Chapter 96 (1/2)
Zhang Xinyi drove back home before dinner time. When Huang Xuan saw her car from the balcony, he quickly went downstairs to see her. The issues at the company were not easy to deal with. Seeing his mothers exhausted look, Huang Xuan felt distressed. He ma.s.saged her shoulders lightly as they walked inside and said, ”Is the fund committee looking for trouble again?”
”Anyways, things have been chaotic.” Zhang Xinyi shook her head and said: ”Don't worry about these things. Why did you go to Shanghai? You should have told me first. What if you got into danger?”
Huang Xuan smiled and didn't dare to say anything. He took his mom to the sofa, and started trying to please her by making tea and giving her a ma.s.sage.
Zhang Xinyi poked his forehead and said, ”Don't play dumb with me. I've already spoken with Isaac, from tomorrow on, he'll be following you. Where you go, he goes.” Isaac was captain of the bodyguards for IZO, a 2-meter-tall Israeli mercenary.
”Oh,” Huang Xuan responded weakly.
Zhang Xinyi drank some tea and continued, ”I've already spoken with your father. Since you two are back and your grandfather's health isn't good, you two should just stay in China. You should also continue going to school. ”
”No.” Huang Xuan jumped up, but weakly sat down again as soon as he saw his mom's eyes. ”I, I wanted to tell you, I need to go to American sometime in the next two days.”
”What for?”
”I heard that skill level in Pfizer is pretty good. Citibank also knows some medical inst.i.tutes. I want to go ask people to see if they can help with grandpa's recovery.” Huang Xuan answered with partial truths.
Zhang Xinyi sighed. She put the cup on the table, thought for a while and said, ”Huang Xuan, you should know that people get sick when they grow old. Do you remember what your grandfather told you? You need to be brave, but being brave doesn't mean advancing resolutely, being indomitable. A courageous person needs to face reality and life. You are still young, so maybe you don't understand yet...”
”I understand.” Huang Xuan interrupted her. He grabbed her arm and said, ”I'll go to America to ask around first, if it doesn't work out, I'll come back. It won't waste much time. Besides, with my current English skills, I don't even need an interpreter when I talk with Aubrey. What can I do in school right now.”
Zhang Xinyi looked at her son's expression, there wasn't much she could say now. She couldn't help but rub his head a bit and said: ”Widen your experience a bit, and your life will be a bit fuller...”
Huang Xuan quietly listened. Since he had started middle school, his mother had become busier, even the amount of time to talk with each other had become shorter.
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Li Qing booked a suite for Huang Xuan at Gloria Hotel, it was around 400-500 square meters. The next morning, Jeffrey from Sotheby's, Sabrina and Aubrey from Citibank, and lawyer Annabelle and their a.s.sistants all came on time.
The living room was separated by a transparent floor-to-ceiling window, striking black and white lines appeared on the empty wall. Delicate European style furniture could be seen throughout the room, their colors were mainly bright yellow and light red. When mixed with the lighting, the sense of s.p.a.ce in the area was enhanced. A transparent s.h.i.+p filled with water and tropical fish led to the closet.
However, the exquisite decoration was overshadowed by the Tsar Easter Eggs sitting on the end table. Sabrina covered her mouth in surprise, eyes wide open. ”Are those Faberge Easter Eggs? The three that were lost?”
Among the 50-odd Faberge Easter Eggs, 8 were lost, their whereabouts triggering the imagination of countless people. Every time one appeared, so would a large array of stories about it.
Huang Xuan smiled and welcomed them. ”Everyone, please have a seat. I'll need to rely on you to judge whether or not these are Faberge Easter Eggs.”
Speaking of professional matters, Jeffrey and Sabrina were a bit scared and Aubrey couldn't help but be a bit nervous as well. A $800 million USD appraisal, even though Jeffery and Sabrina had the ability to appraise them, they couldn't stop their heart from beating faster.
Compared to the serious appraiser Jeffery, the experts from Citibank were much more at ease. Sabrina, who was wearing a short skirt, circled around the Tsar Easter egg and attracted a lot of eyes. She kept on mumbling: ”So they were here, so they were here.”
Who knows where the real Tsar Easter Eggs were, maybe they were destroyed, maybe they were in some box molding away, or maybe they were kept hidden away somewhere. Huang Xuan smiled in his heart, and said: ”Everyone please have a drink first, we can start the appraisal after that.”
Jeffery and the others nodded. The Sotheby's appraiser, Wilson, who came with him, put on his gla.s.ses and said: ”Mr. Huang, since there are a lot of items, please let me appraise the paintings.” He took a look at the rolled up artworks on the table and said: ”I'll first simply verify their authenticity, afterwards, I'll bring them back to our center for further appraisal. Is that plan alright with you?” At this this, most of the art works put up for appraisal were bought from Hammer, with a few coming from other seller. Near the end of his trip, the price of art kept on rising.
Huang Xuan nodded and smiled. He got up and left the sofa, but the men from IZO kept staring intently at the coffee table, afraid someone would steal something. The bodyguards monitoring the security system were also tense, worried that some problem would appear.
Usually, paintings and calligraphy were authenticated according to the paper, ink, writing, seal, style and habit. The artwork that Huang Xuan brought back, especially the Russian artwork, had a very low chance of being counterfeits. The only possible issue would be the age of the paper, but after Rolin's treatment, this issue was simply resolved. Actually, with today's technology, it is hard to determine whether a piece of paper was 100 or 200 years old. This was because the storage environment for the paper also affected its apparent age. Unless it was hidden deep in some grave, for old art collectables, no matter if it changed hands or not, it was impossible to determine how the piece was stored. For example, for a 100-year old paper product, it yellows at a rate of 1/36000 per normal day and 10/36000 rainy day, but who can tell the difference between the yellowing caused by rainstorms and the yellowing caused by a light drizzle? Who can calculate what the average humidity was over the past 100 years? Does the location make a difference? If the paper stayed in the same location for 100 years, it might still be possible to estimate the average humidity, but what if the owner brought it to travel everywhere?
As for Carbon-14 dating (C14), it is simply nonsense for antiques appraisal. Even the most advanced C14 test today, can still have an error range of 50 years or more. For Anthropological research, this range doesn't matter, as there isn't much of a difference between 12,000 years and 12,050 years ago. If we're talking about something brought back from 1931 though, whether it was simply preserved well, or if it was brought back through time, no one can tell.
Of course, for insurance, Huang Xuan still asked Rolin to put the items brought back through a aging process. It didn't really cost any effort, since in terms of the mastery of time, the gentlemen from the large planes were quite professional.
To Huang Xuan, the real issue was the existing collections. Although Rolin had searched throughly to ensure that they only brought back lost or destroyed works, it was possible that a piece or art hadn't really been lost but secretly kept by someone. The best choice here was to rely on the authentication by an expert. Whether the item was real, fake, or even if some artists decided to paint two copies of his work, it didn't really impact Huang Xuan too much. There were currently twenty or thirty copies of the ”Orchid Pavilion Collection”, all of which claimed to be the authentic version.
Sabrina looked at the three eggs attentively, lightly touching it with her gloved finger, her a.s.sistant was even afraid to breathe too loudly.
”Your really want to pledge these three eggs as collateral?” Sabrina suddenly asked as Huang Xuan was drinking coffee by the window.
Huang Xuan looked back at her in surprise and answered, ”Of course.” His eyes showed a hint of questioning.
Sabrina combed her hand through her long chestnut hair and said, ”What a shame! You know, if you p.a.w.n these eggs, they will be locked in Citibank's safe. You won't be able to see or touch them anymore.”
Huang Xuan smiled, it looked like this American beauty was immersed in her own interest. To be honest, these Tsar Easter Eggs were just some toys to him. When he purchased them from Hammer, these eggs had only cost him $400 USD each. Now that their value had gone up, people were starting to appreciate them. Earlier, why hadn't anyone shown them any interest? If it wasn't for Russian people becoming wealthier, these pieces of Russian art would have just been thrown in some corner, and forgotten.