"The human race has one really effective weapon,and that is laughter." ）”

Ole von Kruger gracefully put the last piece of pigeon thyme dumplings on the plate into his mouth and chewed slowly, "This is the sentence I wrote on the blackboard with chalk when I was teaching the first class of business negotiation at the University of Pennsylvania. I heard that it seems that Mark Twain said it. ”

"He said that a smile is a great weapon to let people relax."

Ole took a sip of his wine and smiled an equally awesome smile, "Yang, do you know what's best about it?" ”

"Don't want money?"

Lao Yang hung up the phone, sat opposite the big horse golden knife, scratched his chin casually, and responded with Yang's stingy nature.

"The answer is Free, wow, right on the bull's-eye."

"Has anyone ever told you that you can be a banker and you will have a good future?" Ole said with amazement, "I rarely see such a layered smile on a person's face, and to tell you the truth, I am a little flustered when I smile." ”

"When I saw you answer the phone just now, I was thinking in my head about the person who could make Master Cao Xuan's most trusted personal assistant smile like this. Either he is very important to you, or his status is very noble, Yang, it is convenient to reveal what kind of situation it is. Ole asked curiously.

"Just a funny lad."

Lao Yang replied vaguely, pulling the corners of his mouth hard, "Mr. Kruger, I think I smile quite brightly at you." ”

He gritted his teeth at the unopened champagne bottle in the barrel next to him, and watched his twisted smile ripple across the honey-colored glass for a few seconds.

Lao Yang nodded and commented to himself: "It's really bright, no matter how smiling you are, you're going to cramp." ”

"Just call me Ole."

"That's different. Yang, from the time we sat on either side of the table, you never got completely sincere. Ole was tired of the other party's soft grinding and hard bubbles, and the oil and salt did not enter.

His patience finally ran out.

"If it weren't for the fact that what you just said should be Chinese, I can't help but guess that it would be an olive branch thrown by the Yelena family on the phone."

Ole shrugged, he was ready to change his approach and get straight to the point. "After all, this time and occasion are very special, and we should both be very hopeful that we can talk about a result, right?"

"It was Dom Pérignon Champagne in 1988. Very good vintage, very good wine. ”

Ole saw Lao Yang's expression staring at the letters on the bottle with interest in a daze, and said casually: "When I was at the coming-of-age ceremony, my father specially gave me a batch. You know, he was generally stingy in his life, the traditional Prussian banker in the standard and stereotyped way. Once, at Christmas, we gave each of our children a $50 apple gift voucher. And such a bottle of wine costs $15,000. ”

"It's so expensive, robbery." Lao Yang stared at the wine bottle on the table and sniffled vigorously.

Ole took the bottle from the champagne barrel on one side and placed it on the table, "It's expensive, it's born for big scenes." I brought it today, which means I really want to be able to get rid of it. I've always come with a lot of sincerity, but Yang, with all due respect, I haven't felt enough respect in you. ”

"You guy, why are you spewing blood, it's not authentic. I answered a call from you, and I hurriedly came to eat, and I didn't even send Cao Lao over to the hotel, which is sincere enough. ”

Lao Yang shouted dissatisfiedly, and his aggrieved little expression seemed to have been wrongly paid by the blonde negative man in front of him.

"$330 million, 10% stake."

Ole lost the smile on his face either.

He looked directly into the eyes of Cao Xuan's assistant opposite, supported the table with both hands, and leaned forward, hoping to put pressure on the other party to negotiate. "This kind of condition is not respectful and sincere at all."

"$330 million, do you know how much it is? This can buy the street directly under our feet. No painter has ever taken a signing fee of this figure, from the Stone Age to the present day, not yet, not by Leonardo da Vinci, not by Picasso. This is an outrageous number. Mr. Cao Xuan's appetite is too big. ”

Oil Painting magazine will have big news to announce tomorrow.

They would like to announce by the way that Cao Xuan will be included in the future development plan of the magazine, at least the two sides have reached a preliminary cooperation intention.

Yes.

Not a gallery.

It's a magazine, an art fund signing one of the most important painters in the world, and it's almost an earth-shattering form of collaboration.

But.

If the news is not explosive enough, how can it light a fire at the bottom of the "Oil Painting" magazine, which has already taken off, and attract the attention of the media all over the world.

What they were supposed to do was to do something at the level of the Onslaught and make money at the level of the Onslaught.

I thought it was a win-win situation.

As a result, the negotiation during this period was not smooth.

The other party did not refuse, and asked for hundreds of millions of dollars in signing fees, plus 10% of the magazine's shares.

Although such a big deal, there must be many details of cooperation that need to be negotiated and polished by the brokerage teams on both sides. But these two main conditions alone, if Cao Xuan didn't let go, "Oil Painting" would already feel that there was no need for in-depth negotiations.

This is also really daring to speak.

The signing fee alone is almost equal to the total price of all the works in Kusama's career combined.

Ole was mad when he saw this condition.

After such a long and unnutritious conversation, Ole felt that he hadn't put the mustard at hand on the face of this Yang assistant, which was quite a good self-cultivation.

However, Lao Yang was still smiling on his face.

The kind of warm, brilliant, tooth-baring leaves, a smile that makes people punch it.

He's the kind of guy who would show exaggerated amazement in the face of a bottle of champagne.

When it comes to business negotiations, chewing on the hundreds of millions of dollars in his mouth, he is like understating in the face of the happy beans of the landlord.

It's a rare spectacle.

That's because Leonardo da Vinci didn't live to this day, and Picasso was just in time for the art market to boom today, not that they weren't worth the money. Otherwise, if you want to sign Picasso today, we don't open your mouth if you don't have a billion. It's only $330 million, and a banker like Mr. Kruger has a little sand in his fingertips. Your old private bank is easily tens of billions, hundreds of billions of dollars in savings. ”

Lao Yang picked the vegetable leaves between his teeth with a toothpick and commented: "It's sprinkled with water." ”

"The money saved is the money saved, the money of the Kruger family is the money of the Kruger family, and the money of the oil painting magazine is the money of the oil painting magazine, and the three are not the same thing at all."

Ole was too lazy to educate this guy about finance, and his tone was irritable.

"Even if Warren Buffett is here, believe me, $300 million is not something that can be easily peeked through the fingernails. If Mr. Cao has such a big appetite, it would be better to open three billion dollars, and he can even ask for the entire earth, which is impossible to negotiate anyway. He said sarcastically.

"You can't give it to the earth, and Cao Lao can't take three billion dollars."

"But 300 million is different, we all know in our hearts that it is possible, how much is this money? Although few people in the circle can get such a contract, in fact, Hirst can already sell this number in two auctions, and that was 20 years ago. Andy Warhol, Picasso, it's all a matter of two or three paintings. ”

"You long for Mr. Cao to be your savior and cash cow. And this money can only buy even half of the face of "Savior". It's really a conscience. Lao Yang is still the same lazy look.

"It's just win-win cooperation, if we don't choose Cao Xuan, we also have other people to replace him, which is his loss. "Oil Painting" does not need any savior, and no one can be a savior for "Oil Painting", every investor in his right mind knows that the rise of oil painting is unstoppable. ”

Ole's tone was cold: "On the contrary, the Elena family is a broken ship that has patched up and leaked everywhere. Reddit even voted for Cousin Anna and Princess Leonor, who is worse of the two. I'm willing to vote for Anna, and although Princess Leonor is barely my distant cousin by blood, I'm still theoretically one of the top 100 royal heirs in Spain. ”

Princess Leonor is the next queen of Spain, but the reason why she is more concerned on the Internet is that compared with relatives such as the Netherlands, Britain, Norway, and Sweden, Spain should be regarded as the most stormy European constitutional monarchy.

It's hard to wait until this princess grows up.

Suddenly, I found that the parliament began to turn its head to republic, and the throne of the family was directly gone.

The Spanish royal family itself is already objectively one of the poorest and least powerful royal families in the whole of Europe, and even if the throne is gone, it is more of an honorary identity. And the royal family has gone through several more thrilling crisis moments in the past 12 years.

And Anna seems to have lost the "crown" of "Oil Painting" that has been passed down from generation to generation in the family, and it has become a foregone conclusion to lose their right to speak in the field of art and the transcendent status created by their ancestors.

Even the board seat was in her hands, and it was lost.

"Believe me, even so, I don't think the Yelena family has the ability to come up with the same money to sign Mr. Cao. Even if you have the money, you don't have to do it. ”

"Oil Painting magazine can have a chemical reaction with Cao Xuan's IP to create mutually beneficial value. What did Cousin Anna do when she signed Cao Xuan, she couldn't pull Mr. Cao to create a magazine called "Chinese Painting". I can't think of enough profit points. ”

Oleti Lao Yang analyzed the current situation in simple terms, sorted out the reality, and hoped that they could recognize the current situation.

"That's right. That's why I'm here to meet you first. ”

Lao Yang nodded vigorously, and said with a look of "Come on, young man, I am very optimistic about you", "I will wait until I finish eating before I go to make an appointment with Miss Yelena's representative for afternoon tea, I attach great importance to it." ”

"The Yelena family is also in contact with Cao Lao? They saw Cao Lao. Ole was stunned for a moment.

"This is an unclear matter, such a fragrant dumpling as Old Man Cao, who doesn't want to try to talk about it. Don't worry, Cao Lao is concentrating on preparing for the annual meeting, he is tired for the past two days and doesn't want to see people. You can't see it, and neither can Miss Elena. You're talking to me, Miss Elena's secretary Elliot, and you're talking to me. Several parties are negotiating between assistants, which is fair. ”

"If you, Mr. Kruger, had you nodded on behalf of Sir Brown, I would have pushed Miss Elena's invitation down on the spot. No, call now and announce that Elder Cao has reached a cooperation with you. ”

Lao Yang put his mobile phone on the dining table and patted his chest heroically to assure.

Ole was a little annoyed, and he wanted to shout that he was the director of the Kruger Bank's executive stake in the oil painting magazine.

It's an equal partnership with Sir Brown, but it's not an errand runner like the other party's assistant.

But the topic has reached the key point, and he can't care about it.

"$200 million, 2% of the shares, a few decimal points can be discussed later. This is a real floor price, and it is already an unprecedented price. If you think it's okay, we'll immediately connect with the rest of the details, and if it's fast, we can come up with the first version of the draft cooperation intention before the opening of the annual meeting. We will be able to announce this to the world the day after tomorrow. ”

"Look, Mr. Kruger, we're back to where we started. Our two sides have different perceptions of Cao Xuan's value, so the offer price is not on the same benchmark at all. ”

Lao Yang also slowly restrained the smile on his face.

"You said that Cao Xuan is not irreplaceable, but I think Old Man Cao is irreplaceable. Who can you invite to take Cao Xuan's place? Is it to sign Yayoi Kusama, or to push Damian Hirst back up? ”

"Why not?"

"Yang, Oil Painting magazine needs a landmark painter. He will also be a leader in the art world of the future. But there will always be only one leader, and "Oil Painting" only needs one, we hope that this candidate is Cao Xuan, but it doesn't have to be Cao Xuan. Ole said calmly.

"The price you ask for is enough to impress any living painter in the world. None of these painters' artistic status is lower than Cao Xuan's, or even higher, and I believe that their brokerage team must be very interested in getting in touch with us. Or rather, at this very moment, contacts are taking place all over the world—"

"Hehe, the status of art and the market price have always been two different things, I don't mean to disrespect these masters of Kusama Yayoi, but who of them can replace Cao Lao's position in the Dongxia art market?"

Lao Yang directly interrupted Ole's words.

"We're talking about the world's second-largest art market, a huge market in tens of billions of dollars a year."

[Thanks to the alliance leader of the big guy, the end of the year is too busy. I may have to take a leave of absence recently, I want to find a way to try my best to find time to add a change out, thank you again. But I really can't guarantee the specific time, so I don't dare to promise here, forgive me. 】

(End of chapter)