Because of this unexpected incident, Yang Jing and Guo Xiaoxiang's original idea of submitting these three paintings to Sotheby's London Autumn Auction has faded a lot.
Although in the eyes of outsiders these three paintings seemed to be bought by Yang Jing from a flea market, being suddenly invited to the police station for investigation still made Yang Jing somewhat upset.
He had always been a good kid since he was a child, how could he have experienced such a thing? Although Sheriff Holmes was very nice to Yang Jing, this incident still stimulated Yang Jing to some extent.
Through this incident, Yang Jing finally understood what his grandfather and father had always said - one should be low-key and not show off one's wealth!
With the status of the three sketches, Sotheby's is absolutely willing to push these three paintings to the London Autumn Auction as long as Yang Jing is willing. Now even Sotheby's or Christie's find it difficult to get Picasso's works to auction. Now that three Picasso works suddenly appeared here, even if they were just sketches, it would still greatly promote the reputation of their auction.
But unfortunately, after this incident, Yang Jing said he refused to be auctioned no matter what, which made Sotheby's staff very depressed.
But not putting the paintings up for auction does not mean that they cannot be sold. Under the organization of Professor Wilson, on the morning of the last Saturday of September, four big men with great style and many bodyguards came to Professor Wilson's villa on the outskirts of the small town of Egham.
These four people who look extraordinary are the guests invited by Professor Wilson. The three Picasso sketches in Yang Jing's hand will be bought by one of these four people.
These four people don’t look very old, and the oldest one is probably only in his forties.
But I felt relieved after thinking about it. After all, this was just a sketch by Picasso. If there were an oil painting by Picasso, it would probably be some old man.
After the introduction, Yang Jing finally knew the identities of these four people. They were indeed not ordinary people.
The middle-aged woman who looks the most imposing is from the Ortega family of Spain. Her name is Marta Ortega Perez.
The man wearing a black casual suit is François Luton from the French Luton family.
The man in the white casual suit is a second-generation British resident named William Thornton.
The last person who looks the youngest is also from the UK and his name is Alex Butt.
After they got to know each other, Yang Jing, the owner of the painting, had nothing to do, and the next thing to do was mainly Professor Wilson.
The four people invited by Professor Wilson today are here to bid for these three sketches. In this process, Professor Wilson will act as the auctioneer. Of course, 2% of the final transaction price will be used as Professor Wilson's reward, and it is also the reward for Professor Wilson to provide the venue for this bidding event.
Yang Jing and Guo Xiaoxiang were both foreigners. In a place like London, it was impossible for them to invite people with enough strength to bid for the three paintings. Moreover, this kind of private bidding also required a good place to hold it. Therefore, after Yang Jing and Guo Xiaoxiang discussed it, they found Professor Wilson again.
In this country, the only person Yang Jing and Guo Xiaoxiang could trust was Professor Wilson. Especially Guo Xiaoxiang, he was Professor Wilson's graduate student, and the old professor was usually very good to Fatty.
Of course, it was impossible to ask Professor Wilson to help for free. Foreigners were indifferent to favors, but Professor Wilson did not make things difficult for Yang Jing and Guo Xiaoxiang, and only asked for 2% of the transaction price as compensation.
From the appraisal of the three paintings to the help in finding a lawyer, the final bidding was organized by Professor Wilson himself. The fee of 2% of the transaction price was really not much, so Yang Jing agreed very readily.
Then there was today's bidding.
Yang Jing and Fatty went to the next room consciously. There was a window between that room and the living room, so Yang Jing and Fatty could see the entire bidding process from that room.
The fat man lowered his head and fiddled with his phone, while Professor Wilson began to explain the three paintings to the four customers.
Although this more private bidding process is not as cumbersome as a formal auction, necessary procedures still have to be followed, such as proving to the client the authenticity of the three paintings, which is also what the client cares about most.
"Ladies and gentlemen, this is the appraisal result of these three paintings issued by me, together with experts from the British Museum and the Picasso Museum in Barcelona. This result is true and valid and protected by law, so you don't have to worry about the identity of these three paintings. They are indeed from Mr. Picasso's hand. In addition, it is still the old rule that bank transfers and checks are not accepted for this bidding, only cash..."
Professor Wilson must have often participated in auctions or similar private biddings, so he was very familiar with hosting this bidding. After explaining the rules and necessary things as usual, the real bidding began.
This kind of private bidding is not as strict as the requirements of a regular auction. Usually, several customers who are interested in the work get together, and then the host gives a reserve price. These customers will privately give the host their psychological price, and finally the customer with the highest bid will be selected from these bids to finally win the work.
This kind of private bidding is very popular in Europe and the United States. On the one hand, this method can completely avoid taxes as long as it is handled well. Another reason is that it can protect the privacy of customers very well. Therefore, many wealthy people in Europe like this way of transaction.
After Professor Wilson introduced the three sketches, the next time was for the four customers to make their bids. This process took some time, after all, it involved bids of hundreds of thousands or even millions of pounds, and these wealthy customers also needed to consider carefully.
Because these three paintings were sketches that had never appeared in the records, and because they were mid-range works among Picasso's sketches in terms of both size and artistic quality, Professor Wilson offered a price of £600,000 for each of the three works.
Of course, these three paintings must be bought together. You can't buy just one of them. If you want them, you must buy all three.
The price offered by Professor Wilson is actually not high. Considering the size and artistic quality of the three paintings, if the three paintings were auctioned together, the starting price would not be less than three million pounds.
That's how much Picasso's works are worth today.
However, you need to pay a handling fee for auctioning, and more importantly, if the auction is finally successful, you will need to pay heavy taxes!
If this private bidding is handled properly, Yang Jing can completely avoid paying the 40% personal income tax to the British government.
Therefore, the starting price for this kind of private bidding is set relatively low.
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