dictionary”, that is absolutely impossible thing, even if possible, Zhuang Rui would like to talk about Watanabe Zhenyang family collection of all the “Yongle Grand Dictionary” to buy back, with Zhuang Rui words: brother is not bad money now.

“Mr. Zhuang, perhaps you are right, please have time to go to Japan in the future, must go to my home as a guest, I will be the family collection of those “Yongle Grand Dictionary” remnants of the book out and exchange with you.”

After hearing Zhuang Rui’s offer, a hint of hesitation appeared on Watanabe Zhenyang’s face, he really couldn’t imagine that the Chinese had actually become rich to such an extent that they could call the shots in the international art market, although he was extremely fond of these copies of the Yongle Dictionary, but this price that was almost already on par with Picasso’s work eventually made Watanabe Zhenyang shake his head and give up the bidding.

“Thank you, I will definitely go when I have the chance.”

Zhuang Rui nodded, for the Japanese who truly loved Chinese artwork, he would not be hostile, but Japan he would not go again, the last time he directed that fiasco in Japan, it wasn’t seamless, I’m sure some people in Japan didn’t welcome Zhuang Rui to go.

“Mr. William, should you ……”

After Zhuang Rui shouted out the price of 30 million dollars, William on the stage was a bit dumbfounded, he has witnessed countless high-end auctions, and even just last month, hosted an auction of Picasso’s works, and made a high price of 62 million dollars.

Although the price of that auction was much higher than Zhuang Rui’s bid today, as the most famous international auctioneer, William understood in his heart that Picasso’s works were originally worth so much money, and the real price of these ancient Chinese books, which was more than ten million dollars, was now equal to a price that was three times higher than its own value.

“Uh …… Mr. Zhuang from China bid $30 million, ladies and gentlemen, is there any opening bid?”

After William routinely asked, he heavily knocked down the auction gavel in his hand, pointing at Zhuang Rui and said, “Congratulations Mr. Zhuang, you have been given these precious books from Mr. Bonadette’s collection, and thank you Mr. Zhuang for your contribution to the charity.”

Today’s charity auction has been carried out until now, Zhuang Rui is undoubtedly the most popular one, no matter it is the ruby at the beginning, or these six books of Yongle Dazhong, all are the highest price auctioned today, which makes many people around the world’s super-rich people, began to look squarely at Zhuang Rui this young man.

In this society now, in addition to some of the old British still adhere to the aristocratic tradition, that in addition to the aristocrats worthy of respect, others are insignificant, but in the mainstream society, evaluation of a person’s success or not, but more important to the person itself has the wealth and influence.

Like Bill Gates or Bonadette such a person, if you go to some small countries, its status is and the leader of the country on an equal footing, this is the wealth they have given the privilege, of course, this kind of privilege must be recognized by some circles to be able to implement.

“30 million dollars for a couple of books, is Chinese art so valuable?”

“I think so, maybe it’s time to hang a few paintings and calligraphy from China in my castle.”

After the dust of these books of Yongle Dazhong settled, the venue resounded with all kinds of discussions, and what Zhuang Rui could not have imagined was that after this charity auction, in some international auctions, the price of art from China soared, and many people who originally did not pay much attention to collecting Chinese antiques made their moves, forming a Chinese wind.

“Zhuang, thank you for your generous support.”

Bonadette smiled and walked to Zhuang Rui’s side, raised his hand to Zhuang Rui, as the owner of today’s charity auction, if something didn’t shoot out or shoot out at a very low price, Bonadette would definitely look bad, Zhuang Rui’s move undoubtedly made him look good.

“Mr. Bonadette, this is the way it should be, you can take out such a precious relic for charity, I think …… the one who should be thanked is you.”

Zhuang Rui is very friendly and Bonadette clinked his glass, today the appearance of these Yongle Dictionary, is indeed a little out of Zhuang Rui’s expectations, to know, these orphaned ancient books scattered all over the world, is not money can be bought, but also need to have the opportunity to do so.

“Oh, Zhuang, don’t be polite, in my younger days, I didn’t have such vigor as you, by the way, there is another thing below, I think you will also be very interested.”

With Bonadette’s age and experience, originally it would not be for a few words of bragging and delight in color, but Zhuang Rui’s words still made him very happy.

Zhuang Rui froze at his words, then smiled and said, “Oh? Artwork from China as well? Mr. Bonadette, I think …… I have a great need to visit your collection room.”