The Versatile Master Artist

Similar to a timed online auction on EBAY, starting at 500 euros with the highest bid winning.

Less than 75 hours until the auction ends.

Thirteen hours ago, someone had already bid up to 850 euros.

Without considering anything else,

just saying that for a price under a thousand euros, you could buy a work by an artist represented by a top gallery like Ma Shi.

This in itself has a certain appeal.

Anna pondered for a moment.

She held a membership to Ma Shi Gallery’s official website.

After logging in with her credentials at the top of the page, the girl casually filled in 5200 euros, clicked on the bid, and then returned the iPad in her hand to her secretary.

”Keep an eye on it for me, I want to buy this painting. If it’s below twenty thousand euros, you don’t need to ask me, just go ahead and place the bid.”

She instructed.

”Okay.”

Eliot glanced at the sparse bidding records on the online auction page, with only two or three times recorded.

She stuck out her tongue helplessly, ”With such an unknown small painter, even if some people want to bid at the last minute, your 5200 euros is enough to scare away any bidding desire, and even 1200 euros would already be enough.”

The secretary shrugged.

”Actually, if it really goes above 3000 euros, it’s likely only the gallery itself hiring someone to artificially raise the price.”

Unless it’s a particularly large-sized work.

The suggested reference amount for transactions of a one-star artist given by oil painting magazines usually does not exceed 2000 euros.

Given the scale of this painting, the bid from Miss Ilyena is already absurdly high.

”This painting is quite good, it’s worth the money; it might not be worth it now, but it will be in the future.”

Anna didn’t mind paying a few hundred or thousand euros more or less.

Even if this Mr. Gu Tongxiang has no relation to Detective Cat, she would still like to buy this piece to collect.

The technique might not be very strong, but the flaws did not overshadow the merits.

If she were still the editor of the magazine’s visual arts section.

Just based on the ability shown in the ”Peony Painting,” where the artist could skillfully blend eastern and western art styles smoothly,

Anna would be willing to give a rating of two to two and a half stars.

She consistently believes.

The market price should be determined by artistic value.

Rather than, as many art speculators do, using market prices to measure artistic value.

In Miss Elina’s eyes, this ”Rich and Noble Peony Painting” is much more faithful to the essence of ”art” than, say, a sailfish specimen preserved in formalin.

Certainly, the painting itself is not worth so much money now.

These thousands of euros, Anna considers as early investment. To reward this gentleman and encourage him to continue doing his own work.

Loss?

Anna doesn’t think giving a bit of money to an elderly gentleman striving to explore painting techniques is a loss in any way.

It doesn’t matter if he doesn’t become famous.

Also, continuing to paint like this,

This gentleman’s works should have a considerable potential for appreciation in the future.

Reviewers with excellent art training may even have greater faith in the artistic value of a work than the artists themselves.

When Picasso was just a somewhat well-known young lad on the streets of France, a young couple greatly believed in his future, thinking this painting technique had the potential to change the world.

And they took a significant portion out of their personal savings to purchase Picasso’s artworks.

The couple’s financial situation back then could at most be considered middle class, but they spent every cent they had to buy dozens of Picasso’s works.

By the time they were ready to sell these paintings around the millennium, the market price had exceeded 200 million US dollars.

Almost ten thousand-fold return on investment.

Buying a work from a ”right” artist, the appreciation potential is that immense.

Anna never thought of selling paintings.

While loving Detective Cat Sister and everything related, she genuinely would like to encourage this old painter with a creative painting style.

And historical records from the Renaissance to the present have repeatedly proven one thing.

Artists favored by the Ilyena family, the prices of their works rarely do not appreciate in the future.

The Ilyena family’s vast collection contains countless famous paintings.

Indeed, they do spend millions of euros, even tens of millions of euros, like Middle Eastern oil princes, on artworks from auction houses. However, such exceptionally expensive acquisitions are only a small part.

For centuries, the Ilyena family has acted as patrons, investors, and protectors of painters from various schools, and in turn, the painters presented many of their works as tributes to express their admiration.

Beyond those, the rest are like Anna’s serendipitous discovery of a work that amazed her. She would spend what she considered a negligible amount, enough to make the painter incredibly delighted, to buy the work.

In their family collection, there is a masterpiece ”Stone Flower” by the master Paul Klee, with a current auction estimate starting at least at three million euros.

When her family bought it at a ”high” price in 1903, it cost them just under 200 Austrian crowns plus a dinner.

It is said.

That when Paul Klee was stuffing a croissant into his mouth while pouring coffee, he was tearfully grateful.

The Ilyena family acquired the artwork they loved, and that money could become a motivating force for young painters to persevere on their artistic journey.

It’s a very win-win investment.

”Gu Tongxiang...”