The scale of this charity auction is very large, and there are many people who come to participate in the auction, but fortunately, Downing has the status of a high-end customer of Citibank, otherwise it is really not eligible to participate temporarily.

After entering the auction hall, Downing and Hepburn separated, Hepburn had to go backstage to prepare for a dress-up, and he would start working in a while, while Downing walked into the VIP seat, sat down and looked at the auction catalog, it didn't matter, Downing's mind suddenly became extremely complicated.

Because there are several lots in this are from China, but the sources are all Europeans, to be precise, these treasures were snatched from China by the Eight-Nation Alliance, seeing this scene, Tang Ning's mood was very heavy, so he made up his mind that today can no longer hold the mentality of just looking at it, but to try to rescue as many national treasures as possible.

Soon, the auction officially began, the auctioneer named Johnson, is a very famous auctioneer, one of the white gloves in Los Angeles auctioneers, this is the highest honor in the auctioneer industry, it marks an auction to reach a 100% sell-through rate, no first-class auction, which shows how powerful his auction skills are.

Johnson is a performative auctioneer, and he is not in a hurry to auction after he comes to the stage, but tells a few jokes to everyone very casually, a bit of a talk show in later generations, in fact, his original intention is to ease the atmosphere in the venue, provoke the customers below to buy **, seeing that the atmosphere is almost mobilized, he said: "Okay, presumably friends are already in a hurry, you must be scolding me in your heart for delaying everyone's time, let's officially enter this auction!" ”

Then Johnson and a staff member, wearing white gloves, slowly opened a painting, and from the old rosewood shaft rod and yellowed rolled paper, it was definitely an ancient painting.

"Our first lot today is an oil painting, this is the work of Lang Shining, a court painter in mysterious China three hundred years ago, courtesy of the Frey family, let us first express our gratitude to Mr. Frey for his generosity!"

Hearing this sentence made Tang Ning feel very uncomfortable, this Frey he had known in later lives. This General Frey was the French supreme general when the "Eight-Nation Alliance" invaded Beijing in 1900, and the French army headquarters at that time was stationed in the Shouhuang Palace in Jingshan. Now his descendants are showing their generosity by using the stolen goods for charity. What a great irony!

He was originally Italian, born in Milan, and came to China as a monk of the Catholic Jesuit Society in 1715 (that is, the 54th year of the Kangxi reign of the Qing Dynasty). Immediately entered the palace into the Ruyi Pavilion, became a court painter, successively served as Kang Yongqian three dynasties, his works in the later generations of the price is extremely high.

While Downing was pondering, Johnson continued: "This is a portrait of an imperial concubine in ancient China, a collection of the softness and grace of oriental women, the name of this painting is "Bust of Chunhui Guifei", although this Lang Shining is not famous, but this painting is very characteristic and charming, I heard that the Qianlong Emperor after seeing this picture of the concubine. No one was allowed to watch it anymore, not even himself, only three times in his life! ”

"The starting price of this oil painting of "Bust of Chunhui Guifei" is 10,000 US dollars, and the price increase must not be less than 1,000 US dollars each time.

Although I don't know whether Johnson's rumor that Qianlong was willing to read it only three times in his life is true or not, he did succeed in arousing the interest of the majority of collectors, but now Lang Shining is not well-known in the United States at all (in fact, in later generations, it was only in China). Foreign collectors did not attach much importance to him), and his oil paintings were greatly improved in order to adapt to the aesthetics of the Chinese, so they did not meet the aesthetic standards of Europeans and Americans at that time, so no one bid.

Now Johnson is a little anxious. Once the auction fails, not only will there be no bonus commission, but it will also ruin his reputation as a white glove, so he racked his brains to use all kinds of methods to promote the painting, but no one cared, just when he was about to give up and announce the failure of the auction, Tang Ning raised the number plate in his hand high.

I saw Downing holding up a sign. Johnson breathed a sigh of relief in his heart, and shouted excitedly: "Mr. 12, Mr. 12 bid $10,000, oh, I didn't expect the charm of Chinese art to be so great, seeing that this gentleman is black-haired, could it be that he has Asian ancestry?" ”

Taking advantage of this, Johnson rambled for a while, and saw that some people in the audience were already a little impatient, so he smashed the hammer and said: "Congratulations, Mr. 12, you will get the concubine of the Chinese emperor!" After three hammers, the painting was delivered to Downing by Miss Manners, and naturally Downing also wrote a check for $10,000.

Those who can come to participate in the auction have been strictly investigated in advance to ensure that they do have enough strength, such as Downing is qualified as a high-end customer of Citibank, which means that his deposit in Citibank is not less than five million US dollars, and now it is a billionaire! (Well, given the mistakes made in the first chapter, I specifically checked the information this time, and in 1950 an ounce of gold was $35, and now it's about $1,300, so it's more than 30 times.) ）

The next few lots were not Chinese cultural relics, and the people present were all very fierce, so Tang Ning did not go to join in the fun, but took advantage of everyone's inattention, and secretly photographed an enamel snuff bottle and Jingdezhen pastel flower goblets again at a low price, which cost less than 50,000 US dollars in total, but Tang Ning dared to guarantee that these three things would be worth more than one million yuan in later generations, but he did not have the intention of making money by reselling antiques, just to protect the national treasure for the country.

After the intermission, as soon as Johnson came on stage, Downing's eyes lit up, well, of course, he didn't see Johnson's eyes shining, but he saw Audrey Hepburn standing behind Johnson holding a tray in her hand, even if she changed into a hostess outfit, Hepburn still looked so noble and beautiful, but Downing found that her eyes had been staring closely at the lot in the tray at this time, at first Downing didn't know what was going on, but when Johnson introduced, Downing immediately understood why Hepburn was so interested in this lot. (To be continued.) )

PS: You can guess what this lot will be!