Chapter 96: Medicine (Part Two)
Translator: Etern, Kim_Guo
Zhang Xinyi drove back home before dinner time. When Huang Xuan saw her car from the balcony, he quickly went downstairs to see her. The issues at the company were not easy to deal with. Seeing his mothers exhausted look, Huang Xuan felt distressed. He massaged her shoulders lightly as they walked inside and said, “Is the fund committee looking for trouble again?”
“Anyways, things have been chaotic.” Zhang Xinyi shook her head and said: “Don’t worry about these things. Why did you go to Shanghai? You should have told me first. What if you got into danger?”
Huang Xuan smiled and didn’t dare to say anything. He took his mom to the sofa, and started trying to please her by making tea and giving her a massage.
Zhang Xinyi poked his forehead and said, “Don’t play dumb with me. I’ve already spoken with Isaac, from tomorrow on, he’ll be following you. Where you go, he goes.” Isaac was captain of the bodyguards for IZO, a 2-meter-tall Israeli mercenary.
“Oh,” Huang Xuan responded weakly.
Zhang Xinyi drank some tea and continued, “I’ve already spoken with your father. Since you two are back and your grandfather’s health isn’t good, you two should just stay in China. You should also continue going to school. ”
“No.” Huang Xuan jumped up, but weakly sat down again as soon as he saw his mom’s eyes. “I, I wanted to tell you, I need to go to American sometime in the next two days.”
“What for?”
“I heard that skill level in Pfizer is pretty good. Citibank also knows some medical institutes. I want to go ask people to see if they can help with grandpa’s recovery.” Huang Xuan answered with partial truths.
Zhang Xinyi sighed. She put the cup on the table, thought for a while and said, “Huang Xuan, you should know that people get sick when they grow old. Do you remember what your grandfather told you? You need to be brave, but being brave doesn’t mean advancing resolutely, being indomitable. A courageous person needs to face reality and life. You are still young, so maybe you don’t understand yet…”
“I understand.” Huang Xuan interrupted her. He grabbed her arm and said, “I’ll go to America to ask around first, if it doesn’t work out, I’ll come back. It won’t waste much time. Besides, with my current English skills, I don’t even need an interpreter when I talk with Aubrey. What can I do in school right now.”
Zhang Xinyi looked at her son’s expression, there wasn’t much she could say now. She couldn’t help but rub his head a bit and said: “Widen your experience a bit, and your life will be a bit fuller…”
Huang Xuan quietly listened. Since he had started middle school, his mother had become busier, even the amount of time to talk with each other had become shorter.
__________________________________
Li Qing booked a suite for Huang Xuan at Gloria Hotel, it was around 400-500 square meters. The next morning, Jeffrey from Sotheby’s, Sabrina and Aubrey from Citibank, and lawyer Annabelle and their assistants all came on time.
The living room was separated by a transparent floor-to-ceiling window, striking black and white lines appeared on the empty wall. Delicate European style furniture could be seen throughout the room, their colors were mainly bright yellow and light red. When mixed with the lighting, the sense of space in the area was enhanced. A transparent ship filled with water and tropical fish led to the closet.
However, the exquisite decoration was overshadowed by the Tsar Easter Eggs sitting on the end table. Sabrina covered her mouth in surprise, eyes wide open. “Are those Faberge Easter Eggs? The three that were lost?”
Among the 50-odd Faberge Easter Eggs, 8 were lost, their whereabouts triggering the imagination of countless people. Every time one appeared, so would a large array of stories about it.
Huang Xuan smiled and welcomed them. “Everyone, please have a seat. I’ll need to rely on you to judge whether or not these are Faberge Easter Eggs.”
Speaking of professional matters, Jeffrey and Sabrina were a bit scared and Aubrey couldn’t help but be a bit nervous as well. A $800 million USD appraisal, even though Jeffery and Sabrina had the ability to appraise them, they couldn’t stop their heart from beating faster.
Compared to the serious appraiser Jeffery, the experts from Citibank were much more at ease. Sabrina, who was wearing a short skirt, circled around the Tsar Easter egg and attracted a lot of eyes. She kept on mumbling: “So they were here, so they were here.”
Who knows where the real Tsar Easter Eggs were, maybe they were destroyed, maybe they were in some box molding away, or maybe they were kept hidden away somewhere. Huang Xuan smiled in his heart, and said: “Everyone please have a drink first, we can start the appraisal after that.”
Jeffery and the others nodded. The Sotheby’s appraiser, Wilson, who came with him, put on his glasses and said: “Mr. Huang, since there are a lot of items, please let me appraise the paintings.” He took a look at the rolled up artworks on the table and said: “I’ll first simply verify their authenticity, afterwards, I’ll bring them back to our center for further appraisal. Is that plan alright with you?” At this this, most of the art works put up for appraisal were bought from Hammer, with a few coming from other seller. Near the end of his trip, the price of art kept on rising.
Huang Xuan nodded and smiled. He got up and left the sofa, but the men from IZO kept staring intently at the coffee table, afraid someone would steal something. The bodyguards monitoring the security system were also tense, worried that some problem would appear.
Usually, paintings and calligraphy were authenticated according to the paper, ink, writing, seal, style and habit. The artwork that Huang Xuan brought back, especially the Russian artwork, had a very low chance of being counterfeits. The only possible issue would be the age of the paper, but after Rolin’s treatment, this issue was simply resolved. Actually, with today’s technology, it is hard to determine whether a piece of paper was 100 or 200 years old. This was because the storage environment for the paper also affected its apparent age. Unless it was hidden deep in some grave, for old art collectables, no matter if it changed hands or not, it was impossible to determine how the piece was stored. For example, for a 100-year old paper product, it yellows at a rate of 1/36000 per normal day and 10/36000 rainy day, but who can tell the difference between the yellowing caused by rainstorms and the yellowing caused by a light drizzle? Who can calculate what the average humidity was over the past 100 years? Does the location make a difference? If the paper stayed in the same location for 100 years, it might still be possible to estimate the average humidity, but what if the owner brought it to travel everywhere?
As for Carbon-14 dating (C14), it is simply nonsense for antiques appraisal. Even the most advanced C14 test today, can still have an error range of 50 years or more. For Anthropological research, this range doesn’t matter, as there isn’t much of a difference between 12,000 years and 12,050 years ago. If we’re talking about something brought back from 1931 though, whether it was simply preserved well, or if it was brought back through time, no one can tell.
Of course, for insurance, Huang Xuan still asked Rolin to put the items brought back through a aging process. It didn’t really cost any effort, since in terms of the mastery of time, the gentlemen from the large planes were quite professional.
To Huang Xuan, the real issue was the existing collections. Although Rolin had searched throughly to ensure that they only brought back lost or destroyed works, it was possible that a piece or art hadn’t really been lost but secretly kept by someone. The best choice here was to rely on the authentication by an expert. Whether the item was real, fake, or even if some artists decided to paint two copies of his work, it didn’t really impact Huang Xuan too much. There were currently twenty or thirty copies of the “Orchid Pavilion Collection”, all of which claimed to be the authentic version.
Sabrina looked at the three eggs attentively, lightly touching it with her gloved finger, her assistant was even afraid to breathe too loudly.
“Your really want to pledge these three eggs as collateral?” Sabrina suddenly asked as Huang Xuan was drinking coffee by the window.
Huang Xuan looked back at her in surprise and answered, “Of course.” His eyes showed a hint of questioning.
Sabrina combed her hand through her long chestnut hair and said, “What a shame! You know, if you pawn these eggs, they will be locked in Citibank’s safe. You won’t be able to see or touch them anymore.”
Huang Xuan smiled, it looked like this American beauty was immersed in her own interest. To be honest, these Tsar Easter Eggs were just some toys to him. When he purchased them from Hammer, these eggs had only cost him $400 USD each. Now that their value had gone up, people were starting to appreciate them. Earlier, why hadn’t anyone shown them any interest? If it wasn’t for Russian people becoming wealthier, these pieces of Russian art would have just been thrown in some corner, and forgotten.
Actually, the American’s during the Great Depression had given him some sort of inspiration, but the current him couldn’t fully understand the feeling.
Aubrey gently coughed and Sabrina knew that she had made a careless remark, so she lowered her head and continued to work. Huang Xuan once again turned his head towards the window. The time spent living along had changed him a great deal, one of which was increased patience.
During this time Annabelle was taking notes, while the two lawyers seemed to be very busy. He didn’t know what these lawyers had to do with the appraisal by the banks. It was Annabelle who opened her mouth in surprise every now and then by the amounts spoken from the people next to her. The way she looked at Huang Xuan had changed as well. In one short hour, the appraised value had reached a total over $100 million USD, even Aubrey’s heart was tested.
Jeffrey and the others started to pack up just before dinner, while the two lawyers recorded the serial numbers, took pictures and affixed the seals. Aubrey went up to Huang Xuan, who was in a trance, and whispered: “Mr. Huang?”
“Oh?”
“We’re done with the first step now. If everything is OK with you, we need to take these things with us.” Several security guards hired by Citibank were waiting at the door.
“Ok.” Huang Xuan gestured to Isaac to show there was no problems, and then asked, “What is the total appraised value?”
“The initial estimate is $940 million USD. The painting ‘Landscape’ by Rene Magritte is appraised at $10,000,000 to $14,000,000 USD and the Faberge Easter Eggs are estimated to be worth between $12,000,000 to $18,000,000 USD. Wilson estimates that the three paintings ‘Water Lilies’ by Monet, ‘The Railway Bridge at Argenteuil’ by Monet and ‘The Woman in Blue’ by Fernand Leger can be auctioned at Sotheby’s for at least $20 million USD.” Speaking to here, Aubrey swallowed, took a look at the notes in his hand and said: “Norwegian expressionist painter Edvard Munch’s ‘Girls on the Bridge’ is worth over $10 million USD. Fernand Leger’s ‘Soldiers Playing at Cards’, an early work of his, should be worth at least $8 million USD.”
This was all within Huang Xuan’s expectations. Rolin’s appraisal ability was stronger, and his estimation was slightly higher than this value.
At this point, Wilson and Annabelle walked over. Annabelle handed over a contract for Huang Xuan to sign, while Wilson said, “Mr. Huang, you’ve collected quite a few Russian masterpieces. The Russian Tycoons are currently quite interested in these types of items. If you are willing to wait for a little while, I can help you auction off these items, many of which should go for a much higher price.”
Huang Xuan raised his eyebrows and responded, “I’m afraid I can’t wait that long. By the way, in the list that Aubrey read out, there wasn’t any Russian paintings worth over $10 million USD?”
Wilson explained, “The rising prices of Russian art works is only a recent thing. The main reason is that Russia is starting to become wealthier, so the Tycoon’s are now willing to spend a bit more to purchase the art works that they enjoy the most. However, the starting price of these art works was too low. Take, for example, Surikov’s paintings. Around 1990, its value was only around $100,000 USD, but now it is worth around $4,000,000 USD. The price has gone up almost 100 times, but it is still not the most expensive when compared to other famous European artworks.” As he spoke, he pointed to one of the packaged paintings and said, “This painting ‘Portrait of actress Pelageya Antipevna Strepetova’ by Ilya Repin is the most expensive, worth at least $10,000,000 USD.” He continued to say: “Mr. Huang, since you have so many great paintings, many of which haven’t been seen for a long time, if you give use two months to promote this, I’m sure you’ll get a price that you’d be very happy with.”
Huang Xuan still shook his head. He had faith in Sotheby’s abilities, but the price they already offered was good enough. Most auction houses will take a 16% commission on items they sell, and if they sell for a much higher value, 20% was quite normal as well. Of course, the most important factor was that he just didn’t have time.
Jeffrey finished up his work, he then came up to Wilson and patted him on the shoulder. Then he relaxed his expression, and said to Huang Xuan with a smile, “Mr. Huang, this time you’re going to shock the entire art collection world!”
Huang Xuan nodded with a bitter smile. He didn’t want to shock anybody, but it would be difficult to hide such a large valuation, besides, there was no need to hide anything. The Huang family had always been wealthy, no one would notice if they got a bit wealthier. If he was going from poor to rich, then it would be a problem.
After the last Faberge wooden clock was loaded in the box, Aubrey bowed his head and said, “Mr. Huang, you can go now.”
“I’ve troubled you all.” Huang Xuan cupped his one hand in the other to show his respect and thanks. After the appraisers had left, Aubrey handed over the list and said, “Although we further steps are still required, the estimated value won’t change too much. If all the items are authentic, you should be able to borrow at least $800 million USD.”
Huang Xuan put his cup on the cabinet and asked: “Have you contacted Pfizer yet?”
“Yes.” Aubrey took out a document from his briefcase and said, “This is my plan. If you want to use the loan from Citibank to buy Pfizer bonds, would you consider letting Citibank manage all the bonds? You know, although you cannot resell the Pfizer bonds you purchase, you can still use them as collateral for further loans.”
“Alright, I’ll let you handle it then.” Huang Xuan then continued, “How more more do I need?”
“At least $150 million USD.” Aubrey smiled apologizingly, the number referred to the case in which Huang Xuan’s assets in Brazil were also used as collateral.
In this case, the interest each year would be $100 million USD. Huang Xuan shook his head and said, “Since you’re unwilling to take those diamonds, I have some other gemstones. You won’t have any problems with the other gemstones, right?”
“Of course.” Aubrey smiled awkwardly. “You know, there are a lot of problems with diamonds and the international standards are strict, especially in America.” Speaking to here, Aubrey looked around and whispered, “Truth is, in this area, it seems that Europe isn’t as strict. ”
“Alright, I understand.” Huang Xuan didn’t have anything to worry about, but Aubrey was different. To be able to say this much was already good. He patted the American’s shoulder and said, “I’ll be leaving tomorrow, so come here tomorrow morning and bring someone to appraise the gemstones. I hope matters regarding the loan and Pfizer will be handled by the time I reach USA.”
Aubrey reassured, “Don’t worry.” Now that they’ve beaten the United Bank of Switzerland (UBS), Citibank had once again become Huang Xuan’s biggest asset manager. With that, his position was also secured.
As Aubrey was putting the document away, something occurred to him. He said to Huang Xuan, “Boss, I forgot to tell you. Since we couldn’t find you these past two days, Mr. Yu, that is Yu Liye wanted me to tell you, Xinye company is getting ready to do a IPO (Initial public offering).” The way Aubrey said Yu Liye name was as if he was on a trampoline reading tongue twisters.
“Going public?” Huang Xuan shrugged. They wanted to go public with only 70,000,000 RMB?
“That’s correct.” Aubrey didn’t have any feelings about this. He took out another document from his briefcase, handed it to Huang Xuan and said, “You currently have 24% of Xinye’s shares. When it goes public, those shares will be diluted to 13%, but they will be worth twice as much. Besides letting you know this information, Mr. Yu would also like to ask you if you’re willing to continue your investment in Xinye.”
Huang Xuan laughed and used the document to fan himself. “I don’t have any many to invest right now. Rather, it might be more practical to sell those shares.”
Hearing him say this, Aubrey immediately advised, “Boss, Xinye Company has great potential. You’ll gain more from keeping the shares than selling them. Besides, selling them right now will only get you $20,000,000 USD, that amount won’t help much.”
“How much do you think these shares will be worth in the future?” Huang Xuan was intrigued.
“At least $45 million USD.” It seems like Aubrey had done some research. “Xinye’s asset structure is very healthy. Its business volume has risen rapidly, and it is not yet out of the growth phase. If the IPO is successful, then its value can grow 4 fold without any problems.”
“Then I’ll let it grow fatter before killing it.” Huang Xuan handed the documents back to Aubrey and said, “Have someone appraise the gemstones tomorrow morning, I’m headed to America in the afternoon.”
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