"Anna?"

A young woman's voice came from the other end of the line.

"My best friend, Xiao Nizi actually remembered to call me so late. By the way, did I receive the cheese I sent for my birthday, the best product in our house, almost sugar-free. It's delicious with ham or cheese fondue, and if you can't eat it, you should store it in the fridge, oh, you should have a separate cellar there......"

Aurora had a little chatter.

As soon as Anna said hello and made her intentions, she heard a lot of talk like a bucket of water.

People who can study art at the best universities in Austria have good family conditions.

Aurora's family is also very wealthy, of course, it must not be compared to the Yelena family, but it is also the kind of wealth of a millionaire.

The gallery in Bern was her cousin's property.

Her father has a dairy farm of more than 100 acres in the Alps, producing the famous Emmental cheese in Switzerland.

When you go to school,

Aurora told Anna.

When she was in high school, she struggled for a long time before she chose between learning art and going to her uncle's gallery, or learning ranch management and going home to make handmade cheese.

"Thank you, I'll give you a thank you card, you should receive it in a few days."

Anna remembers the 93-kilogram round cheese she received on her birthday.

She listened with a gentle smile.

The dormitory building of WYN Academy of Fine Arts is like a separate three- or four-story villa, with separate dormitories allocated to each person, and everyone shares an open kitchen on the first floor.

A dorm is like a big family.

When she entered the school, Miss Elena was slightly younger than her classmates.

Aurora, the head of the dormitory, who has a round face and is slightly chubby, likes to wear skinny jeans and bucket boots like a cowgirl, is three grades higher than Anna and has the natural enthusiasm of growing up in a pasture under the Alps.

Aurora is one of the few senior sisters who can make Anna feel like a big sister, and she is a good friend who can be called her best friend when she was a student.

This year, the gallery at the other party's home was going to hold a spring academic seminar, so I couldn't attend Anna's birthday gift.

"Oh, by the way, you want to know which gallery's contract, what a strange request. Send me the contract in your mailbox. ”

Aurora remembered what was going on.

She didn't ask why, she just clicked on the file.

"I'll see, it's not Gagosian's contract, it's not Pace's template contract......"

Aurora muttered quietly on the phone.

"Can you be a little more detailed?" Anna raised her tone slightly.

"More detailed, well, certainly not our family's gallery either." Aurora smiled.

"Aurora, I'm serious." Anna was helpless.

"Sister Anna, your request itself is very weird, okay. There is such a thing as a contract, and it is not a fingerprint identification, but only based on experience. You shouldn't ask me about this thing, you should post it on Reddit and ask the Sherlock Holmes fandom group. ”

"I've interned at Gagosian and I've been on a contract with Pace, so I'm going to rule out both. It looks quite formal and detailed, not a template directly found on Google, but some small galleries will also hire professional legal counsel to write the contract. ”

Aurora in the microphone complained speechlessly.

"If you can't find it, forget it."

Anna had the intention of giving it a try.

She promised not to find out the identity of the other party, but ...... It's really itching.

"Alright, alright. Don't worry, I'll help you think about it. Anna, do you have any other information? Aurora asked.

"It should be a big gallery, maybe an intercontinental gallery." Anna said.

"The scope is much smaller, and the capital to be able to set up your own branch gallery across continents must be at least $100 million. When I was an intern, I read the report, and Gago's branch galleries in Tokyo, Rome, Paris, and London each cost more than $20 million a year. Those are the ones in the industry that can really be called Intercontinental Galleries. ”

"Gagosian and PACE have just been excluded, and it should not be Perrotin or Alberto, both galleries are very proud of their Parisian identity, and I heard that even all the legal texts are only available in French......"

On the phone,

Aurora tinkered for a few minutes before concluding: "I think if it's really a big Intercontinental gallery, it's probably one of the Saatchi Gallery, the Mars Gallery, the Tokyo Gallery, or the Standing Wood Gallery in New York." My judgment may not be right, you can also ask someone else. ”

Anna called up a notepad on her computer and wrote down the names of "Saatchi Gallery", "Mars Gallery", "Tokyo Gallery" and "Standing Wood Gallery in New York".

One of these four galleries?

She felt as if she had captured a corner of the mystery of the detective cat big sister.

"I'm just a small discovery in passing when I was studying the contract, and it's not a breach of promise." Anna comforted herself in her heart.

"Say hello to Auguste for me, your dog is super handsome, Rua give me a head of it."

Aurora yawned and hung up.

"I'm sleepy, my boyfriend is still waiting for me in bed. Come and play with me in the summer, you can't ski, I can teach you how to make cheese in the ranch, let you ride a snowmobile in the back seat, and dog sledding, it's fun. ”

"Wait a minute, I still have some things, remember Aurora, you went to North America to study law after graduation, you have a lawyer's license, right?"

"Strictly speaking, I have a master's degree in law. I did a one-year LLM degree, not a three- to five-year JD degree. ”

After finishing college in Austria, Aurora spent a few years in the United States.

Her cousin hopes that after graduation, Aurora will be able to come to the family's gallery in the future to take charge of administrative affairs. So in addition to her internship at Gagosian Gallery, Aurora also completed a law program at New York University.

In North America, there are often specialized law disciplines at the graduate level or above. There are two types of degrees, LLM and JD, with the main difference being that the latter can be directly practiced as a lawyer.

"Can I ask you some legal questions?" Anna asked.

"If it's about your huge fortune that I envy and hate, and in the spirit of being responsible for both of us, you'd better not ask me. But if it's about this contract, it's right to ask the old lady! ”

Aurora said with a smile.

Regular courses such as "maritime law" and "intellectual property law" are offered in any law school.

But New York is one of the centers of modern art, and it is also the international headquarters of large galleries such as Gagosian and Limu Gallery, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, one of several major art temples such as the Vatican, the Louvre, and the Met.

High-end art industries are gathered.

As a result, NYU is one of the few universities that offers a special elective course in the legal subdivision of Art and Antiques, Trading, and Insurance.

That's why Aurora went to study.

"This contract was sent to me by a sister, and she wanted to know if it didn't matter if she signed this contract and worked part-time outside to contribute to the publishing company. She feels that the agreement only seems to stipulate that it cannot cooperate with other galleries and auction companies. ”

"Does she really think so?"

Aurora smacked her lips: "This silly girl is really simple and cute." ”

"How?"

Anna lifted her chin slightly.

Aurora's day-to-day job is to handle this aspect of the gallery.

Miss Elena trusts the other party's professional judgment.

"Being a gallerist is exactly the same as herding. Our Simmental cows, from small to large, cow dung are supplied to the organic fertilizer factory, and the milk can be used as fresh milk and cheese, and when they are older, they can be used as meat and milk cattle to supply to the meat and poultry market, and the cowhide is kneaded and kneaded into furniture, and even the bones have to be made into cow bone meal to make money. ”

Senior Sister Aurora let out a cold smile belonging to a black-hearted capitalist: "How can there be any reason to let it secretly milk others?" ”

Anna didn't expect to get such feedback.

She didn't study law, and she was just worried that the detective cat wouldn't be able to go to the auction house in the future.

Now according to the meaning of the senior sister, there are still pitfalls in this seemingly ordinary contract.

This answer is unexpected and reasonable.

If the twists and turns in a business contract are so easy to understand, why do you need to study law?

In the past, the Elena family signed a long-term consulting contract with the law firm for 150,000 euros per year, dealing only with simple and formal matters, and professional legal advice was charged by the minute for an additional fee.

The legal team is asking for such a high price.

It couldn't be easier to let others unknowingly step on a pit or something.

"Can't you?" Anna asked curiously.

"It's dangerous, it depends on whether the gallery wants to bite a piece of meat off you."

Aurora snorted twice: "For example, the gallery agrees that during the contract period, it naturally enjoys full ownership of the works created by the artists on its behalf using the art resources of the gallery. ”

"This treaties seem normal, but what do you mean by 'using the gallery's art resources'?"

"I'm sorry, Sister Anna, but it's not just works drawn with pen and paper in the gallery that are called using the art resources of the gallery. For example, if our family holds an academic seminar for an artist on behalf of us, and his technique has improved after he participated, or he has a new creative inspiration, does this count as making use of the art resources of the gallery? ”

Aurora casually gave an example: "It can be complicated to judge whether to use the company's resources, and some of them are related to the company." In the early years of Silicon Valley, many programmers who secretly used the computers issued by the company to do private work at night to start their own businesses died miserably on similar terms. Art is more complicated. ”

“…… There is also this article, the commercial copyright and adaptation rights of the works created by the artist during the contract period belong to the gallery. If she's an illustrator. This is prone to disputes with publishers. And these articles, what must not create a work that violates the social image of the gallery balabala......"

Aurora casually scratched through the contract, grabbing a handful of problematic clauses.

"When a big artist signs a contract, he hires someone to draw up a contract. They never use the template contract prepared by the gallery, which is not idle and boring. ”

"That's right."

Anna nodded.

It is indeed a very wise choice to ask a professional for the detective cat yourself.

Otherwise, even Anna herself was not aware of the potential risks of these clauses.

"In short, gallerists are watching their painters very closely. There is no precedent for serious artists to sue for illustrations for secret publishing houses, just because this matter is relatively rare, and basically does not make a lot of money. The gallery doesn't want to be greedy for tens of thousands of dollars at most.

"If there is a KAWS, you can try to see if people will sue you or not."

"With these terms, winning is not necessarily, it is not difficult to tear a few pieces of flesh off her, and it is not difficult to force an out-of-court settlement."

"What a black heart."

Anna took a sip of her coffee and gave her own review.

"Of course, the gallery is for this kind of money. Do you think anyone is Hearst and qualified to negotiate terms with their own gallery? ”

Aurora smiled as sly as Grande: "If this kind of thing happens to the painter I signed, I can't squeeze money out of her, and the old lady herself looks down on herself." ”

"In short, sister, I can't look down on small money, and I can't run away with big money."

"So how do you prevent this from happening?" Anna was only concerned about this matter.

"It's better to just talk to the gallery...... What if you think he is good enough, or just let her sign our gallery? I don't want her illustration ownership, I believe Anna your vision, signing this kind of painter must not be a loss. ”

Aurora suggested.

Anna smiled.

It's a choice.

She can't recommend the detective cat to go to Gagosian, it's okay to recommend her to go to Aurora's gallery.

It's just that Aurora's gallery only belongs to the kind of urban independent gallery, with assets of several million Swiss francs, and the publicity resources it enjoys are not as good as Komatsu's gallery.

If Detective Cat Lady can really sign an Intercontinental Gallery.

Or the latter has a bigger stage and better exposure resources.

"If you want to completely construct the identity of an anonymous illustrator and not let the gallerist know about it, can you do it?" Anna asked.

"Well, I knew that Miss Elena didn't look down on our family's poor workshop." Aurora let out a fake sigh.

She wasn't curious about the illustrator's request.

Since 2010, anonymous illustrators have been a trendy thing.

The masses love gimmicks with a sense of mystery.

KAWS is not called his real name nor is it called KAWS, these four letters are the code name that this gentleman took for himself when he exploded on INS.

And the anonymous illustrators in the blockchain NFT virtual digital collection exchange are so many that they can't be counted at all.

"In that case, I'll figure it out for you."

——

Gu Weijing received an email from Mr. Sloth in his mailbox later.

[Detective Cat Lady:

I consulted with a professional based on your needs.

If you want to separate the virtual identity of the "detective cat" from the system of artists who sign up for the gallery, it is better to avoid future problems, and you need to clearly state the following terms in the contract.

"I hereby note that before I signed the contract, from March 6, 2023, I will hold the painting network account, virtual IP and surrounding intellectual property rights that I enjoy. At the same time, without borrowing the gallery's publicity channels, my anonymous works on the Internet in the future, as well as all commercial activities based on them, have nothing to do with the gallery, and all rights and responsibilities belong to the artist himself——"

In addition to the terms of this declaration, there are also some points and details that need to be paid attention to when signing a contract. I've sorted it all out for you, and I've made notes in the Word document in the appendix at the end of the email.

I know this may not align with your expectations that you don't want to attract extra attention from the gallery.

But sometimes there is no optimal solution to the things of life, and you can only choose the most advantageous option according to the situation. In order to avoid possible complications in the future, I strongly recommend that you include this treaty in your contract.

furthermore

A 15-year contract is too long, and I would suggest that you make concessions on the share and allowance in exchange for a larger margin on the contract.

Shorter contracts mean more options, and a contract of less than 10 years is a good choice.

I'm sure you have a talent that will blow the art world and collectors alike.

The first contract should be just a ladder for Detective Cat, not a lifelong one. If you talk about a short contract of about three years, it is not unacceptable to take only 10% or even 5% of the share in exchange for the resources of the big gallery.

Good luck signing your contract!

Your forever friend, Mr. Sloth]

[——If the negotiation process does not go well, I have a good personal friendship with a city gallery in Switzerland, and although it is not an intercontinental gallery, it should be willing to give you a contract that you like. This might be worth your consideration for Plan B. 】

"Sure enough, you can't sign it directly, or Mr. Sloth is reliable."

Gu Weijing read the email twice from beginning to end, and saw in the attachment that Mr. Sloth reminded him of all the noteworthy places in the contract.

He knew he was taking it for granted.

Gu Weijing took his mobile phone and sent a message of thanks to Mr. Sloth.

"Well, it looks like we'll have to talk to Hanks."

Although it was not quite what he imagined, it was definitely better to know where the pit was buried than to go straight to sign it stupidly.

"Should I make a request directly to the gallery and see if they can agree, or should I discuss it with Mrs. Sakai first?"

Gu Weijing pondered for a moment.

He felt he had a better idea.

There is a big thick leg with real hair thicker than his waist, waiting for him to hug it.

In the field of art, my biggest backer is not Mr. Sloth, nor Mrs. Sakai, but-

Mr. Cao Xuan.

(End of chapter)