December 20, 1998, a Sunday.

In a few days, it's Christmas Eve and Christmas, and the whole of Europe is filled with a relaxed pre-holiday atmosphere.

In a private estate in an alpine meadow on the shores of Lake Constance in the northeastern suburbs of Zurich, an aristocratic old man in his fifties was playing golf with a few friends.

Lake Constance is a wonderland of great beauty, located on the borders of Switzerland, Germany and Austria.

From the southeast corner of the lake, further south over a small ridge in the Alps, about a dozen kilometers away, you can also reach Liechtenstein, another famous small European country.

Liechtenstein, like Luxembourg, was once a vassal state under the HRE Empire, and finally escaped the tide of German unification, so it still maintains the traditional aristocratic system.

Although Liechtenstein is too small, only 160 square kilometers, only one-fifteenth of Luxembourg (Luxembourg's land area is the same as the Lanfang Islands), but the title of nobility is not low, Liechtenstein's monarch title is the same as that of the Monegasques, they are all "princes", and Luxembourg is the same "Grand Duke" as the Lanfang.

This private castle estate on the shores of Lake Constance belonged to the South African magnate Rupert family.

At this moment, the man who is playing on the estate's golf course is none other than the family patriarch, His Excellency John Rupert, who has many titles, such as South Africa's second richest man, real estate and mining tycoon, and the head of Richemont, the world's second-largest luxury conglomerate, with a family fortune of nearly $14 billion.

John Rupert has been a lifelong lover of golf, especially in the pristine surroundings of the Alpine hot springs and snow-capped lakes. It's not for the sake of vassal elegance or aristocratism, it's that he really likes to play this.

It's December, the colder season of the year, and even the skiers in the Alps have finished their work a while ago and will not come back to play until March or April next year.

However, many of the mountain estates near Lake Constance can still be green grass and even golf, mainly because this generation is the richest area in Bavaria - the Alps are also an important tectonal plate movement junction zone, and the geological activity is so frequent that there are mountain springs throughout Bavaria in southern Germany, Württemberg and Zurich in northeastern Switzerland.

Where there are hot springs, geothermal resources are abundant, even on the snow-capped mountains in winter, there can be a large area of green grassy land, and the clouds and mist are like a fairyland - later generations of Chinese mainland visitors, even if they have not been to Zurich, Switzerland, just look at the Swiss blowing Alps on Douyin, and the small videos of clouds and mist in the snow-capped mountains and grasslands captured by those people are all filmed in this kind of place.

Therefore, in fact, these landscapes are definitely not idyllic songs for the poor, but private estates and castles controlled by all major European wealthy families.

Although the Rupert family's castle estate is not comparable to Neuschwanstein Castle, the Bavarian royal palace on the other side of the lake, in John's heart, he has always aimed for a legendary manor like Neuschwanstein Castle to build his own resort territory.

......

With a crisp snap~, John Rupert swung gracefully and birdie.

The other people present naturally unanimously or praised the rave of words, or sincerely praised it.

John took a sip of water in high spirits, and after a short break, he took another shot and flew straight to the green on the next hole again.

So he glanced at it, and the battery car next to him quietly drove over, picked up the people in the car, and went straight to the next hole.

This is one of the main reasons why golf is a good place to talk about business: it's rare for an older golfer to hike to the green of the next hole after hitting a shot up.

Because the distance between each hole in the golf course is nearly 300 yards (par 3, which means "the default par 3 can score this hole in the standard state", the same goes for the par 4 and par 5 holes below), and the distance can be more than 400 yards (par 5), which is almost a mile away.

Those old men, how can they have the physical strength to walk a mile every time they make a hole, so they naturally need to take the battery car frequently, and when they rest in the car, they are very suitable for talking about things.

As soon as John Rupert got into the car and wiped his sweat, his son Anthony Rupert handed over a phone and reported softly:

"Van Birsson was in Fersen yesterday and heard that we were here for the winter vacation, and wanted to bring a few guests and a new batch of Oriental goodies to see them, which may be useful for the Christmas jewelry fair. ”

It turned out that the Van Bilsson mentioned by Anthony was the Dutch businessman Van Bilsson, who had a lot of cultural relics business cooperation with Gu Kun before. As Europe's largest giant in the jewelry and watch industry, Richemont also has a relationship with most of the antique auctioneers.

After all, the group will hold some jewelry exhibitions and watch exhibitions every Christmas season, and it is a basic operation to decorate some ancient cultural relics to set off the atmosphere and attract the upper class audience. Europe's top art and antique players are basically in this circle.

Let's just say that John and Anthony, father and son, actually bought some things from Gu Kun from Van Bilsson before, but they didn't mind the source, and they didn't care about Gu Kun's situation.

Fessen is a small town on the southwestern outskirts of Munich, not far from the German-Austrian border, where Neuschwanstein Castle, once the royal palace of Bavaria. Today, it is still a well-known high-end trading center for antiquities and cultural relics in South Germany.

So with Van Birsson and Sophia's previous identities, it is normal to be haunted by Fessen often. Before cooperating with Gu Kun, this ticket holder was basically running around in The Hague, Zurich and Munich to buy goods and sell them for auctions.

John Rupert took a sip of the champagne on the cart and smiled contemptuously: "It is estimated that the guy in Bilson has accepted favors from others and wants to lead the way, but don't bring in any nasty nouveau riche who is not worthy of our status." ”

Anthony didn't care, he just received a phone call from his father when he was concentrating on playing, and he said, "Then I can refuse him." ”

John raised his hand and signaled: "There is no need, listen to who it is, it is really not in the stream, so take a few other distinguished guests aside, don't stain their eyes." ”

The guests with whom John Rupert played were all very noble, and there were many dignitaries from Germany, Italy, Sweden, Austria and other countries. Let's just say that the cardinal of the CDU, which is now dominating and rising in South Germany, often plays golf with Rupert.

Those photos of the reunion together at the Alpine estate, after the future CDU came to power and the cardinal became chancellor, were often used by the top management of the Richemont group as evidence to show off their connections. (The predecessor of the CDU was the Central Committee of the Heavenly Church, which was strong in southern Germany, and the traditional force in northern Germany was the Social Democrats)

Anthony immediately made arrangements, and after Rupert and his party hit six more holes, Van Bilsson arrived - it seems that Van Bilsson was already waiting for an opportunity nearby.

As soon as the two sides met, Van Birsson lowered his posture very low: "John, it's nice to see that you are in good spirits. The Montblanc/Piaget show on Christmas Eve, I'm really looking forward to it. It just so happens that recently I got some 8th-century Arab antiquities from the East, and they are all jewelry, which is definitely worthy of the cultural heritage and grade of your exhibition. ”

When he heard that there were such ancient Arabic jewels, John Rupert finally showed a hint of joy.

It seems that Van Birsson came to make money this time, and he really came to provide him with a solution.

John laughed and teased, "Yes, I haven't heard of any Arab relics from that era in the antiquities industry lately, and there are no special auctions related to them—you can't have encountered some unknown goods, right?"

Van Birsson hurriedly shouted: "How is it possible? You don't know the reputation of our Dutch in business, we won't touch things that are illegal through the acquisition channels, as long as you are willing, every piece of goods you get is definitely 'obtained by a third party in good faith', the old rules." ”

John waved his hand: "Let's play two shots together, and tell me the specific source." ”

Van Birsson is also in this business, and he must be able to play golf, so he unambiguously took the club and opened a ball, and then slowly explained: "In fact, it is not a new product, it has been out of the water for several months - it is the most luxurious ancient shipwreck in Southeast Asian waters so far, the thing on the 'Nanyang No. 1'."

You know, this boat is older and more historic than any Asian ship I've ever auctioned before. It's just that this boat belongs to Huaxia, and the Chinese people are very strict in protecting cultural relics, so they will not be auctioned.

But my friend, who still obtained some things on board that did not belong to the ancient Tang people, which were all ancient Arabs, and he could dispose of them legally and freely, in full compliance with the principle of discovery pre-emption of the international law of the sea. ”

Listen to the strings and know the elegant meaning,

Van Birsson has said this in detail to this point, and an old fox like John has already reacted:

"He wants to introduce the friend I know, can't it be Gu Kun who fishes boats? That person has a great reputation, but unfortunately he is a nouveau riche, and he doesn't fit in with our circle. ”

As soon as he thought of this, John was impatient to continue listening, and directly interrupted to confirm: "The person you want to introduce me to today can't be the big star Gu Kun who sticks a stick everywhere, right?

In addition to using Sony's DISC-MAN and headphones, Armani in the luxury circle also asked Gu Kun for implicit endorsements. That's all the treatment he received when he just won N Olympic championships in 96 and became the person who broke the most world records in human history.

Who would have thought that just two and a half years later, Gu Kun was no longer satisfied with making a little money from soft implantation. Instead, he had to be the master of the puppet line himself, and let those European designers make money for him.

Van Birsson saw that the other party had broken it, so he no longer paved the way: "It's indeed Gu Kun, but he probably won't endorse any of the brands under your group - he wants to talk to you about the replacement of shares in certain brands." ”

John Rupert seemed to have heard a ridiculous joke: "What? Talk to me about the share swap of the subsidiary brand? Is he also an insider? This is a business with aristocratic traditions, not a nouveau riche can enter when he has money! I heard that he has only been rich for a few months, but he has made waves in Xiangjiang but he can't even afford to buy a mansion in Xiangjiang, is there a nobleman in this world who has his own castle? What about his fief?"

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