Almighty painter

Chapter 693 Liu Ziming

2023 7 Month 1 Day.

ten days ago.

At the same time, the Boeing 737 that Gu Weijing was supposed to board but ultimately did not board was gliding and taking off at the airport.

Singapore Changi International Airport.

A beautiful twin-engine plane landed lightly on a sunny morning, like a seagull returning to its nest.

Amid the slight whistling of steam.

This extremely expensive private travel machine stopped at the end of the runway and slid into the parking space by itself without the need for a tug.

At the airport, there were already people waiting next to the berths.

The hatch opened, but it was not the usual gangway, but a small simple mechanical lifting platform that was unfolded from the side of the hatch.

The receptionist waiting at the airport runway was obviously well-informed and there was no sign of surprise on her face.

The woman obviously knew who the owner of this private jet with a special number and paint job was.

It is not the "affordable" and "cheap" private jet like the "Honda Jet" that Uncle Sakai likes to borrow from his friends, which costs only $100 million or $200 million.

This Dassault 2000EX private jet.

When it was manufactured, it was designed to be able to cross the ocean at an altitude of nearly 50000 feet and at a speed close to subsonic, fly nearly kilometers, and yet be as quiet as taking a nap in your own garden.

Even if it is second-hand, its price is easily more than ten times that of a Honda aircraft, making it a symbol of true top-level wealth.

In order to cater to the discerning tastes of wealthy individuals, these long-distance business jets place great emphasis on personalized customization.

In order to seize the market of high net worth individuals with General Dynamics' Gulfstream series, France's Dassault Aviation allows customers to specify everything from seat leather to cabin decoration and dressing table design when placing an order.

When a rich man said he wanted to skin Italian calves, Dassault executives rushed to the Mediterranean with machetes. When he said he wanted to skin wild calves in the Alps, they turned around and shouted as they rushed to the tops of the Alps to kill wild animals.

There was once an order from a wealthy businessman from Russia.

He is very picky about wine taste, and even hopes that the design of the wine cabinet can be authentic, so that he can feel like tasting wine in a French winery. The team responsible for the cabin design even went to the Château Lafite in Bordeaux and spent a lot of money to bring out a 150-year-old oak wine barrel from the winery's underground wine cellar and installed it on the plane as a wine cabinet.

It is a very simple matter to install a small elevator inside the cabin door to facilitate disabled people's wheelchairs to get on and off the plane.

Looking up from the ground, the corner of a woman's dress flashed past the cabin door.

The airport receptionist took a deep breath and prepared to step forward to extend the warmest greetings and welcome.

Then, she saw the most noble, graceful, and elegant person she had ever seen in her life...

Big dog.

A Dalmatian with smooth, silky fur and two big, flickering ears sat on the elevator outside the private plane and was lowered by a secretary in a suit and sunglasses.

The dog jumped off the elevator.

Its black eyes glanced at the neatly dressed receptionist on the side and then lost interest.

There is no need for the female secretary next to him to give orders.

He obediently dragged the secretary to the side of the lift, held his chin high, and sat down gracefully.

That gesture.

It doesn't look like the female secretary is holding it, but rather like it is holding the secretary.

"How impressive!"

The reception was stunned.

Next, the butler in a black suit came down from the elevator with a folded wheelchair.

Finally, there is Anna.

She was not in a wheelchair, but on crutches.

“Welcome, Ms. Elena. I am Bonnie Rampling, the curatorial assistant of the Singapore Biennale Organizing Committee. We are very happy that you can come to the Biennale in person on behalf of Oil Painting magazine.”

“Director Tonks said he was honored, and he assured us that you made the right choice by giving up the New York art fair and choosing us.”

Bonnie, the curatorial assistant, had probably heard some of the rumors before.

She shook hands with Anna and introduced them casually.

"I certainly look forward to it."

Miss Elena nodded slightly.

"Please follow me. We will go through the VIP channel to go through customs. I believe this should be a quick process. The customs officers will not care whether this beautiful dog has all the vaccination documents. As for you, if you are inclined to immigrate, perhaps the mayor would be willing to hold a press conference in person and issue you a passport."

Bonnie smiled and blinked, watching Anna get into the wheelchair.

"This way, it's very close. If you don't mind, we can skip the shuttle bus for such a short distance. Singapore Changi International Airport is also known as the Garden Airport. It is one of the business cards of this city. I assure you that this airport itself is worth appreciating."

……

"Ms. Elena? Is that you?"

"Mr. Liu?"

At the entrance of the airport's VIP lounge, Anna turned her head from her wheelchair and looked in the direction where the sound came from.

He was a tall Asian man.

He has a square face, thick eyebrows, and is dressed casually, in a printed T-shirt, sky blue pants, and a retro tweed hat on his head, which few people wear in this era.

From the outside, he looks like someone who has both money and free time.

Miss Elena recognized the other person's identity.

Liu Ziming, a Malaysian Chinese painter, held a personal exhibition in Lyon, France two years ago. His personal art sales are among the top 100 in Asia. In the buyer's guide section of "Oil Painting" magazine, he was rated as a recommended painter with four and a half stars.

Oil Painting magazine has a very complex internal weighted assessment method when assessing the recommendation level for each well-known artist.

In general, the magazine considers many factors, including a painter's current worth, future appreciation potential, expected value retention rate of his works, etc., and finally makes an authoritative purchase recommendation.

This star rating is more of a ranking of appreciation potential and investment value preservation ability, and is by no means a single standard referring to the transaction records in the auction house.

This is like the value ranking of football players on Transfermarkt.

Both players have played phenomenal games in the Champions League, one is 19 years old and the other is 35 years old.

The worth of the two must be different.

Two painters whose works have similar average prices at auctions, one has just become famous, and the other has a completely established painting style.

The recommendation star ratings of the two of them must be different.

for example.

Tang Ning and Kazunari Sakai currently have similar records for the highest sales of a single work at an auction, and they are also about the same age.

In terms of the total cumulative sales of his works throughout his career, Kazunari Sakai is still far ahead.

In the ranking of the total value of living artists, Uncle Sakai is currently ranked 18th, while Tang Ning is ranked 26th.

But when Oil Painting magazine was compiling the buyer's guide section.

Currently, Kazunari Sakai's recommendation level is "four stars".

This is certainly a more recommended star rating.

For a "professional painter" like Gu Tongxiang, his lifelong dream may be to have his name published in the "Oil Painting" section.

Even give it half a star!

Not picky, really not picky.

Just give it half a star! Lao Gu's mentality is similar to that of low-quality tourists who secretly carve words on the bricks of other people's city walls. He doesn't seek unlimited scenery, but is satisfied with something that can prove that "we have been here".

If Gu Tongxiang could get the rating of “four-star painter”.

The old man could make a sign and hang it around his neck, holding up a loud speaker and shouting wherever he goes, "Everyone look at me, look at me, I'm a four-star painter, isn't that awesome? Am I awesome? If you want an autograph, hurry up and line up! Everyone gets a share, don't rush."

The kind that makes your dreams so beautiful that they make you snot bubbles.

But for a "super heavyweight" player like Kazunari Sakai, whose cumulative transaction volume is already calculated in US$100 million.

Four star recommendation.

Maybe it’s not so low that it’s unacceptable, but it’s definitely not very high either.

And Tang Ning.

She is a "five-star painter".

Don't underestimate the one-star difference between two people.

The overall population portrait in the field of art is a pyramid with very, very, very different sizes from top to bottom.

The higher you climb, the fewer people around you will be at the same level as you.

This is the net worth ranking list.

The same is true for “investment and purchasing advice manuals” such as buyer’s guides.

Although a four-star painter is not bad, on the entire official website of "Oil Painting", there are nearly a hundred painters who can reach this star level.

And a five-star painter.

Including Tang Ning, there are only sixteen people in total on the list.

To know.

The buyer's guide of Oil Painting magazine does not only count living painters.

It includes all art practitioners from ancient times to the present, not only painters, but also sculptors, including Zheng Banqiao, Xu Beihong, Zhang Daqian, Qi Baishi, Huang Binhong...including Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Monet, Van Gogh, Picasso...

It includes all the painting masters that one can think of who have left their names in history.

Among them, there are only sixteen people who have the same purchase recommendation rating as Tang Ning.

Among the tens of thousands of painters who have ever appeared in human history, there are only sixteen who are "five-star painters" like Tang Ning.

The main reason for this is definitely that many of the works named here are either never seen in the auction market, or are already priced sky-high.

It's hard to say that spending $500 million to buy a Leonardo da Vinci painting can easily make five or six times the profit like investing in those young potential painters.

Two billion or three billion dollars for a painting... then you can really use that money to buy an aircraft carrier.

too exaggerated.

To put it bluntly, when the price of a painting reaches $500 million, investors no longer consider how much money they can make.

A Middle Eastern prince spent $500 million to buy "The Savior".

It’s no longer an investment behavior.

To be precise, this transaction has reached the level of political investment rather than property investment.

People no longer look at buyer's guides when buying paintings.

This rating cannot prove that Tang Ning is one of the most successful small group of painters throughout history.

This rating can explain it.

At least at this moment, in 2023, Tang Ning is one of the few painters recognized by the editorial department of Oil Painting magazine as having the greatest investment potential among all artists throughout history.

in the market.

Kazunari Sakai's works have been stuck in the current price bottleneck period for quite some time.

As long as they don't drink too much or do extramarital affairs, artists' careers will last longer.

Kazunari Sakai is still relatively young, and apart from being rather fat, there is currently no evidence to suggest that he is at risk of sudden death.

However, his age is actually quite embarrassing.

He is neither in his twenties or thirties, when his style is the most diverse and he is most capable of making innovations and breakthroughs in the artistic field; nor is he at the age where he is too old to move and may die at any time.

So from the perspective of market analysis.

There are relatively few factors that could cause Uncle Sakai's market value to rise dramatically.

In addition, his previous gallery contract has just expired, and he has not yet announced whether he will continue to renew his contract with Ota Art Gallery or switch to Gagosian or any other gallery.

There are many uncertainties.

Therefore, Oil Painting Magazine’s investment advice to Uncle Sakai is to “continue to hold steadily.”

Tang Ning's net worth just reached this level at the Hong Kong auction this spring.

The market is not hot yet.

Maybe I can take advantage of this enthusiasm and strive to move up a few more steps.

In addition, Tang Ning has a more important and experienced teacher who investors think may die at any time.

She is also her teacher's youngest disciple and is widely regarded by the outside world as the last possible successor to the next generation of the painting sect.

This is a huge benefit!

Therefore, Tang Ning's recommendation level is a full "five stars".

of course.

Cao Xuan’s current recommendation level is “six stars”, and he is one of the three painters with the highest star rating rated by Oil Painting magazine.

Let me say something a little unpleasant.

The market even thinks.

When Cao Xuan really dies, perhaps, that will be the moment when his works can be sold for tens of millions of dollars.

"The peak can only be reached after death" - this is a bit of black humor, but it is also the true side of art investment.

The fastest rise in Andy Warhol's worth was when it was rumored that he was shot on the street.

Some times.

Your worth and your status have little to do with what you paint, but rather have more to do with who you are.

And this Mr. Liu Ziming.

His market recommendation level is four and a half stars, which is even half a star higher than Kazunari Sakai, whose value is much higher than his in all aspects.

In fact, it is also based on two factors that have little to do with the painting itself.

the first.

Before he became a professional painter, he was destined to be a billionaire, or rather, he was destined to be a billionaire from the moment he was born.

Because his father is an old shipping tycoon.

second.

Before he became a professional painter, he was destined to be a successful painter, or in other words, he was destined to be a successful painter from the moment he became an apprentice.

Because he was Cao Xuan's fourth disciple.

(End of this chapter)