Almighty painter

Chapter 834 The Phantom of the Opera
Before Gu Weijing spoke, the person who was anxious to speak for him was not Miss Elena, but another guest, Alexander.

He is tall and thin, with chestnut eyebrows and hair.

Compared to Anna's maroon.

His hair color is more golden... In the missionary's diary that Gu Weijing found, Ms. Carroll was described as having golden-red hair 150 years ago. This is probably the color she was talking about, a typical Danish or Norwegian Nordic person.

He is a researcher at an Impressionist museum.

Alexander is completely different from scholar Rosings, who has been full of doubts about Gu Weijing since the beginning of the conversation and even hinted that the young man was a liar.

Regardless of whether she was the first female Impressionist painter in history, his position is that he tends to acknowledge that the painter Carroll did exist in history.

"You British people recognized the authenticity of the "Salvator Mundi" and sold it to a Middle Eastern prince for $5 million. Why are you nitpicking about the "Old Cathedral in a Thunderstorm"?

Compared to the big troll Rosings.

Alexander looked at least a dozen years younger, but he showed no mercy when confronting people.

"Just because it wasn't found by you British people? No famous museum or big auction house came out to endorse it this time? Mr. Rosings, I'd like to ask, why didn't you come out to criticize the British Museum or Castel?"

He questioned rudely.

laugh.

Rosings was not afraid at all.

He sneered particularly loudly, as if he had expected you to use "Savior" as an example.

"Salvator Mundi, Salvator Mundi, oh my god, of course, what's so strange about that, I knew you guys would bring up Leonardo da Vinci, that's your Salvator Mundi. What else can save your ridiculous views except the Salvator Mundi?"

He used a pun in a self-righteous way.

"Just having this example is enough, isn't it? The most expensive example in art history, bar none." Alexander said calmly.

"Yeah, of course it's enough. It's a good example."

Rosings thought about it, and he nodded and said, "I partially agree with you on this point, Mr. Alexander."

Alexander did not expect this turn and was stunned for a moment.

"Uh, excuse me, are you agreeing that the example of Salvator Mundi is the academic norm for conducting this kind of research?"

Gustav, who was listening to the argument, spoke up.

He holds a PhD from the Yale University School of Fine Arts and is also a researcher specializing in Impressionism.

Impressionist painters were mainly active in Paris, France in the early days. Because they were criticized to a certain extent by critics and suppressed to a certain extent by mainstream academic painters, prices were not very high in the first dozen years after the birth of Impressionism.

At least compared to the prices of works by painters such as Turner, Raphael, Rubens, etc., which were already considered sky-high at the time, it was not too high.

So when Americans, who had just become wealthy, came to Europe to shop, and couldn't buy the real "famous paintings", they bought a lot of Impressionist works.

The United States has always been a major collector of Impressionist works, and there are many related scholars.

As soon as Gustav read the cover article of "Asian Art", he tried to invite Gu Weijing and Sakai Katsuko to Yale for an academic visit based on the mailing address on the journal.

Except for Gu Weijing, the author of the paper.

The three guests invited by Oil Painting magazine to participate in the academic dialogue at the interview site were deliberately selected by Anna in advance. They each held three very representative and distinct positions.

Rosings firmly believed that this was a scam, and even if it was not a scam, it was a farce.

Alexander firmly believes that Carroll was a real painter who lived in the late nineteenth century.

The last remaining Gustav was more neutral.

He did not lean towards any side and did not have strong subjective emotions. No, to be more precise, Gustav's subjective emotions were more of a strong curiosity rather than a desire to support or question anyone.

Compared with the previous two.

Gustav seemed more like a pure research scholar who had no distractions and came here specifically to have an academic discussion around Gu Weijing's paper.

He was more listening before.

This was the first time he interrupted.

"Historical document investigation, artistic style comparison, pigment characteristics analysis... these research methods are indeed common means for academic circles to conduct this kind of art research. I have carefully read the article you wrote with Ms. Sakai."

Dr. Gustav turned his head and looked at the young man beside him.

“Gu.”

"If I'm not mistaken, your research on "The Old Church on a Thunderstorm" and Carroll includes imitations... um..."

The Doctor hesitated.

I feel like I used the word a little inappropriately.

"To put it another way, you should have carefully referred to the summary research paper on Leonardo da Vinci published by Carmen C. Bamcach four years ago, in 2019. Am I right? That paper was also published in a journal affiliated with Yale University. At that time, I had a long email exchange with Bamcach."

He looked at Gu Weijing.

Gu Weijing crossed the fingers of his hands and placed them quietly on his knees.

He thought for a moment and answered honestly.

"Yes, you are right. Mr. Bamcach is a famous researcher on Leonardo da Vinci. Although the paper itself does not involve citations, after all, Impressionism and Leonardo da Vinci are two unrelated propositions, his summary paper provides us with good writing ideas..."

"What do you mean by reference? This is clearly imitation. When writing a paper, you have to imitate other people's ideas."

Cui Xiaoming, who was sitting in the audience, shook his head disdainfully when he heard this, and a sneer rolled out of his nose.

The young man in the audience curled his lips and stared at the young man under the spotlight on the stage.

Rather than simply expressing contempt at this moment, it would be more accurate to say that Cui Xiaoming was smiling to himself.

He expressed his complex feelings towards Gu Weijing through this sneer - he used Gu Weijing's imitation and reference to other scholars when writing papers to prove the rationality of his imitation of Gu Weijing's paintings in the exhibition.

Voila.

Gu Weijing also did this.

So there is absolutely no need for him to feel any guilt.

They are essentially the same kind of people. If given the opportunity and their positions were reversed, Gu Weijing would do exactly the same thing as himself, or even go further than he did.

Cui Xiaoming's eyes searched the expression on the host's face at the moment.

What is Miss Elena thinking at this moment?
Since Gu Weijing admitted that they imitated previous papers when writing their papers, then the rumor that Gu Weijing's works in the exhibition plagiarized and imitated his and Cui Xiaoming sounds more credible.

Cui Xiaoming himself knew that the meanings of these two things were completely different, but to ordinary people, they sounded similar. It was natural for them to have some special associations.

He looked at the hostess on the opera stage with expectation and desire. Miss Elena did not respond to his gaze. Perhaps she did not know that someone was praying to her at this moment.

Miss Elena was sitting on the sofa at the side of the stage.

She really suits the occasion.

There was no exotic tiara inlaid with Czech crystals, no velvet cape with gorgeous patterns and feathers.

The woman sat on the sofa, motionless like a sculpture.

People will still recognize her as the diva on stage.

This has nothing to do with whether there is only one female guest on the stage or a hundred platinum ladies wearing tiaras and capes and jumping around.

Amid the arguments and debates on the stage, the artistic director, who was always known for her eloquence, stood still.

She held her cheek with the side of her silk-gloved hand, occasionally making some very gentle body movements, and her eyes calmly moved from one guest to another. Her every move was like interlocking water waves.

Cui Xiaoming wanted to find some expressions like "I see" or "I suddenly realized" on Miss Elena's face, but he found nothing.

She is like a piece of satin slowly floating in the wind, immersed in a kind of restrained "roundness and smoothness".

At this moment, the young man was quietly watching the conversation with Professor Gustav in a trance.
-
Anna's eyes fell on Gu Weijing.

I pressed my fingers against my cheek, feeling the delicate touch of silk sliding slowly across my skin.

She is the host of the interview.

On the stage today, Anna acted more like an audience member, an audience member sitting in the VIP audience seats.

Ordinary audience members sat in the auditorium below and listened, while she sat on the stage and listened.

"...Mr. Bamcach emphasized in his paper published at Yale that the painting "Salvator Mundi" has a strong painting style of the early Florentine school," said Gu Weijing.

"Yes, he personally likes to call it his creative fingerprint."

Gustav nodded slightly. "Everyone in the world has a unique fingerprint that belongs only to him or her. If you look closely at each person's fingerprint with a magnifying glass, you can find some striking features. In the field of criminal investigation, detectives began to match suspects based on these features a hundred years ago. And every painter in the world also has such features in his or her works. Even if they are not unique, they are at least very unique. Scholars and appreciation experts often use such features to match works of art with their creators."

"As far as I know, when writing about Salvator Mundi, the team of scholars compared the characteristics of the brushstrokes left in Salvator Mundi and nearly twenty existing Leonardo da Vinci artworks and manuscripts. This is not an easy task, as there is not enough ready-made material. Leonardo da Vinci's works are almost the rarest collections in the entire European art world, bar none. For some collections with special styles, people only know that they exist, but who actually owns them is a secret. There are no more than ten private collectors in the world who own authentic Leonardo da Vinci works."

The Doctor paused.

"At this moment, one of these few people is sitting on the stage of this opera house. I think she must have witnessed the birth of that paper."

Everyone knew who Gustav was talking about, and the eyes of everyone on and off the stage were all on the face of the host.

"That's what happened."

Anna Elena had long been accustomed to the feeling of being the center of everyone's attention.

She nodded slightly.

"The research team came to my home at that time. They said they hoped to do some detailed comparison work."

The woman moved her fingers slightly.

She didn't take off her gloves when she went on stage.

Anna did it on purpose.

When the interview entered the countdown stage, the staff had packed up their belongings, all the interview guests were in place, and the opera house's double curtains were about to open in one minute.

Elliot saw the glove on her palm.

The secretary thought Anna had forgotten to take it off, so she hurried back to remind her. When she wanted to help her take it off, Anna shook her head and refused.

She did it out of simple impulse.

When Anna went on stage, she thought of the conversation she had with Gu Weijing in the lounge.

Wearing a crystal tiara like a Disney princess on stage was so childish that Anna couldn't bear to lose face.

A pair of silk gloves?
It doesn't matter.

It gave Miss Anna a sense of performance, as if she was in front of the camera, personally participating in an important epic plot and witnessing it happen before her eyes.

It's like Turandot.

To put it simply, the plot of "Turandot" is a process in which the male and female protagonists keep guessing, you guess me, I guess you, you throw out a question, and then I throw out a question, and gradually get to the truth of the matter.

Anna turned her head and looked under the stage.

There were indeed cameras pointing at them, some of them were media reporters and staff from the organizing committee, and more of them were from Oil Painting magazine.

Miss Elena notified the Austrian headquarters at short notice and sent a filming team over.

if you can.

This conversation and interview will soon become part of the special documentary produced by Oil Painting every year.

Anna's eyes swept across the guests in the audience.

Her eyes paused briefly on Cao Xuan, curator Tonks and others in the front row. She raised her chin slightly and looked further away.

The theater, which can accommodate 1500 people, is not the largest among opera houses.

Looking down from the stage, it was still pitch black.

Anna imagined.

In the corner of the seats in the distance, behind the pillars at the back, behind the curtain of the second-floor box, there is a ghost... She is standing there at this moment.

Miss Elena.

Miss Carla von Elena.

Ms. Carroll.

She was holding a blue parasol and looking at herself.

next second.

Kara would come out from behind the pillar, find a secluded seat, sit down with her legs crossed, and stare at the stage.

Smile to yourself.

(End of this chapter)