Qin Haodong said, "Of course it's true. Manager Tian, I don't need to joke with you."
Tian Ye realized that he had lost his composure and quickly said, "I'm sorry, Mr. Qin. I was just too shocked. Please forgive me."
"It doesn't matter. Is it convenient for you to come and appraise it for me now?"
"No problem. I'll take the appraiser there now. Please wait a moment."
Tian Ye hung up the phone and immediately called the appraiser, Zhang Chaohui.
As the largest auction house in Hong Kong, there were more than a dozen appraisers here, and Zhang Chaohui was the top one. He was best at appraising ancient European paintings.
"Manager, what can I do for you? It's almost time to get off work. Are you asking me to work overtime? "
A young man in his thirties came in. He was Zhang Chaohui. He had a good relationship with Tian Ye, so he didn't hesitate to talk to him.
Tian Ye said, "Take your tools and come with me. There's an important collection that needs your appraisal."
Zhang Chaohui said, "Can't we wait until tomorrow? It's not easy for me to make an appointment with a beautiful girl today. "
"Of course we can't wait." Tian Ye pulled him up and walked out. As he walked, he said, "It's the old man's distinguished guest. We have to serve him carefully."
They got in the car and drove in the direction of the Li family's villa.
"These rich people really don't care about us workers." Zhang Chaohui sat in the passenger seat and asked after venting his dissatisfaction, "What are you going to appraise this time?"
"Picasso's painting."
"What?"
Zhang Chaohui, who was originally lazy, suddenly sat up straight, and then like a deflated ball, he lay back down and said, "How is this possible? Who would sell Picasso's paintings now? I guess this stupid rich man must have been cheated by others. He casually made a painting and said it was painted by Picasso …"
It was not strange for him to say that. As the chief appraiser of the auction house, he had seen many rich people being cheated by those swindlers over the years. They spent a lot of money and bought a bunch of fake goods.
Tian Ye said, "I don't know if it's true or not, so I took you with me. I'm telling you, this is the old man's distinguished guest. You must be careful and respectful."
As a professional manager, Tian Ye still had his manners and did not reveal Qin Haodong's identity. Soon, they arrived at the villa of the Li family. Zhang Tieniu led them to Qin Haodong's room.
Knowing that there were guests coming, Nalan Wushuang went to the inner room to cultivate. There was only him in the room.
"Boss, I've brought the guest."
Zhang Tieniu stood behind Qin Haodong respectfully.
Tian Ye said, "Mr. Qin, this is Zhang Chaohui, the chief auctioneer of our auction house. He is particularly good at appraising ancient European paintings."
"Please take a seat." After Qin Haodong asked them to sit down, he reached for a painting on the table. It was the nude sketch that Nalan Wushuang had just seen.
"Mr. Zhang, could you please help me identify if this painting is the real one of Picasso?"
After that, he handed the nude sketch to Zhang Zhaohui.
Since the moment he saw Qin Haodong, Zhang Zhaohui had despised him. He thought that Qin Haodong must be a rich second generation who had been cheated again. In his opinion, Qin Haodong's painting could never be authentic.
However, as a professional appraiser, he still had the basic qualities. His expression was very serious. He took out white gloves from his pocket and put them on. He took Qin Haodong's painting and then took out a magnifying glass to look at it.
At first, Zhang Zhaohui didn't pay much attention, but the moment he saw the painting, he immediately became serious.
He didn't look at what was drawn on the drawing. Instead, he looked at the sketch paper and gently folded it with his hand to feel the hardness and flexibility of the paper. This was the procedure that an excellent appraiser should follow when appraising a piece of art.
After checking the material of the sketch paper, Zhang Chaohui's expression became more and more dignified. He had confirmed that the sketch paper in his hand was produced in Europe in the 1940s and 1950s of the last century. He believed that there was no way he could fool his eyes.
Now he could be sure that even if these sketches were not Picasso's works, they were copied in the last century. From this point of view, they could also be regarded as ancient paintings.
Tian Ye looked at them, and his expression also became serious. He had worked with Zhang Zhaohui for many years, and he had already seen some clues from his friend's expression. Now it seemed that the painting Qin Haodong took out was absolutely not ordinary. It was really Picasso's work.
"Jacqueline, this is Jacqueline!"
When Zhang Zhaohui turned his eyes to the nude woman in the painting, he immediately let out a scream, attracting everyone's eyes.
Hearing the noise outside, Nalan Wushuang was not in the mood to cultivate. She came to the door and eavesdropped. She also wanted to see if these European ancient paintings made by Qin Haodong could still be faked.
Zhang Tieniu stood behind Qin Haodong and couldn't help curling his lips. These Hong Kong people were really ignorant. Wasn't it just a naked woman? What was the fuss about?
Nowadays, a large number of pornographic films could be found on the Internet. Hadn't they seen them?
Zhang Tieniu was a layman, but Tian Ye still knew a little. After hearing the name, he immediately realized that the woman in the painting was Picasso's last wife.
Picasso had countless women in his life, and Jacqueline was his last wife. During the eight years they were together, although the old man always had mistresses, Jacqueline accepted it. They had been hand in hand for the last period of Picasso's life.
Jacqueline created a warm world for Picasso in his old age, and Picasso often found inspiration from her and painted a lot of portraits of her.
Thirteen years after Picasso's death, Jacqueline committed suicide. After her death, Picasso's sketches and oil paintings for her flowed into the auction market, and the value of Picasso's paintings rose during that time.
It could be said that it was these paintings related to Jacqueline that helped Picasso's works to reach a higher level.
Qin Haodong also didn't know the woman in the painting, and he was not interested in anyone. He just wanted to know if there were any flaws in his ancient paintings.
"Mr. Zhang Zhaohui, have you got the result of your appraisal?"
Zhang Zhaohui, who was obsessed with the painting, came to his senses and carefully put down the painting in his hand. He grabbed Qin Haodong's arm and cried excitedly, "I guarantee with my reputation as an appraiser that this painting is absolutely real. It must have been made by Picasso, and it's a portrait of his wife.
"Dear Mr. Qin, can you tell me how you got this painting?"
Nalan Wushuang, who was behind the door, smiled. It seemed that Qin Haodong had succeeded again.
Qin Haodong was also very happy. He smiled and said, "I just painted it."
"Uh …" Zhang Zhaohui looked embarrassed and said, "I'm sorry, Mr. Qin. I was too excited and offended your privacy."
As an excellent appraiser, it was taboo to ask about the origin of the collection.
Even in the international art market, the authenticity and origin of private trading objects were never important. The higher the social class, the more attention they paid to personal privacy.
Because of this, in Zhang Zhaohui's view, Qin Haodong was mocking him. In any case, he would not realize that this was the truth.
"Nothing." Qin Haodong took three more paintings and said, "Help me identify whether these paintings are real or fake."
He imitated Picasso's works and drew 40 pictures. Among them, 10 were human sketches, 10 were children sketches, 10 were still life sketches, and 10 were oil paintings. He took one from each group as a representative and let Zhang Chaohui appraise it.
Zhang Zhaohui showed a look of astonishment at first. Each of Picasso's works was very valuable now. It was great to be lucky enough to collect one. He did not expect that Qin Haodong would take out four of them at once.
He excitedly received the three paintings and began to seriously appraise them.
Tian Ye also showed a look of astonishment. Yesterday, Qin Haodong said that he had some paintings of Picasso. He did not expect that he really had some, not just one.
If he knew that there were 36 such paintings in Qin Haodong's drawer, he wondered if his eyeballs would fall to the ground.
Zhang Zhaohui identified them very carefully. After a full ten minutes, he raised his head and said excitedly, "Mr. Qin, you are amazing. I can assure you that these paintings are the authentic works of Mr. Picasso, and they are very well preserved. There are no flaws at all."
Nalan Wushuang, who was behind the door, almost laughed out loud. She thought to herself that these paintings had just been freshly made. It had been less than a few hours, so they were naturally well preserved.
After making sure that he had not left any flaws, Qin Haodong also breathed a sigh of relief and said to Tian Ye and Tian Ye, "You two, I'm not very good at art. Can you help me estimate the value of these paintings?"
Tian Ye said, "There is no specific price for art. It can only be estimated. About five years ago, seven of Picasso's sketches appeared at an auction. At that time, they were sold for eight million dollars."
Although there are only four of your paintings, the advantage is that they have a complete range, including all the types of Picasso's paintings. If they are made into an album, and taking into account the factors of the rise of art in recent years, the value should be about 10 million to 15 million USD. "
"So much money?"
Qin Haodong was shocked by the number. Although he knew that Picasso was very famous, he did not expect his paintings to be so valuable.
"Of course."
Zhang Zhaohui took over the topic and said, "Picasso is a real artistic genius. The 20th century belongs to him. No artist can be as well-known as Picasso with a changeable painting style."
"Although he is a high-yield painter and has created more than 60,000 works in his life, this number is too small compared with the number of people in the world who collect them."
"When Picasso was alive, his tens of thousands of works had been collected by others, and there were basically no works in circulation on the market."
"It is precisely because of this that the value of Picasso's paintings is created."
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