Artifact Reading Inspector

Chapter 37: Private Auction in the U.S. (3)

“Ten million and five hundred thousand dollars. Is there more?”

The excited auctioneer looked around with glistening eyes and soon hit with his gavel.

“Congratulations. This painting goes to that charming young man.”

The white man with curly hairs, who raised his paddle confidently, got the painting. He shrugged while looking at Eunhae as if saying, ‘I told you so’.

“Congratulations.”

Eunhae congratulated him with a halfhearted applause. He stood up, thanked the crowd and sat back.

Then, he talked with an oily voice.

“Ladies first, but you didn’t raise your paddle, so I took it. If you want to see the painting, you can come to my mansion anytime. Fantastic paintings will greet you. Oh, my… I haven’t told you my name. I am Eric Holton.”

“Oh, but I really don’t want to see it,” Eunhae said.

She heard from Haejin that the painting was fake, so she found that arrogant man annoying.

However, he welcomed that remark and kept babbling in a small voice.

“I don’t understand. Don’t you remember the painting you just saw? It has Rembrandt’s unique gloominess. His torment, sadness and love for his only remaining child. Oh, actually, the light in this place does not allow you to truly be absorbed in that painting. I admit that. We are a little far from it. Hmm… I think I have no choice but to invite you.”

Eunhae couldn’t stand it anymore.

She sighed and said, “I’m sorry, but I am only interested in real Rembrandt’s paintings.”

That was so shocking that the man was momentarily dumbfounded. He forgot that he had to be quiet and laughed.

“Hahaha! Oh, I am sorry. That was too hilarious… I am sorry.”

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Eric Holton bowed around to apologize and turned to Haejin.

“Have you told her that the painting is fake? My… that is too absurd and sad. Where have you studied? You are Korean, so Seoul University? Ha… is this the level of Korean universities?”

If Haejin didn’t check the authenticity of the painting, he would have been discouraged by the comment. However, now that he was sure it was fake, he just found Eric pathetic. The poor youth had blown away ten million dollars in minutes…

“I am not a graduate of Korea University. I never went to university.”

“Oh… my God… what a shame. Such a beautiful woman is getting help from such a fellow…”

He said that it was a shame, but his eyes were smiling. He was mocking Haejin, saying he didn’t deserve to appraise paintings.

Haejin felt sorry for him and said, “Have you heard of Tom Keating?”

“Tom Keating? The British painting restorer and legendary forger?”

Tom Keating was called a terrorist of the art world and a time bomb. He was even worse than Han van Megereen, the forger who fooled the Nazi. He was a fraud who wanted to subvert the art world through his forgeries.

He started to make fakes because of a reason similar to Megereen’s. He was upset about the critics, galleries and curators that didn’t appreciate his paintings. He also didn’t like the art market moving for their interest.

However, there were big differences between them. Keating made much more fakes than Megereen and imitated a wide variety of paintings.

Unlike Megereen, who mainly forged Johannes Veermer’s paintings, Tom Keating was a possessor of a crazy talent that could imitate all the great artists like Modigliani, Gainsborough, Titian, Rembrandt, Degas and Renoir.

He didn’t just imitate. He used the unique style of each artist, philosophy and mood as if they were his own. He also recreated the oil painting technique and paints that the artist used at the time. It was the true spirit of art that was more than forging.

If this was all, he would just be a talented fraud, but there are a few reasons why he is called the terrorist of the art world and a time bomb.

First, when he forged a painting, he always left marks that would tell it was a fake, and it was more to tease the experts than to show off his skills.

For instance, he wrote with Kremnitz white (white paint made of carbonatite) and painted on it so that X-ray would reveal the writing, or he would put 20 th century objects in a 17 th century painting.

If he ever got charged for fraud, he was going to say that people would never be fooled by his paintings as there were clear flaws in them.

This was enough to make you think of him as a weirdo, but Tom Keating sometimes even left time bombs in his paintings.

He applied glycerin on the canvas and painted on it so that if the painting was suspected to be fake and people tried to wipe off the paint to check if that was true, the glycerin would respond, and the paint layer would melt.

It was to clearly show that the painting was fake, so he was right to be called the legendary crazy forger.

“You know him. Then, why don’t you go and take a proper look at the painting again?”

Eric Holton’s shaking eyes said he was becoming nervous. He felt he should say something, but Haejin said something so shocking that he couldn’t even open his mouth.

“Is it really Tom Keating?”

Eunhae, who had been listening, was surprised and whispered. Haejin had said the painting was fake, so Eunhae had believed that. However, she didn’t imagine that Rembrandt’s painting was a fake from Tom Keating.

“Yes.”

Then, Eric Holton gathered his senses and asked in a low voice, “If it is Tom Keating, there must be a mark in the painting. I guess you said that nonsense because you have seen some kind of mark, right?”

What would losing ten million dollars feel like? Haejin couldn’t even guess Eric’s feelings, so he told him with pity.

“The table where the man and the boy are studying. Have you seen its grain of wood depicted in Rembrandt’s unique coloring style?”

“Yes, of course, I have.”

“There are three gnarls in total…”

Then, Eric Holton interrupted Haejin.

“Three? Not two?”

“Three. There is one more gnarl at the bottom left part of the painting. A very small one… and if you look closely, there is another circle enclosing that gnarl. Can you see what that means?”

Eric Holton was frozen as if he had been enchanted. Eunhae talked instead.

“A wheel… no, a tire. Is it right?”

“Well… we cannot be sure. However, it is sure that Rembrandt never drew such a small and delicate circle. He didn’t have to. It is not his style.”

Eric understood, so Haejin didn’t have to explain more in English. Eric just sat there for some time with blank eyes and suddenly left the manor.

Did they speak too loudly while they were excited? The reaction of the crowd was strange. As Haejin had spoken in English, the people who had heard would think that the painting which had just been sold was a fake.

It could make Haejin nervous, but as he was not the host, he wasn’t obliged to calm the crowd. So, he ignored them and so did Eunhae.

“Wow… how could you see it? Your eyesight must be better than a Mongolian’s. My eyes are not that bad, but how could you see that?”

“I did, luckily…”

That might sound weird to her, but what she could say? He claimed that he had seen it.

“You are amazing. However, if it is really Tom Keating, it might melt.”

“Judging from that Eric’s temper, if he checks the gnarl and is sure that it’s fake, he will certainly do that.”

“That’s a shame.”

“Yes.”

They chatted like that. Soon, the auctioneer appeared again.

“People would call Renoir as the representative artist of the Impressionist… but describing Renoir as an Impressionist artist is not enough. Bright and luxurious colors, purity with a clear outline, passionate attitude about life, admiration and indulgence about beautiful naked women. Who else would be worthy of all these titles? I give you Auguste Renoir.”

The auctioneer uncovered one of the two remaining paintings. It was revealed with the crowd’s exclamation and showed a woman in a red dress reclining on a sofa and reading a book.

Her blond hair was neatly tied. One of her arms was on the side of the sofa and she was staring at the book with a somewhat bored expression. That looked extremely relaxed.

It was a simple structure, but it had Renoir’s unique colorfulness. It contrasted with Rembrandt’s dramatic light and shade, it looked even more luxurious.

Eunhae stared at the painting with her fists clenched, determined to get the painting this time. She turned to Haejin and asked in a small voice.

“If one of Tom Keating’s fake is here, we cannot be sure if this one has not been touched by him.”

That was what Haejin was worrying about. His mana had increased a lot and now he only felt a little tired after using magic; however, if he repeatedly did that, he could disgrace his country in this very room, so he dared not to.

So now, he had to study the painting with his eyes and tell Eunhae to buy it if he was sure it was real, but if it was the work of a great forger like Tom Keating, he would be giving her massive damage.

“Who will get to own this fantastic beauty? We will start at a million dollars again. The price rises by fifty thousand dollars with every bid. The auction starts now.”

The moment he finished, Eunhae looked at Haejin. He had to decide quickly.

Haejin stared at the painting but, no matter how much he looked, he couldn’t find anything strange.

He could see Renoir’s unique multi-layer technique of applying multiple layers of the color, the colors he frequently used, and the texture of the oil painting was perfect.

Still, Haejin wanted to check more. It wasn’t about millions of won. It was a matter of billions and tens of billions.

So, Haejin tried to ignore Eunhae’s hot gaze and focused on the painting even more, but he heard a Chinese talking in front of him. He was wearing a small one-lensed magnifying glass, and the language he spoke was different from ordinary Chinese.

It was mainly used in Shanghai and was called Wu as it was used in the old Wu country region, and it was another dialect different from Cantonese and Chinese.

They whispered carefully, thinking there couldn’t be someone who spoke Wu near them; however, because of the Chinese’ distinct loud voice, Haejin could still hear them.

Haejin heard what they were saying and flinched. Then, he secretly touched the paddle on Eunhae’s lap. It was a signal. It was time to raise the paddle.

“Finally, the beautiful lady is interested. Four million and five hundred dollars!”