Dong Jichang continued: "There is a last situation where someone is raised, such as a parent, a wife, or a gallery agent, and in order to mix it up in the future, I signed two painters who are not yet famous, but have a good level and have potential." But after all, there are few such people, and in general, there are only a few people who can be famous, and compared with the number of people who learn to paint as a whole, they are completely rare. ”

"And my paintings here are basically the works of unknown young painters, of course, their level is quite high, I think they are all potential stocks, and when they become famous, the price of these paintings will rise, and I can make a fortune from it. ”

Meng Zitao asked, "You bought these paintings in advance?"

"Some are, some don't. ”

Dong Jichang said with a smile: "If we want to make money in this industry, we generally need several ways, one is to buy low, high out; ”

"But the work is placed here with me, but also to charge a storage fee, some painters insist on not becoming famous and want to give up the original decision, for such painters, we also have an assessment, if there is still potential will support one or two, if not, the painting is not wanted, the storage fee will still have to be paid, some people can't get this fee, they will take all kinds of things to pay off the debt. Of course, this is just one case. ”

Hearing this, Meng Zitao understood how Dong Jichang came to know the calligraphy and painting works that Dong Jichang often gave to Xu Youhao for appraisal.

Dong Jichang continued: "If outsiders knew, they would probably say that I was a profiteer, but our industry is also bitter, for example, some artists' works have a high proportion of share, and galleries usually give half of the sales share of works to artists. However, considering that gallery operations often have to cover marketing, production, shipping and insurance costs, these should account for about 70% of sales. If we don't make some money in this business, then we won't starve to death?"

Meng Zitao was a little surprised: "In other words, you are losing money by selling paintings by famous artists?"

Dong Jichang said: "That's not necessarily, for example, taking advantage of the difference in domestic and foreign consumption levels, buying the works of domestic painters at a low price, and then changing hands to buy them at a high price." Another example is to contact the auction company, participate in the auction, and receive a profit commission. ”

"But these have to be ways, because I have some relationship with my family, and I rely on my cousin, so there are more ways, but other people don't have so many channels as me, so don't look at the gallery is open now, in a few years, half of it will die. ”

Meng Zitao thought about it and felt that according to the traditional sales method, it was really possible to confirm Dong Jichang's judgment.

Dong Jichang smiled and said, "I remember that my brother has an auction company under his name, I wonder if we have any chance to cooperate?"

Meng Zitao also smiled and said: "I definitely welcome cooperation, but there is one thing I explained in advance, we generally don't do hype. ”

Dong Jichang smiled: "I'll just deal with this matter." ”

In the following time, Dong Jichang took Meng Zitao to browse the works in the room and give some explanations, Meng Zitao listened carefully, and he never forgot it, but after a while, his knowledge of oil painting has risen. If Dong Jichang knew, he would have to be surprised.

The upper rooms are basically the places where Dong Jichang displays his oil paintings, and sometimes he brings some guests over to visit and discuss. Correspondingly, the works in the upper room are basically the works of unknown or only well-known artists, and some precious collections are collected by Dong Jichang in the basement.

Dong Jichang took Meng Zitao to the door of the basement, this is a metal door, the door is equipped with a scanner, Dong Jichang put his left eye up to scan, only to hear the sound of the drop, the password keypad on the door appeared, Dong Jichang covered the password keypad with one hand, pressed the password with one hand, and after a while, there was a drop, and the voice of electronic language sounded at the door: "The password is correct, please enter." ”

As the electronic language sounded, the metal door began to move slowly.

"Brother, please. Dong Jichang smiled and made a gesture.

"Brother Dong, your equipment here is high-end, and some small banks are just like that. Meng Zitao complimented.

Dong Jichang smiled with a hint of triumph: "It's nothing, the main thing is that my sense of security is relatively weak, and if I don't make it stronger, I feel uncomfortable." ”

The basement was also divided into several rooms, each of which placed collections of different values, and Dong Jichang did not forget his business, so he first took Meng Zitao into the room where the calligraphy and painting collection was placed.

There are more than 100 pieces of collection in the room, calligraphy and painting account for more than half, and there are many other porcelain and miscellaneous pieces, not to mention how the calligraphy and painting works are, with Mencius Tao's eyesight, those porcelain and miscellaneous pieces should be genuine, and the combined value of twenty or thirty pieces of various antiques is estimated to be worth twenty or thirty million.

Although in terms of its market value, it is nothing to Mencius, but antiques are not just about market value, but mainly about cultural value and the historical value contained in them, which is what Mencius values most.

"Brother, my collection here is not bad, right?" Dong Jichang said with a smile.

"It's okay!" Meng Zitao nodded, and looked at a painting next to him, this painting is Qi Baishi's auspicious picture, and the picture scroll is five roosters, which are strong and strong. The whole painting with the pen is vigorous and vigorous, the color and ink are dripping, especially the long tail feathers, the pen is sharp, the force penetrates the back of the paper, the most skillful, from this point of view, it should be a genuine handiwork.

You can see Qi Baishi's real handiwork at the door, and the calligraphy and painting works inside should not be bad, Mencius also came to be interested, and slowly walked inside, and then, his eyes fell on a "Fan Lady".

Seeing that Meng Zitao's attention was on the picture of the lady in front of him, Dong Jichang asked with a slight triumph: "Brother, what do you think of this painting?"

Meng Zitao couldn't hear the meaning of his words, and smiled: "Brother Dong, if I say that this painting is not genuine, will you think I'm joking?" ”

The smile on Dong Jichang's face froze and said, "Brother, you're not joking. ”

Meng Zitao shook his head slightly: "How can I joke about such a thing, if this painting is the work of Zhao Mengfu, in the era of the inscription, at that time, 'literati painting' has occupied the mainstream position in the art world, the pursuit of smooth, pleasant calligraphy with a pen." ”

"For example, Zhao Mengfu's "Tune Liangtu", the whole work uses lyrical lines, soft and resilient, and there is no sense of artificiality, which fully embodies the aesthetic concept of 'softness' and 'tranquility' pursued by 'literati painters', but in this painting, I have no such feelings. And there are many differences with Zhao Mengfu's pen. ”

Speaking of this, Meng Zitao couldn't help but think in his heart, only people like Dong Jichang who didn't know anything about Zhao Mengfu's painting style would think that this was a genuine painting.

Dong Jichang frowned and said, "But I went to do the appraisal, and the result is indeed a work of the Song and Yuan dynasties!"

Meng Zitao said: "This is indeed a Song painting, although it has been slightly damaged by the years, but it can still be seen that the painting material is fine, every two warp and weft threads are a group, and there is a gap of about one silk between each two groups, which is the characteristic of Song Juan." Moreover, this "Fan Lady" is indeed a work with a typical style of the Song Dynasty. ”

"This ......" Dong Jichang is also a little difficult to accept, this is the work of "Zhao Mengfu", if it is so "gone", what a loss he will have!

But thinking of Meng Zitao's eyesight, his heart sank slightly, and asked, "Brother, can you tell who the author is." ”

"It's hard to say. ”

Meng Zitao organized his words for a while, and then he spoke: "The style of painting this figure is calm and workmanlike, the lines are drawn from the ancient gossamer of the Tang Dynasty, the law is rigorous, and the image of the figure is also obviously different from the image of the Tang Dynasty's 'curved eyebrows and plump cheeks', although the face shape is also relatively round, but it is already long and round. ”

In addition to the long and round face, the lady in the painting has willow eyebrows and cherry blossoms. In the Song Dynasty, it was more popular to have long eyebrows (such as distant mountain eyebrows), white powder on the face, and also absorbed the "Tang makeup" lady modeling characteristics created by Zhang Xuan and Zhou Fang. This is precisely the image characteristics of the Song Dynasty ladies' paintings: distant mountain eyebrows, thin willow waists. ”

In addition, the lady in the painting is wearing a shirt, a back, and a light gauze coat on the top, and a crotch trouser underneath. This image is reminiscent of the characteristics of the Song Dynasty poetess Li Qingzhao: 'Red lotus incense remnants of jade in autumn.' Lightly dismiss Luo Xiang'......'. It is the characteristics of the dress of the ladies of the Song Dynasty. ”

Based on the above characteristics, in this "Fan Lady", the character characteristics have changed from the grace and generosity of the Tang Dynasty to the feminine and graceful of the Song Dynasty, and the plump and strong are also replaced by the beauty of the weak and slender. In terms of painting techniques, Yan absorbed the characteristics of Wu Daozi, Zhang Xuan, Zhou Fang and other ladies, and in terms of clothing and makeup, it has the standard characteristics of Song Dynasty ladies......"

Mencius made a detailed comment on the painting, and continued: "Overall, this painting is exquisite, colorful, accurate, and vivid, and I think it is likely to be the work of Chen Juzhong in the Song Dynasty." ”

Dong Jichang asked, "Who is Chen Juzhong?"

Meng Zitao said: "Chen Juzhong is a painter of the Southern Song Dynasty, not much in the history of painting and calligraphy, his year of birth and death is unknown, Ning Zong Jiatai was waiting for the edict of the painting academy. Specialized in figures and horses, and also good at writing scenes such as grazing and hunting. Pay attention to realism, observe subtlety, style 'handsome and bright', full of interest, people speak highly of his works, is one of the famous figure painters in the Song Dynasty. The key is that there are not many of his works that have been handed down, most of them are hidden in major museums around the world, and there is no auction record of the original works. ”

Dong Jichang didn't really care too much about who Chen Juzhong was, he cared about how much this painting could be worth, so when he heard the end, his eyes lit up: "Does that mean that the value of this country is very high?"

"If it is indeed Chen Juzhong's authentic work, of course the value is high. Mencius pointed to the scroll and said, "I suggest you reprocess the mounting, and maybe you can get some clues." As for the specific value, I'll talk about that later. ”

In fact, he saw from the outset that there was a deliberate disguise in the framing of the painting, which was supposed to be to conceal the evidence of the authenticity.

Dong Jichang said in a loud voice, he actually noticed some problems with the framing before, but he didn't think deeply, and now after listening to Meng Zitao's analysis, how can there be any reason that he doesn't understand.

"My brother is insightful and admired!" Dong Jichang said with a smile.

"But in terms of oil painting appreciation, I am not as good as one ten-thousandth of yours. Meng Zitao modestly paved.

"That's an exaggeration. ”

Dong Jichang shook his head with a smile, and then said, "Brother, the rest of these calligraphy and paintings have to rely on you." ”

Meng Zitao was also not modest, and told the characteristics of the remaining calligraphy and painting works, and they all got to the point, which made Dong Jichang completely convinced.

Although Dong Jichang studied oil painting, he also had some research on Chinese painting, coupled with the relationship between his cousin, although he had no achievements in calligraphy, he could still appreciate it, otherwise why would he accept it if others took calligraphy and painting works to pay off debts?

It is precisely because of his understanding of calligraphy and painting appreciation that Dong Jichang can understand the horror of Meng Zitao, who is obviously just a young man in his twenties, not to mention his cousin in calligraphy, but also more than some authoritative experts in calligraphy and painting appreciation.

What's more, Dong Jichang also knew that Meng Zitao also had a top eye in other aspects of antiques, which made him wonder, how did Meng Zitao do it?

"Is this the so-called genius?" In Dong Jichang's heart, this sentence with a complicated meaning sounded to himself, and he thought of the hardships he had endured in studying oil painting, and there was something unpleasant in his heart. Of course, this strange feeling was only fleeting, and he didn't even fail to see it.

"Hey, this painting ......"

As Meng Zitao stood in front of a colored silk painting, an unusually strange feeling arose in his heart.

The content of this painting is "Infant Play", in terms of subject matter, painting style, techniques, etc., to a great extent, it inherits the will of the Song Dynasty Painting Academy, when it was made by the masters of the court painting academy, and in the style of the characters, its creation age should be before Xuande of the Ming Dynasty at the latest.

In this picture, it should be the New Year's Festival or festive time, in the courtyard of the rich and noble's house, the owner sits sideways in the courtyard pavilion holding a book and patiently teaches the young children, while looking up lovingly at the children in the distance playing and playing.

The characters are rich in expression, and the main body of the picture is prominent. It is closely related to the characteristics of children's innocence, brilliance, love of movement, and easy to satisfy. The stone and plane trees in the courtyard, as well as the stone railing, also appropriately set off the scene of the people's activities. It vividly reflects the style of the aristocratic courtyard at that time, as well as a lively and festive scene.

But the strange thing is that it is obviously a festive painting, but the feeling for Meng Zitao is very weird, and there is a faint sadness in it, which is really strange.