Hook quickly took his leave, and he needed to go back to the office and discuss with the boss what to do next.

"Leonard, what was Pierre's Gravel Breaker?"

In this sentence, Redley Leonard is scorched on the outside and tender on the inside, and almost hit the car in front of him.

"Shaw, that Courbet's oil painting, can be said to be one of his important masterpieces."

"In whose hands is that? What is the valuation? ”

Leonard smiled bitterly:

"Shaw, that painting is not in anyone's hands, it turns out that the painting is in the Dresden State Gallery, some people say that he was destroyed in the bombing of Dresden in World War II, and others say that it was blown up by the Allies when it was transported to the Könissi fortress in Dresden."

From this sentence, Xiao Yifei heard the familiar phrase the bombing of Dresden, which refers to the large-scale strategic bombing of the eastern German city of Dresden by the Allied forces from February 13 to 15, 1945. The bombing caused heavy civilian losses in Dresden, with 80 percent of homes damaged, more than 50 percent razed or severely damaged, and an estimated 35,000 to 135,000 dead.

The previous owner of the space, German SS Lieutenant Colonel Hans, wrote in his diary that his last mission was to escort the artworks that were pretended to have been destroyed in the bombing of Dresden to be buried, and that he also stole 200 kilograms of gold and ten oil paintings.

"Shaw, it's a pity, it looks like this business has fallen through. Maybe it would have been better if I hadn't agreed to Christie's in the first place. ”

"Leonard, you don't have to comfort me, it's my fault, I shouldn't have exchanged euros for dollars without authorization."

There is a big difference between 10 million euros and 10 million US dollars, 10 million US dollars is only more than 7 million euros, and it is obvious that Christie's price is higher than this price, listening to Pierre's complaining tone, Christie's possible offer is 8 million euros for two beast heads. Maybe Xiao Yifei opened 10 million euros, and it wouldn't collapse at one time.

"It's okay, if you have anything else you want to buy, you can tell us, and we will still give you a discount."

"I want you to help me inquire about Qianlong's seal that was auctioned off a few years ago."

Qianlong used a lot of seals in his life, so there are many overseas ones, including the famous 06 years, a 4.7 cm high Qianlong period seal in France auctioned for 880,000 euros. In 08, the imperial private seal of the Kangxi Emperor of the Qing Dynasty was auctioned for 5 million euros in Toulouse. Since the beast head has lost, then he just bought more seals of the Qing Dynasty emperors, plus the throne and screen, which will have a good effect.

Back at the hotel, the more Xiao Yifei thought about it, the more annoyed he became, he casually opened the webpage and typed "The Quarryman", and the result of the jump made a huge surprise.

I saw that there were two ragged people on the picture, one of them wearing a hat, kneeling on one knee, holding a hammer in both hands, and smashing it hard at the stone, and a young man, holding a basket of gravel vigorously, and some rice pots and spoons on the ground in the distance.

Xiao Yifei was not surprised because the picture was very fine and belonged to the category he liked, but because he had seen this oil painting.

Xiao Yifei hurriedly entered the space of Osiris and rudely pried open the large wooden box with a black Nazi eagle printed on it. Sure enough, he found "The Quarryman" from the ten oil paintings.

"So your name is 'The Quarryman'."

This is not to blame Xiao Yifei, who makes these painters not like to write the name of oil painting on the painting, that is, the name of many famous oil paintings now, is not the name that people choose more about the content of oil painting. At first, Xiao Yifei thought that this oil painting was depicting the work of geological prospectors or early miners.

Carefully comparing the online picture with the oil painting in his hand, and measuring the width of the oil painting, it is indeed in line with the description on the Internet.

Xiao Yifei was very proud:

"Hahaha, God has helped me so much, it seems that the beast head can't escape from my palm this time."

But then he thought of a question, that is, what should I do with this oil painting, and go directly to the door to exchange it? How is it possible, who is the value of the oil painting and the head of the beast for the time being, how to explain the origin of the painting? As for Pierre's big mouth, if someone asks him who he sold the head to, and how much it cost him, he will definitely tell him about it. So why did Xiao Yifei explain to outsiders that this oil painting, which was recognized as destroyed in World War II, was in his hands?

Xiao Yifei thought about it for a long time and decided to take a gamble.

Finally, the next day, Xiao Yifei called Leonard.

"Xiao, the matter of the seal is a little eyebrow-raising, and according to the auction records, we have found the buyer at that time. We are in contact with them. ”

Leonard thought that Xiao Yifei was asking about the progress of the seal, and began to report the progress without waiting for Xiao Yifei to ask.

"Leonard, I'm not looking for you today for the seal thing"

"Do you have something you want to buy again?"

"I don't want to buy anything yet. Leonard, we can't sign a non-disclosure agreement on this matter, can I trust you to keep it a secret? ”

Thinking of the surprise of signing a non-disclosure agreement last time, Leonard was not calm:

"Xiao, do you want to take care of our business?"

"No, it's because I found an oil painting that looks like 'The Stone Crusher.'"

Leonard was completely shocked:

"The Stone Crusher? How is this possible, isn't it destroyed by bombing? Is it a fake? Shaw, where did you get that? ”

"I can't give away the exact source, but I got information about the seller from Sotheby, so I went to the door and bought it for 100,000 euros. Now I need you to give me a closer look. ”

"Xiao, this thing is not easy to operate."

"I know, but I will never disclose the seller's information, and I hope that you and your appraiser will not reveal the existence of this oil painting, let alone disclose that I have anything to do with this oil painting."

"Xiao, I have only been in charge of the oil painting department for half a year, and in the oil painting appraisal department, there are only two people who I really trust, and I can transfer them, but I don't know if they can identify Courbet's oil paintings."

"Okay, then you can transfer them over, I trust you, but the two of them have to sign a non-disclosure agreement."

"No problem."

"Leonard, I really want you to keep this a secret, because when I went, I saw that there were other paintings in his hand, and I didn't want them to be leaked, and I wanted to buy other paintings."

"Don't worry, I know."

"As long as you can keep it a secret, you will definitely have benefits in the future."

Leonard made a phone call, came over and said:

"They can get there in the afternoon, but they can't do machine identification of such oil paintings."

"It's okay, let Pierre have a headache about this."

"Then you have to be careful what he says."

"Don't worry, I have a way to keep him from talking nonsense."

Xiao Yifei said that there was a way, but in fact, he also knew in his heart that he couldn't pin his hopes on the character of that old bastard.

In the afternoon, two expert experts from Nagau went to Paris, signed a confidentiality agreement, and saw the painting.

"Courbet?"

"The Quarryman?"

The two of them first exclaimed in surprise, and then said in unison:

"How is this possible, isn't it ruined?"

After waiting for a second, he said in unison:

"It's a fake, isn't it?"

Leonard smiled bitterly and said:

"Whether it's a fake or not, it's up to you to identify."

The two of them immediately leaned in, their faces pressed against the canvas, so close that they could lick the painting with their tongues out. The two experts looked at it very carefully, and after thoroughly "licking" the canvas, the two looked at each other, shook their heads, and put their heads on the canvas again.

Finally, more than an hour later, the two experts reached their chairs, their faces full of hell.

Leonard couldn't wait to ask:

"How? What are the results of your identification? ”

An expert thought for a long time and said:

"No, I still have to see."

Hey, isn't that a waste of expression?

Another expert shook his head:

"It's hard to say, anyway, I don't see anything fake. The overall style, the details, and even the brushstrokes are very similar to Courbet, and if we hadn't known that The Quarryman had been destroyed in World War II, we would have thought it was the real thing. ”

Another expert leaned in and scanned the painting, and said in an uncertain tone:

"Maybe this is the real thing."

"How is it possible, it has been destroyed in the war, this is just a very, very similar fake."

The expert who saw the truth retorted in a weak tone:

"Maybe it was a forgery that was destroyed in the war? Anyway, if it's ruined, no one will know if it's true or not? ”

In this way, the expert who saw the fake couldn't say:

"That seems to work if you want to say that."

"How else can you explain it, where can you tell if it's fake?"

"I can't see it."

Leonard waited for the two of them to say for a long time without a conclusion, so he could only ask directly:

"Are you sure it's the real thing or a fake?"

After thinking for a moment, the two said:

"There is no conclusion, we can only say that there is no place for fraud."

The German's art of speaking is not bad: I can't find any fakes, but I don't say it's genuine.

"However, we can take a small sample and bring it back to the lab for laboratory testing to see if the pigment composition, canvas fibers, etc. are up to date."

"This painting can't be seen."

The two men apparently also knew the consequences of leaking the painting, plus the non-disclosure agreement:

"We know that we're going to take samples in the corners and we're going to do our own experiments."

"Well, when will the conclusion be given?"

"We'll leave for Stuttgart right away, do the experiment overnight, and come to a conclusion at about 5 a.m."

"Alright, you can go."

The two experts rushed back to Stuttgart as soon as they took the samples, and Xiao Yifei also had to prepare to make sure that the old man Pierre would not talk nonsense.

Xiao Yifei didn't think of the easiest way, which was to slaughter the old man. But this old man is a little famous, and if he is slaughtered before buying the beast head, the follow-up of the two beast heads will be very complicated and easy to get rid of. If you kill him after you buy it, but the money is paid, is it interesting to kill him again? And let Xiao Yifei end a person's life so easily, he still hesitated. He plans to see if his method works, and if it doesn't, he will talk about killing him.

After enjoying a meal at the newly opened Eiffel Tower 58 restaurant, Xiao Yifei took a duck boat on the Seine River to enjoy the night view like ordinary tourists. Wait until more than 11 p.m. Xiao Yifei turned a corner and drove into an underground parking lot, which was home to a gun shop and its shooting range was also the underground training range of the Paris highway police.

The French are very romantic, absolutely no one is at work at this time, and there is no one in the parking lot. Xiao Yifei used an electric excavator to open the door of the gun shop extremely rudely, grabbed a few pistols and a bunch of bullets, saw that there was a shotgun next to him, took one in his hand, and left the gun shop in less than 50 seconds.

Xiao Yifei took the excavator back, pulled out a motorcycle, slammed the accelerator, and drove out of the parking lot. After three turns and two turns, I took the motorcycle back to a park, ran around in a taxi, threw out the car at the beginning, and returned to the hotel slowly.