The plan was decided, Li Yi first called Sotheby's to make sure that he could receive the lot today, and then asked for the address, and found that the convention and exhibition center was only less than two kilometers away from Pacific Place, where Sotheby's Hong Kong is located, so he decided to simply walk there.

After packing up what could still be eaten on the balcony, Li Yi set off with "Untitled". Half an hour later, we arrived at Sotheby's Hong Kong headquarters on the 31st floor of One Pacific Place.

Because of the phone call beforehand, he only waited in the reception room for a few minutes before he met the appraiser in charge of appraising his "Untitled".

The appraiser was a very young man, a native of Hong Kong, who spoke half-baked Mandarin and was very polite. But Li Yi could hear a trace of distrust and a little bit of arrogance from this politeness.

"First of all, we would like to welcome you as your first choice at Sotheby's, and I think we will be your best choice if your gift is really worth auctioning. Okay, can you show me your baby now? ”

Li Yi frowned, and didn't say anything because of the young man's attitude. He opened the folder and gently pushed it in front of the young man.

Because he was going to work at an auction house, Li Yi had an understanding of their workflow. Generally speaking, for this kind of lot, which has no foundation and is actively sent to the door, most of them are intern appraisers.

Because many collectors who send their collections to auction are not sure of the authenticity of their things, and even many simply seek free appraisal under the banner of sending them to auction.

However, although he can understand, he is not optimistic about this young man, not only because he is young, but more importantly, because he is an Asian American. Generally speaking, Asians don't have a high level of appreciation for European and American collections, especially this work that is almost abstract beyond measure.

Sure enough, when the young man saw the painting, he was visibly dazed, and when he saw the more scribbled signature, he became more and more struggling, and it took him a long time to spell out the words Franz Klein.

Then the young man fell silent. Li Yi looked at the sweat that quietly broke out on his forehead, and almost couldn't hold back his laughter. If you sit in this position and don't have a spirit card, I'm afraid that I'm just about the same as him, right?

"Sir, how did you get this painting?"

"Oh, from an American friend."

"So, can you tell me the name of your friend?"

Li Yi wanted to shake his head, but suddenly remembered that the house where he got the painting was used as a sample house and was decorated by Wenyuan Landscape Company, so his original owner should also be a certain boss of the company. So, he directly gave the legal person of Wenyuan Landscape an English name,

"David Lee, Chinese."

The information was so simple that the young man just thought about it for a moment and gave up. Then he pretended to be very serious and looked at the painting for a few minutes, raised his head, and showed a false smile at Li Yi,

"Mr. Li, I don't know you for this painting, but from what I know about Master Franz Klein, it seems that he has never painted such a painting."

Seeing that Li Yiyi didn't seem to believe it, he coughed lightly and continued:

"As far as I know, there are five Untitled paintings by Franz Klein, of which the second painting is in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the third painting is in the collection of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in Spain, and the first painting was sold for more than $30 million in New York in 12 years and was collected by a mysterious collector. The other No. 4 and No. 5 can also clearly find their provenance. I remember all five of these "Untitled", and none of them are what your painting looks like, so ......"

Li Yi secretly admired in his heart, he didn't expect this young man to be so erudite, but after looking at it for a while, without using any information, he clearly told the whereabouts of the three "Untitled", you know, at that time, he browsed the Internet for two whole days, and barely found the whereabouts of the three "Untitled", and it is not clear how many paintings they are.

"So, is it possible that it is one of the four or five?"

The young appraiser shook his head firmly,

"As I said, we have a picture of those five paintings in our company, and I'm pretty sure it's not one of those two. Moreover, the style of this signature is also different from the font used by Franz Klein. In fact, the biggest flaw still comes from the time when he made the payment. We know that Franz Klein's "Untitled" series should have started in 1952 and ended in 1956, but the date of your painting says 1944, sorry. ”

If it weren't for the identification of the spirit card, Li Yi must have been persuaded by him, and even if there were no countless adventures to verify the magic of the spirit card, Li Yi would have left with the painting in disbelief, but now, ......

He decided to save the young man's career. Although he was a little rude, because until now, he had not introduced his name.

You must know that if it is an ordinary lot, the appraiser will look away, but like this "Untitled", which is likely to fetch a sky-high price, once it slips out from under the nose of this young man, and he directly and arbitrarily determines the authenticity of this painting without asking for help from other colleagues, then he is likely to lose his job because of this painting, and may not even have the opportunity to do such work again in his life!

"I'm pretty sure it's real, why don't you call a colleague to come and have a look?"

The young appraiser hesitated, he had met a lot of clients like Li Yi, and he always didn't trust his age, but the young man in front of him didn't seem to be the same, although he didn't have too many words, but his attitude seemed to imply undoubted firmness.

The young appraiser searched the memories in his mind again, and although he was still firm in his judgment, he somehow felt that he should let the teacher take a look, even if it was just to take a look......

"That'...... Sir, please wait a minute. ”

Ten minutes later, a bearded foreigner walked into the reception room, followed by the young appraiser.

"Hello, I'm David Lee, Mr. Lee, Stephen has told me about the situation just now, can you let me see that painting?"

The old man's Chinese is very poor, but even if he can't understand it, Li Yi knows that he wants to see paintings. However, he had just made up a David Lee, and a real David Lee immediately popped up here, which really made him a little embarrassed.

As soon as David Lee saw the painting, his brows furrowed, and then he turned his head and said a lot of English to Stephen behind him, Li Yi didn't understand a word, but saw a relieved smile on his face. I don't know if he was pleased with his disciple's high level, or relieved that he didn't arbitrarily decide to refuse.

After David Lee finished speaking, Stephen smiled at Li Yi embarrassedly,

"I'm very sorry, Mr. Li, my teacher said that this painting is likely to be the work of Franz Klein when he explored the use of black and white to express the positive and negative space, and it is of great significance for the study of Franz Klein's later style transformation and maturity. However, he is not very sure, so we need to inform our chief appraiser, who asks you to wait a little longer, it may take you a little longer. ”

Li Yi thought that the painting was hung on the wall of the model house as a cheap ornament, and he knew that it would be very difficult to identify. I didn't expect Sotheby's David Lee to be so powerful, he almost determined the authenticity of the painting at a glance, and also made an almost perfect explanation of the painting time. It seems that if he wants to rely on this mixed bowl of rice to eat, he has to work harder.

In the next chat, Li Yi learned that the chief appraiser of Sotheby's Hong Kong is an Englishman, whose Chinese name is Liu Xibo, in addition to a super high level of appreciation, he is a very high-level abstract painter himself, and his appraisal of the works of abstract painting representative figures such as Franz Klein can almost be said to be the final judgment.

Unfortunately, he was invited by a wealthy man in Hong Kong to have his paintings appraised early this morning, and it was likely that he would have lunch together, and they had already called him, but no one could say when he would return.

When Li Yi heard this, he didn't want to wait a little, and when he was thinking about whether to come back another day, a tall old man suddenly pushed the door in, he just glanced at the people in the room, and couldn't wait to bring the painting to his face.