"Can you do without exclusivity?"

Professor Sakai eliminated the barbecue on the plate in three bites, threw the skewers aside, and looked at the agent who came over for a few seconds before asking slowly.

"It's not interesting to say that, of course. Professor Sakai, 50 million dollars, any gallery that gives such a big contract will ask for an exclusive agent. ”

Hanks smirked.

Exclusive agency means that the contracted artist can only work with one of their galleries for the duration of the contract.

Whether it is for sale, exhibition or auction, it is through the channels of Mars Gallery.

This can be called their leading artist.

Otherwise, while they are crazy about marketing for Uncle Sakai, people will turn around and sell paintings through other galleries, or even directly bypass the gallery to contact the auction house.

Isn't Mars Gallery an idiot for your wife to hook up with a gym coach outside with your hard-earned salary?

"Five or five million dollars in four years is already very sincere."

Hanks really wanted to sign this great artist, whose fat was ten times more expensive than the same weight of gold.

The art business, as a matter of course, has always been a market for galleries.

There are more art students who dream of being artists, and there are also vampire contracts that people are willing to sign.

But the more high-end the field, the more important the voice of the artist himself becomes, and it becomes a gallery rushing to ask for artists.

A painting of 500,000 US dollars is sold for millions of dollars, and one of the fine works may earn millions of dollars for a single painting.

In order to prevent competitors from poaching, liquidated damages for internationally renowned artists can often reach nine figures.

At present, among the first-line painters in the industry who are in the golden period of high production, there are only a few people whose contracts are close to the end.

Uncle Sakai will end his 17-year partnership with Daejeon Gallery in September, and may be the only well-known artist who has not yet been announced to sign a contract.

Hunters from various galleries are frantically pounced on the gallery to express their intention to negotiate, and it is said that the most promising is the Komatsu Gallery in Osaka.

Sakai Issei was not in a hurry, and even the studio's replies to the e-mails of various gallerists were very formulaic and perfunctory.

After Hanks Mars flew to Dongying, he didn't even see the other party in person.

He inquired that Professor Sakai liked to go to this small barbecue restaurant at night for supper.

In order to negotiate this deal, Hanks also went ruthless, resting in the hotel during the day and squatting in the 24-hour Starbucks in front of the barbecue restaurant at night.

After squatting for more than half a week, I finally caught the chubby figure of Professor Issei Sakai in my sight.

"Boss, have a bottle of sake, I want the best." Hanks waved at the chef.

They sit in a secluded corner of the barbecue bar.

There are no customers in this shop except for Chef Ohtani, and the security conditions in the neighborhood seem to be good.

Hanks asked the chef to fetch the wine, and after looking around, he took out a delicate self-winding box from his handbag.

He put on three layers of clean napkins and pushed them down the black countertop.

"Mars Gallery has a collaboration with Richard Miller, and this watch is a small welcome gift from Mr. Mars III, not a tribute."

The box is printed with the logo of Richard Mille, an art-quality watchmaker known for producing top-of-the-line ultra-thin mechanical watches.

In the specialty store, such a watch alone starts at $150,000.

Of course, the Mars Gallery got this watch for free.

Luxury companies and watchmakers are the traditional sponsors of galleries and galleries.

Hanks hopes to get closer to each other with this luxury watch.

Except for the watch that is called a man's cosmetics, he doesn't know what to give Uncle Sakai.

Learning to curry favor with big artists is almost a career basic skill for hunter agents.

Those who took drugs together had a heart attack, played with models who dyed flowers and willows, and went to climb the snowy mountains together and broke their legs...... Tragedies like this are not uncommon news.

The main thing is that Uncle Sakai's hobby is too down-to-earth.

Those who like antique cars, those who like beautiful women, those who like beautiful men, those who like yachts, those who like to go lion hunting in Africa...... Well, forget it, a few decades ago, artist hunting was an elegant hobby, and now it is easy to passively protect the organization.

Anyway, these requirements are easy to do,

Even if you want to go to the sky, as long as you can bring enough benefits to the gallery, it may not be impossible to make a seven-day tour of the International Space Station.

But like to eat...... Even if Hanks has the courage to sacrifice his life to accompany a gentleman, he can only accompany him to chew two skewers of roasted garlic vigorously.

Still in this kind of cheap little restaurant, Hanks looked at the price list, and he was not even interested in having a treat.

"It doesn't have to be."

Uncle Sakai was used to seeing the agent's overtures, and he didn't even mean to open the watch box, he shook the $500 Apple Watch on his wrist: "I'm used to wearing this, and my wife wants to check my exercise records regularly." ”

At that moment, the mobile phone on the bar suddenly rang.

Professor Sakai saw the phone number above.

The fat on the fourth layer of the uncle's chin, who was originally light and breezy, trembled obviously.

He gestured to both Master Ohtani and Hanks in silence.

I waited for a little more than ten seconds before carefully picking up the phone.

"Ichisei? Recently, have you controlled your diet and rest, and insisted on exercising? Mrs. Sakai opened her mouth on the phone and dug a hole for her husband by the way.

"Uh-huh, honey, I did a rowing machine for half an hour before I went to bed, and I ran three kilometers on an elliptical machine. I went to bed on time at nine o'clock, and I woke up when I received a call from you. ”

Uncle Sakai seems to have just opened a room with Xiao San, and he met his wife who caught him.

He looked at the roast on the tray, swallowed, and made up lies in horror.

He's not a very electronic software savvy and doesn't know the power of Apple's location sharing, known as "housewife's spyware."

It's just that over the years, I always feel that my wife's phone call to check the sleep is elusive.

On the other side of Yangon, Mrs. Sakai, who had already returned to the hotel, sneered a few times in her heart.

But she didn't expose her husband's nonsense, but said in a very gentle tone: "Well, my Byron is the best." I'm sure you'll be surprised when I return to Tokyo with Katsuko and Katsuko in the summer, right? ”

Sakai Kazunari swallowed hard.

Mrs. Sakai is always superior to outsiders and domineering.

But she has always been gentle with her husband after marriage.

Sometimes, Uncle Sakai would rather his wife yell at him on the phone than encourage himself in such a tone full of expectations.

This made Uncle Sakai unhappy when he ate meat, as if he was some kind of negative man.

Whenever the other party called him "my Byron" in a sweet tone, it always made his little heart flutter and flutter, and the fat on his body was turbulent.

Back then,

When he was studying in Spain, he was told by a beautiful rich daughter that he had Byron's sad and emotional eyes.

Before Uncle Sakai received his first contract from OFA, his career development was not very smooth.

At that time, critics were often criticized for the lack of character in the picture, but the second Ingre, and the market response was also very average.

The junior was always in his ear, and said in such a tone of expectation: "My Byron is the best, don't care about the stupid words of those bullshit critics, you are not the second Ingres, you are the first great artist Kazunari Sakai." ”

Kazunari Sakai, a great artist, is still very moved when he thinks back on this past.

Although he always felt that he had the so-called "sad and emotional eyes like Byron", it was actually because he had not eaten too much back then.

But the eyes are still red.

The private lives of fellow artists in many circles are very chaotic.

Because there are too many models and beauties around, it is too easy to get.

Marriage and divorce are like legal holidays, and they are itchy when they come once a year.

There are countless couples who have restricted-level parties together, or simply announce to the outside world that they have an "open relationship".

Those who can hold on to a marriage for four or five years can be regarded as a model couple, but Uncle Sakai has a very good relationship with his wife, and he has not even made a mistake of being sorry for his wife.

Women with good skins are everywhere, and the elementary school sister who can care about his mother-in-law and mother is just this one.

"220 pounds? The doctor said that I was prone to obesity and that it was difficult to lose weight...... "Uncle Sakai still wants to struggle again."

"I believe in you, you can do it."

"225 pounds?"

"220 pounds, and the blood lipids can't exceed the standard, I've been working out to keep in shape. Katsuko and Tsunachang are both older, and I thought about waiting for me to go back, and we will work hard to have another child, how about it? ”

"Okay."

Uncle Sakai gritted his teeth and wondered if he should go for a liposuction in private.

"You never let me down."

"Honey, what's the matter with calling me so late?" Uncle Sakai saw that his wife was finally satisfied, so he hurriedly changed the topic to prevent the other party from adding requirements such as losing fatty liver.

"Hmph, I want to talk to you about my daughter."

"Katsuko?"

"Yes, she's not with me right now." Mrs. Sakai said.

"It's so late, what's wrong with her, what's going on!" Uncle Sakai stood up from the bar with a slurp, looking a little nervous.

"Your daughter is a big girl, now go and paint with our little artist Gu Weijing, maybe now the flowers are under the moon, and the atmosphere is just right."

Mrs. Sakai teased.

"Oh, it's okay."

Hearing that his daughter was unharmed, Kazunari Sakai visibly relaxed, sat back in his chair, and took a sip of sake from his glass.

"What's the point, oh, okay?"

Mrs. Sakai's tone was unpleasantly raised: "Katsuko ran out on a date with a boy at this point, and your reaction turned out to be 'Oh, okay?'" 'Is there such a father as you?' ”

Sakai Issei really likes Gu Weijing,

Talented, hardworking, and calm.

He himself is from an ordinary family, and he doesn't care so much about what he is doing, so it's a big deal that he leaves enough money for his daughter and son-in-law.

As long as the character is good and the character is good, nothing else.

Kazunari Sakai even always thought it was quite interesting.

Women are strange creatures.

The mentality of falling in love with himself and becoming a mother is really very different, his wife fell in love with himself who was still penniless, but when she fell in love with her baby daughter and a poor boy, she began to pick her nose and eyes.

Of course

Uncle Sakai didn't have the courage to point out his wife's double standard.

He immediately obediently changed his words in the tone of his wife: "What a bastard! Katsuko is such an obedient child, he has taken it badly, and the next time we meet, I must clean up that little Wang Ba-"

Uncle Sakai scolded twice.

He was still a little worried about whether his wife had beaten the mandarin ducks, so he tentatively persuaded him: "-But, dear." The child has also grown up, and we should also give Shengzi a certain amount of personal space, Gu Weijing is actually a good child, and it is not easy to deal with this matter too roughly. You say, don't you? ”

There was no response on the other end of the phone.

Uncle Sakai's heart slowly sank.

People who study art are very sensitive to emotions. Love is such a thing, win-win or lose-lose, many times, it is not handled well, and one injury is to hurt two children.

"Puff ......"

Mrs. Sakai on the other end of the phone suddenly laughed, and she asked in a playful tone, "Ichisei, you are so sure that I have to be a villain?" ”

"Huh? Of course not. It's just that I thought you really wanted to match Katsuko and the Komatsu family. ”

Uncle Sakai realizes that things may not be the same as he imagined.

"Yes. I do think so, as a gallerist's laid-back and elegant Mrs. Kuo, she should not suffer anything for the rest of her life. ”

Mrs. Sakai said lightly, "Of course, my mother hopes to give Katsuko a better choice. But it's a pity that our daughter Shengzi's heart was taken away by that Gu boy, what can I do. I'm not trying to sell my daughter. Komatsu himself is not angry, and I can still force Katsuko to marry him. ”

"If you can't manage it, you don't care. Anyway, she chose a man, not me, and I found it myself. ”

"That's right."

Uncle Sakai nodded vigorously and patted his belly with a crackling sound.

"You and President Komatsu won't have any problems there." Mrs. Sakai asked.

"President Komatsu, heh, it's going to be fine."

Sakai Kazunari shook his head: "Don't say that I haven't signed Komatsu Gallery yet, even if I do, it's still what I should do, at most it's just a little embarrassing." A big business of tens of millions of dollars will not change anything because of the children's affairs. ”

"Besides. Chairman Komatsu is indeed very powerful, but to give me a look, he doesn't have the ability. Sakai shook his head disdainfully.

The art world is afraid of offending the predecessors.

The bigwigs suppress the juniors and make you stumble, just a matter of one sentence.

But the artist who has reached his point, Uncle Sakai is himself a senior gatekeeper, and he is not very willing to offend Chairman Komatsu, but he is not afraid of him.

"That's the best, I think so." Mrs. Sakai was visibly relieved, and her tone was pleasant, as if she wanted to share some new discoveries with her husband, "Tell you a secret." Maybe my daughter has inherited my good eye. ”

(End of chapter)