Artifact Reading Inspector

Chapter 94: Artifacts the Father Left (2)

“Something to show me?”

“Just wait.”

Seungho ran into his container and didn’t come out for a while. Haejin couldn’t understand why he was leaving the box that was worth 100 million, but he just waited. Seungho looked a little excited as he came out.

“Why did you leave this box here?”

“Why not? This place has CCTVs. Your car has been recorded. Why should I worry.”

“I guess you’re right.”

“Plus, I wasn’t going to give you this if you run away.”

Surprisingly, there was a gold bracelet in Seungho’s hand.

“This is…”

“Although I sold the other things, I didn’t sell this. Do you know why?”

How could Haejin know? He shook his head.

“I don’t know.”

“Unlike my father, I don’t know much about these antiques. Sh*t… what’s the difference between an art dealer and a junk shop owner? We both get old stuff and sell them. The only difference is that I earn much less. However, this looked like something valuable even to me.”

The bracelet looked beautiful. It had been made very delicately.

“I understand.”

“I knew this is precious, so it was even more important for me to not sell. As for the other things, when someone told me, ‘this is worth this much’, I could just think, ‘I guess so’ and sell it, but as this is made of gold, I couldn’t buy anyone’s word about this. They all looked like frauds, so I couldn’t sell it even if I wanted to.”

“Actually, that’s how others feel too. You can sell antique so easily only in two cases: you clearly know its value or know very little about it.”

Seungho stared at the bracelet in his hand.

“If I had wanted a few tens of millions, I would have sold it long ago. But look, you think ten million won can change my life?”

Although ten million is big, it is not at all enough to open a shop or buy a home. Even tens of millions are not enough.

“That’s not how things work in this country.”

“Yeah, you talk well. Things do not work like that in this country. But as you are willing to buy this box at 100 million, I think this is the time for me to sell it.”

“However, there might be someone who will give you more.”

Seungho sat down and stroked the box.

“It’s been more than 10 years. I wanted to get rid of all these, but I couldn’t because I couldn’t sell that bracelet… but I think I can move on.”

“Hmm… okay. I must tell you again, I’m not the one who will pay you the most.”

“Whatever. If I had known who that was, I would have gone to him and begged him to buy it when my father died. Anyway, what is this bracelet?”

Haejin raised the bracelet and started to explain.

“Its decorative bumps are the style used in the 6 th century.”

“6 th century? When is that?”

“The Three Kingdoms period. I think this is from Shinra.”

“Huh… this is from Shinra?”

Seungho’s jaw dropped. He examined the bracelet again.

“Its shape is a dragon biting its own tail to form a circle. It is very delicately made, so I’m sure it is very rare. It is good enough to be a treasure.”

“Then… how much can I get?”

“I’ll give you 700 million.”

At that moment, Seungho started to cough.

“Are you okay?”

“Oh, yes. Cough! I’m okay. Cough! It’s just… cough!”

He coughed for some more time and finally managed to calm down.

“That’s worth 700 million? Really?”

“As I told you, there’s no guarantee that there isn’t someone who’ll pay you more. But I must tell you that this is the most I can give you.”

“Okay, it’s your best price… then okay. What should we do now? Am I supposed to just give these and get the money?”

“We should write a contract. Then, I’ll send you the money immediately.”

“Khmm… okay. 800 million at once? Huh… I suddenly won the lottery after breaking up with my wife and sending my child away.”

However, although he was saying he had won the lottery, he didn’t look happy. He wasn’t trying to hide his feelings. He really wasn’t happy.

They went back into the container and wrote the contract on white paper.

Haejin wanted to take Seungho to his museum and use the form he had made, but as Seungho could change his mind at any time, he just finished it quickly.

Seungho shed tears when he got the money in his bank account. Then, he carefully wrapped the box so that Haejin could take it away.

He took out the wrapper and even tied a ribbon. He put such care into it that Haejin couldn’t stop him.

Haejin took the two artifacts and arrived at his museum. Eunhae then ran out.

“What is going on? Why did you need 800 million transferred?”

Haejin had brought someone to manage his museum instead of him. He couldn’t just spend 800 million on his own.

Of course, he had called Eunhae and asked her to send the money. Although she didn’t even know what kind of artifacts Haejin was buying, she sent the money.

So, she had been thinking about what kind of artifacts Haejin had bought until he arrived.

“Let’s go in first.”

They went into the office and Haejin carefully put it down on the table. Eunhae frowned.

“This is it?”

Of course, she thought it was strange. The thing wrapped with that childish gift wrapper was worth 800 million?

“Pretty, isn’t it?”

“Yes, but…”

Eunhae frowned even harder. Haejin laughed.

“Hahaha! Don’t get disappointed. Don’t you know that things with a great appearance have something poor inside?”

“At least I know that in this field, things with a splendid appearance are expensive.”

“You’ll make a huge mistake one day if you think like this. Appraisal is about seeing the true meaning.”

“Okay. Stop bragging and unwrap it. I am just watching because I don’t want to touch it and get scolded.”

Eunhae was pouting. It looked beautiful, but Haejin cleared his throat and started to unwrap it.

“Khmm, okay.”

As the wrapper was revealed, a dark brown box appeared.

“Oh… this is Jagae!”

Jagae means cutting out thin slices of the inner side of the shells like abalone or conch and cutting them is shapes to decorate.

“Yes. It has a peony vine pattern very delicately attached with gold. As you can see, there are hundreds of peonies cut and inlaid.”

“Wow… this is great craftsmanship, and so elaborate.”

“As it is quite big, I think this was for storing scriptures rather than for jewelry or accessories.”

“This is impressive. And I guess this is from Goryeo?”

Eunhae had her own knowledge. She presumed when the box had been made based on its pattern and technique used to make it. It was only possible because she had studied a lot.

“Yes. I think it was used to store Buddhist scriptures in the Goryeo period.”

“You’ve found a precious artifact. There are only a few lacquerwares inlaid with mother of pearls left… now we have even more artifacts to promote.”

In Goryeo, the aristocratic class made political decisions. As a result, a luxurious culture for their taste was created, and crafting reached its peak.

Jagae represents the art of Goryeo along with celadons and Buddhistic paintings, its artistic value is still appreciated greatly. However, there are only about 20 Jagae artifacts from Goryeo left.

Others have been stolen and destroyed in the countless wars.

“I have another thing.”

“What is it?”

Eunhae already knew that there was something more. Although the box was precious, it wasn’t worth 800 million.

Haejin opened the box and took out the bracelet.

“Oh…”

The smile disappeared from Eunhae’s face. She exclaimed and carefully took the bracelet.

“700 out of 800 million was spent on them.”

“Please explain. I can see this is magnificent, but I want to know more.”

She sounded urgent, her eyes were full of curiosity.

“That is from Shinra. There are only a few Shinra bracelets with the shape of such a delicate dragon, so it would be even rarer and more valuable. And this part is…”

Haejin added the detailed explanation he had told Seungho. Eunhae smiled with satisfaction.

“Good. For these artifacts, you were right to spend 800 million won.”

“Right?”

Haejin looked at Eunhae proudly.

She then spoke softly, “But you know the museum is running out of money, right?”

Haejin had been using the money he had earned before, but he had spent a lot on the opening of the museum, buying artifacts, paying taxes, and paying the staff and only a small portion of that money was now left. Eunhae was pointing that out.

“Oh… I know, of course.”

“If you run out of fund once, then hell awaits from there. I won’t be able to sleep, worrying about not having money to pay our staff… what if I start to lose my hair because of the stress?”

Haejin felt Eunhae was complaining rather than warning him.

“Khmm… okay. Then, shall we sell something? But we don’t have anything to sell…”

“Why don’t we do a special exhibition with the incense burner you found and the other artifacts of the Three Kingdoms and do a contemporary art exhibition after that?”

“Contemporary art?”

“Yes. We should invite paintings of promising artists, exhibit them, and sell them. If the paintings are good, we can earn a lot, a lot more than you think.”

“Hmm… that’s a good idea. Let’s go that.”

Although Haejin wasn’t that fond of contemporary art, he knew that he couldn’t keep his museum if he kept ignoring the financial factors.

Eunhae realized Haejin didn’t look that happy about it. She tilted her head and looked at him.

“Why? You don’t like contemporary art?”

“Umm… honestly, I really can’t understand contemporary art based on Dadaism.”

“That can happen. It’s difficult, and it can be seen as strange.”

“Just being difficult wouldn’t be a problem to me, but there are so many pieces that even experts cannot discern if they are works of masters or works of 4-year-old children. They say they put in very profound meaning in their paintings, but it looks to me that they paint first and only then try to add meanings… anyway, please take care of it. It’s not like you need an appraiser, so you won’t need my help, right?”

“Of course. Let me handle it, and I’ll fill the account with money. Haha!”

They spent time chatting like that, but then someone knocked on the door.

“Come in.”

The door was opened, and an employee came in.

“You have a visitor. Her name is Song Yaerin, and she is with, umm… a woman who appears to be a VIP.”

Haejin could guess who that VIP was. He was about to tell her to let them in, but Eunhae raised her hand.

“Tell them that he is busy, and they should wait or come back later.”

“Huh? Why?”

Haejin couldn’t understand that. Eunhae winked and spoke.

“You’re the best appraiser in this country. You shouldn’t let people meet you so easily. Okay?”