National Tide 1980

In the decades after the bubble economy, the Japanese who experienced it always remembered this period.

In addition to the painful lessons they learned from it, it was also because they had such a good time when they were in it.

It was a period when the whole nation was immersed in the wealth at their fingertips, glowing with light and colorful bubbles.

From top to bottom, from the rich to the common people, almost everyone became rich because of the increase in assets and bonuses caused by the extremely loose monetary policy.

Even the most depressed Japanese companies have an annual bonus of half a year's salary.

Moreover, there is a huge Chinese market responsible for digesting the home appliances and cars exported by Japan.

The Japanese have heard that in China, which has a large population, there is nothing that cannot be sold as long as it is related to Japan, as if everything produced in Japan will shine.

Even if the yen exchange rate is higher day by day, home appliances and cars will still be sold.

Who made China lag behind Japan for 30 years and cannot make it by itself?

Moreover, Japan is so close to China that even if it cannot build a factory in China immediately, the logistics costs offset a lot of the advantages of Western goods.

To put it bluntly, for contemporary Japanese people, who are called the "bubble generation", work may be hard, but it is indeed rewarding.

Because money comes too easily.

The right time, right place, and right people all destined the world's wealth to gather in Japan.

So even as an alternative in the bubble economy, even if Mihara Masahiro, the executive director of the Composers Association, did not speculate in real estate or stocks.

But just because he always insisted on his hobbies for his artistic style, focusing his energy and wealth on niche art collections, he also achieved a doubling of assets like a rolling ball.

To be honest, the art market in 1987 was purely triggered by the Japanese.

In the spring of this year, the Japanese's large-scale purchases of art made international headlines.

Yasuda Fire and Marine Insurance Company bought Van Gogh's "Sunflowers" for nearly 40 million US dollars.

This is almost three times the price of any previous Western painting.

And this is like a fuse, not only igniting the overseas art investment market, but also making the Japanese famous in the art collection world for their generous spending.

It can be said that the various sales techniques in the minds of Western auctioneers and the pockets of Japanese speculators filled with money brought by the bubble economy, the two sides hit it off and jointly created the most indulgent art market in the history of the world.

Japanese art collectors actually have very simple goals. The paintings they like must be able to show wealth and exclusive privileges, and most importantly, they must be able to be seen at a glance.

Therefore, Japanese art speculators have always been loyal to the so-called "brand" painters.

Most of the paintings they buy overseas are French Impressionist or Post-Impressionist painters.

For example, Picasso, Chagall, Renoir.

For no other reason, it is because the paintings of these Impressionist masters are more suitable for modern decoration.

And this simple taste for representative artworks has lowered the threshold of the art market and made it open to everyone.

It can also ensure that the speculative enthusiasm is always concentrated, which helps to increase the value of a few selected artists.

To put it bluntly, the Japanese can work together to act as dealers and pull them to jointly favor the works of painters.

Of course, this also shows that when deciding to buy shares in artworks, Japanese speculators are not particularly concerned about the identity of the artist.

What they really want is capital gains, not a painting.

Needless to say, once this kind of speculation in the international art market is proven to be successful and effective.

Its impact will of course be transmitted back to Japan, and there is even a tendency to amplify.

Those art speculators in Japan also followed suit, quickly hyping up the works of famous Japanese painters with lower costs to astonishing high prices.

And unlike what the Japanese did in overseas markets, the domestic art market in Japan is generally rising.

Because the capacity of Japanese paintings is limited after all, as long as the painters are well-known in Japan, the prices of their works have doubled.

In fact, catching up with this trend, Mihara Masahiro has become a beneficiary, because his collection preferences coincide with the evolution of this mainstream trend, and he sat on the vent.

In addition, he just received 80 million yen from Ning Weimin for transferring part of his collection not long ago, and he basically invested it in the works of Somei Aoki and Kawai Gyodo, who specialize in Japanese paintings.

The works of these two famous painters have strong personal styles and are very easy to identify, so the prices have gone crazy.

In just half a year, the total value of the artworks in Mihara Masahiro's hands has reached 500 million yen.

Facts have proved that the lack of supervision in the Japanese art market has made artworks as commodities and investment products easier to manipulate and have greater profit margins than the financial market.

This has further fostered Mihara Masahiro's ambitions. He, the pig dancing with the wind, even had the idea of ​​growing wings - trying to unite with auction houses to control the price of a famous painter's work and set up a high price together.

On the evening of May 2, two executives of the newly established auction house Shin-Easter were invited to Mihara Masahiro's home, and smoked cigars and drank whiskey with this music bureaucrat who was an artist in his study.

But in fact, what the few people gathered together to discuss was the specific implementation steps of this plan.

"Mr. Mihara, may I ask, how is the negotiation between you and Mr. Somei going? Is this feasible?"

The person who asked the question was named Ashimi, and he was the director of the business department of this art auction company.

"This matter has been resolved. I have roughly negotiated with him that he can give us 40 paintings every year for a period of three years, and each painting will be purchased at a price of 3 million to 5 million yen. Do you think it's okay?"

"Ah, Mr. Mihara is worthy of it. He really has a special prestige in the art world. I didn't expect to reach a consensus with Mr. Somei so quickly, so three years means 120 paintings."

The other person who said this was Monkura, the director of the auction company's research department.

"Haha, art is universal. Although I have never met Somei before, I have always loved his paintings. As far as art is concerned, we are close friends. Our conversations are very speculative, and we have a lot of consensus on art and the art market. Moreover, although I am in the music industry, I also have many friends in the painting industry. In terms of fame and status, he has no reason to doubt my sincerity, nor can he ignore my friendship."

Mihara Masahiro kept silent, but in fact he pointed out the essence of insider trading. Based on equal status and their respective interests, they naturally have the need and tacit understanding to cooperate.

"Yes, Mr. Mihara is right. Artists should appreciate each other. Only when Mr. Mihara steps in, Mr. Somei will give such conditions."

There are no fools here. As a member of the business department, Ashimi immediately understood the subtext of Mihara Masahiro.

"Yes, yes, if we go to negotiate, we will definitely not get such good conditions. Although from the current market price, Mr. Somei's offer is not very cheap compared to the gallery's selling price, it is only equivalent to reducing the agency fee. But from the perspective of the market trend, Mr. Somei can agree to such conditions, which is almost equivalent to monopolizing the supply channel for us, and it is already worth doing." 𝗌𝗍𝗈𝟧𝟧.𝖼𝗈𝗆

The research department's Kadokura is more realistic, although he agrees and compliments.

But soon he realized an urgent problem from a technical perspective.

"But... Can Mr. Somei guarantee that he can produce so many works in three years! The time seems to be very tight. If there is a problem with the quality of the paintings..."

In fact, he was indeed a little worried, because the darkness in the industry was not something that a "technical man" like him who had just started to fall could imagine.

"It doesn't matter. Who among these masters doesn't have a few disciples? It's not new to use the disciples' works to sign the masters' masterpieces. Under the premise that everyone wants to gain benefits, you have to allow these art masters to fish in troubled waters and make some easy money. Otherwise, what's the point of being famous? Anyway, everyone in this industry is doing this. Many auction houses sometimes have to provide some convenience to customers and help deal with those not-so-good collections in order to get good collections to auction. In comparison, your worries are completely unfounded. Anyway, as long as the master himself is willing to admit it, it will not have any impact on us." Business expert Ashi Jian immediately pointed out the trick for him.

And Mihara Masahiro not only did not take it as an offense, but instead told the inside story more directly.

"Don't worry. You know, our target, the 'big fish' we want to catch, is the new collectors. For example, the new rich who made their fortunes through land and stocks, who are very rich but don't know anything about art and just want to be cultured, how can they have basic artistic appreciation? These people blindly intervene in the art market and only make impulsive bids in the way of speculating in stocks and real estate, and they are only looking for profits brought by the appreciation of art. There are not many such people in the current auctions, and there will be more and more in the future. Do they know what is a good work? Aren't they influenced by people like us? Judgment. Besides, I have many friends. As long as those professional art connoisseurs and master-level experts advocate for us, such as publishing in the "Japanese Art" magazine, which is a relatively authoritative art magazine in the industry. As long as any work is introduced in this magazine, it is equivalent to obtaining an authoritative guarantee. Then entertain reporters from newspapers and magazines and ask them to write about it. No one will doubt that there will be problems with Somei's new work. "These words immediately inspired Kadokura like a revelation. Not only was he relieved, but he also smiled and agreed happily. "Yes, yes, Mr. Mihara knows the art market too well. I am really ashamed. You are so right. I think about it carefully. These new rich people made too much money too quickly. They love art at the beginning but don't know much about it. But they have strong personalities and make decisions based on their personal feelings. Many of them are pure nouveau riche. And they are all very arrogant. Naturally, they think that the auction price of new Japanese art should be in line with Europe and the United States. They are willing to spend money at auctions to promote Japan's new cultural image and international status. This kind of very pure and generous nationalist sentiment is most suitable for us to use to make huge profits." And this is not all. Ashimi also has a deeper grasp of things. At this time, in order to show off, he also made some supplements.

"So, let's just play it safe. What's so scary about this kind of thing? Even if it is discovered, no one will really expose it. No one is a fool. People who bought high-priced paintings may know that they are He was cheated, but he didn't want to break the situation, because he also wanted to use this situation to throw the "hot potato" in his hand to the next buyer, and the new "victim" would create a new "victim". Come and support yourself. This is the foundation of our thriving art market.”

After hearing these words, even Mihara Masahiro couldn't help but raise his glass and said excitedly.

"That's right. It's very important to be teammates in big things. It seems that you are all very knowledgeable professionals. I am very lucky to be able to cooperate with you. I believe that our cooperation will be extremely smooth!"

"cheers!"

"cheers!"

Following a few crisp collisions, several people couldn't help laughing, as if those stupid upstarts had fallen into a hunting trap set by smarter people like them.

Yes, this is the way to play the game of "high price" in the art auction market.

Normally, when an art speculator or group has a target, they first need to find a painter who is well-known in the art circle and has a relatively suitable market price, and sign a multi-year agreement with him.

Then when the number of works reaches a certain amount, they will start to be speculated at auctions. It is normal for each painting purchased for 3 million yen to have an auction price of tens of millions yen.

Then gradually push it up until the final price reaches 50 million yen, or even hundreds of millions of yen.

What if no one buys it at such a high price?

It’s also easy to handle. As the party planning the hype, you can arrange for “one of your own” to sit with a group of real buyers and pretend to hold up placards to bid to create an on-site atmosphere of “many people rushing to buy.”

This is called the "sky-high price" of art auctions.

Therefore, it is very easy to achieve the goal. When a three million yen work is sold for ten million yen, as long as one-tenth of the work is sold at a high price, the entire cost can be recovered.

Of course, there is no need to worry about the remaining paintings. You can slowly "fish" with sky-high prices at the auction. If you sell one more painting, you will get a huge profit.

But having said that, the most important thing about this kind of gameplay is the financial expenditure of both parties.

Because even this kind of fraudulent layout is not a costless transaction.

If you want to get high prices for your calligraphy and paintings, you first need to use catalog books to promote them.

At present, the catalog brochures of various Japanese auction houses are printed more and more beautifully, which is an unavoidable layout cost.

Especially an auction house like Xinyi East, which has just been established a few years ago, does not hesitate to invest in publicity funds.

Every auction costs a lot of money.

Moreover, it is impossible to pay a commission of 10% for this kind of "fake shooting".

Confusing the true value of auction items in publicity is just a foreshadowing of the hidden rules of the auction. Repeatedly inflating transaction prices is a means of confusing the true value of auction items.

The fundamental reason for this is that after many auctions, the price of the auction item is getting higher and higher, and the auction item is becoming more and more famous.

Therefore, this kind of auction that inflates the price of the lot is generally negotiated for a fixed commission.

The consignor, buyer and auctioneer all obtain their own interests through auction activities, which is called "left hand versus right hand" in the industry.

Just like Mihara Masahiro, he negotiated an agreement with the auction company.

No matter how high the price of the "fake photo" is, the person arranged by Mihara Masahiro only pays a commission of 200,000 yen, which is just for the sake of it.

Otherwise, a painting of 10 million yen would cost at least 1 million yen based on such a commission. It is impossible for Mihara Masahiro to be taken advantage of like this.