Almighty painter

Chapter 1072 How to “kill” Gu Weijing like Anna did.

Buying this painting, "The Magic Flute," is just the beginning.

Ole sat at the table and assigned the next work targets to the heads of each department in the office. He drew targets for the assassins and pointed out lambs for the wolves.

He no longer needs to tearfully berate someone or threaten to fire them if they don't meet certain goals, nor does he need to gather everyone in a circle like an American football coach, with their arms around each other's shoulders, and shout "Fighting!"

Nothing is needed.

After everything that just happened, and after seeing the $2000 million check that Ole had paid out of his own pocket, even the most indifferent person would be instantly moved.

His determination and his will were clearly written on Mr. Kruger's face.

He was a bullfighter who used all his possessions to buy swords and armor, and finally signed a life-or-death pact before stepping onto the battlefield. He would never stop until he plunged the last sword hanging from his belt into the bull's body.

"at last."

"As I just said, I have a gift for everyone."

After assigning the last task, Ole walked over and pulled a heavy cardboard box out from under his desk.

"Our Oil Painting magazine seems to have a strange tradition—the most successful directors, who are clearly professionals in the art industry, all seem to have a science fiction fascination in their hearts. Ms. Sarah has a picture of the solar system taken by the Voyager probe on her desk. And Anna Elena always has a novel called The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy on her desk, which was a gift from her former editor when she joined the company."

"but me."

Mr. Kruger Jr. said, "I am a person who has great respect for tradition."

“It never hurts to learn how successful people do things. So, I’ve prepared the same gift for everyone.”

Ole began distributing the books from the cardboard box to everyone in the office.

They weren't precious art collections or custom-made pens; they were actually hardcover books.

The head of the purchasing department accepted the gift, turned the book cover, and saw a vast starry sky depicted on the front, with its title and author's name at the very center.

Galaxy Empire I

"By Isaac Asimov"

The middle-aged man wasn't a science fiction fan, but he still recognized the book. After all, it was so famous. It was the first book in Isaac Asimov's masterpiece "Foundation," the best-selling science fiction book of all time, considered the bible of science fiction.

This novel describes how, 12,000 years after the Galactic Empire was unified, a psychohistorian named Hari Seldon, through complex mathematical calculations, foretold, almost like a prophetic apocalypse, that the mighty Galactic Empire was heading towards its demise.

Ole gave each of his colleagues a copy of "The Foundation," tossing the cardboard box aside and taking a copy out of it himself.

He examined the cover of the book.

He likes this book.

He knew Anna Elena would also like this book. He knew that if Anna Elena were still by his side, if his cousin were in his position today, she would definitely choose this book.

She would hand this book to me, just like the pebble that was given to me in the stream when I was a child.

The interstellar photograph pasted on Sarah's desk represented a grand perspective of the constant workings of the universe, where existence is not determined by the reign of Yao or the demise of Jie.

The book "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy," which Anna kept in her drawer, symbolizes that for art critics, sometimes it's necessary to ask themselves, "What is the problem?"

This illustrates that sometimes, finding the right question is more important than finding the right answer.

Then.

What does this book, *Foundation*, represent?

It was probably the Greek sex that my cousin Anna liked the most.

The Galactic Empire is destined for destruction, regardless of whether it has been the galactic overlord for ten thousand years, how advanced its weapons are, how powerful it is, or how its dying emperor and generals fight back.

Everything begins at the very beginning of the story, at the moment Asimov, through the voice of Seldon, wrote the first line of the novel.

The ending is already determined.

This is the prophecy of the goddess of fate: fight, struggle, rebel, seek pleasure, live a life of debauchery, win everything you want to win, enjoy the most beautiful women, drink the strongest liquor, and you will be invincible before fate finds you.

The cries of newborns and the laments of the dead resounded together.

On the very day you were born, the jealous Apollo had already shot an arrow.

Many years later.

When you stand at the pinnacle of glory, when you appear invincible, it will pierce your ankles outside the city of Troy.

Now, her cousin is no longer by Aurelius's side. The Greeks spent ten years breaching the gates of Troy and abducting Princess Helen.

Gu Weijing?
This year marks approximately the tenth anniversary of Gu Weijing and Anna's meeting.

And he became the jealous Apollo.

Reality is truly a bizarrely altered prophetic story.

"The Galactic Empire is heading towards its demise!"

Ole opened the book and read aloud, word by word, the first sentence of the first section of the book's prologue—the most famous prophecy in the history of science fiction.

He took those words as an arrow of fate, shooting them at Gu Weijing in the distance, and at the galactic battleship formed by the Ma Shi Gallery and the Elena family.

"This was a vast empire, stretching from one end of every massive spiral arm of the galaxy to the other, encompassing millions of worlds within its sphere of influence. Therefore, the empire's demise was also a massive and protracted process..."

If a daffodil gazes at the river for too long, it will fall in love with its reflection.

After cosplaying his cousin for so long, Ole would mistakenly believe that he was Anna, and in a daze, it seemed as if Anna Elena was really standing in this room.

He was as eloquent as Anna, as tough as Anna, and read science fiction like Anna.

Anna Elena stood there, releasing the burning bowstring and shooting the flaming arrow toward Gu Weijing's heart.

Anna Elena was reading in Kruger's voice.

"...Seldon discovered a startling fact that was the exact opposite of all common sense and the beliefs of the time: the seemingly mighty empire was actually terminally ill and destined to collapse and perish... Fate would follow a specific course... and all of this was what Hari Seldon had foreseen."

"And all of this is what I predicted."

Ole put down the book, looked up, and gazed at all his colleagues in the room.

"Gu Weijing's art empire is heading towards collapse and decay. For the past seven years, Gu Weijing has been the most shining person in this industry, but... it will all come to an end."

"This is a future that was destined to happen."

"This process may be short or long, and he may struggle and resist constantly, but Gu Weijing's year of miracles has ended. Seldon will build a new civilization on the ruins of the Galactic Empire."

"So are we."

"Oil painting will build a new era for us on the ruins of the wealth that Gu Weijing once possessed."

Ole walked to the window and gazed at the horizon in the direction of Greiz.

Like Apollo in the clouds, gazing at Princess Helen on the distant city wall.
-
"Current oil painting technique - Lv.8 Professional Painter Level 3 (9,999,999/10,000,000)." "Congratulations."

"Limited Breakthrough Mission, 'The Ultimate in Art', has been unlocked."

When he heard the system notification, Gu Weijing was in his room flipping through the latest issue of "Oil Painting" magazine.

"To be honest, he wasn't as harsh as I thought; he was a little gentler than I expected," Gu Weijing said to his agent on the phone.

Don't expect this magazine to say anything good about Gu Weijing. With Sarah's writing skills, if being harsh means cutting a person into mincemeat, then her limited gentleness... is probably just giving you a length of white silk or a bottle of arsenic, and leaving you with a whole corpse.

"Do you really think so?" Anna asked.

"Please, you should really look at what other people are saying," Gu Weijing said with a chuckle.

Considering the recent surge in critics eager to drag Gu Weijing out and dissect him into a bloody mess, he told Anna that this issue of *Oil Painting* was relatively "gentle," not at all sarcastic.

Damn it.

Is it fair to say that it's all thanks to the contrast with its peers?
Gu Weijing never imagined that one day he would actually think that Sarah was a rather gentle old lady; it was truly like the sun rising in the west.

"The auction house just contacted Hermes III," Miss Elena said on the phone, changing the subject. "They're talking about the summer auction in New York next year."

"I know."

Gu Weijing nodded.

An auction will be held next summer; this was already arranged when Gu Weijing and the Hermès Gallery reached an agreement on the acquisition of shares.

They plan to organize a mega auction jointly by Hermès & Gu's Gallery (when the agreement was signed, it was still Hermès Gallery), Gu Weijing, and the auction house.

They are hoping this will be a record-breaking auction, surpassing the sales figures of Hearst's auction in 2008.

If the auction is successful.

Whether Gu Weijing was the most successful painter of his time is debatable, but he certainly became the most lucrative painter of his time.

Opening a large gallery is difficult, running a large gallery is even more difficult, and running a large gallery over several generations and expanding it to every corner of the world is the most difficult of all.

In the modern art collecting industry, galleries are, in a sense, equivalent to an artist's academic degree.

Some collectors are not familiar with the painters, but they are familiar with the galleries. They don't believe the painters are just making things up there, but they trust the reputation of top galleries.

and so.

Perhaps Ole is right; the art market is essentially a market of confidence.

Gu Weijing's act of buying the gallery is equivalent to a student studying at a school and then turning around and buying the school itself, which is extremely difficult.

The Hermès Gallery was willing to offer Gu Weijing the most lucrative and generous contract. Hermès III was even willing to send Gu Weijing to Paris to buy hats, but they weren't really willing to give him the entire gallery.

Giving someone a hat is a different thing from giving away your ancestral home.

It's not about money.

Plant the phoenix tree, and the golden phoenix will naturally appear. Gu Weijing is not even the most famous painter signed by the Hermès Gallery in its history. In fact, one could say that the Hermès Gallery is like the Hélène family without a title. Its development is intertwined with the entire history of modern European art.

The Ma family's eldest son, who skipped a generation, used the name "Ma Shi".

Maestrauss I was once surrounded by friends and acquaintances like Renoir.

Marcel II was once a close friend of Picasso and his ilk.

Ma Shi III is now hanging out with friends like Gu Weijing.

Why would he sell the gallery when everything was going well? Moreover, with Gu Weijing's arrival, the Ma Shi Gallery had already weathered its financial crisis.

So... this is a paradox: the more successful Gu Weijing is, the richer the Maestro family becomes, and the richer the Maestro family becomes, the less reason they have to sell the gallery to someone else.

The attitude of Maestro III towards Gu Weijing was no different from that of Aurelius towards Hunter Bourges.

I'll treat you however I want.

Whatever you want, I'll give you.

As long as you're obedient, as long as you're at my beck and call.

But if you try to take over my family business as well, that's just being unreasonable.

Even if the Hermès family doesn't want to sell, they have to. This was Anna's strategy; don't underestimate the influence of these major gallery owners. The Irina family is certainly powerful, but the "Painting" gallery is no slouch either.

It seems that the association's annual exhibition has the lowest requirements of the three awards.

In reality, it is the most difficult one.

Because this is an internal exhibition.

For seven whole years, the management of the Hamburg Artists' Union withstood the pressure from Gu Weijing's side without giving an inch. *Oil Painting* knew that as long as they held this line of defense, they posed no threat.

But why did the Hamburg Association undergo a major management reshuffle in the most crucial year, allowing Gu Weijing to succeed?

Could it be that Gu Weijing's works moved them to tears?

There's been a lot of bloodshed and violence going on here.

To a large extent, it was because Gu Weijing bought the Hermès Gallery, and the gallery and the Hermès family put in a tremendous amount of effort in the process.

It is that golden straw on the camel's back.

of course.

Everything comes at a price.

Maes III had absolutely no intention of selling.

unless……

Maes III believed that the profits from this transaction would exceed the profits from continuing to hold the gallery for another hundred years.

Unless it's a price he simply can't refuse.

Gu Weijing couldn't possibly have enough money to offer a price that could buy off the Maestro III, nor could the Irina family. The operating models of *Oil Painting* and *Vouge* are different.

Vogue has a mature business model and is worth tens of billions.

Before the Kruger Brothers Bank entered the scene, the painting's surface value was less than one percent of the former's, and it was not even worth as much as a commercial gallery like the Maes Gallery.

So they signed a lot of agreements at that time.

Putting aside other issues, just one point is that, according to the contract at the time, Gu Weijing was required to take $1.5 million in after-tax cash from the auction proceeds received by the gallery and pay it to Maes III and his family.

If the money is not enough, Gu Weijing will have to make up the difference himself.

(End of this chapter)