Phillips, an auction house founded in 1796, is also a century-old store, but it only has a history of a few hundred years, which is far behind Sotheby's and Christie's. It was not qualified to be compared at all.
In Europe and the United States, it is estimated that it can only be regarded as a second-rate top auction house, but everything was different in 1999. In November 1999, this auction house was acquired by the famous luxury brand 'Ouch' The boss of Hey's invested 70 million pounds to buy it and merged it into the name of the world's largest luxury goods group.
Then it took advantage of the scandals surrounding the first two major auction houses and invested huge sums of money in Phillips. His main business was not antiques. He knew that even if he competed again, he would not be able to compete with those two companies.
Therefore, his main projects are Impressionist oil paintings, as well as contemporary artworks and furniture.
Jiang Hai's main goal is this! After making a phone call in the evening and contacting him to meet at his office the next day, Jiang Hai breathed a sigh of relief. Everything would have to wait until tomorrow.
Early the next morning, he arrived at Phillips' office carrying a backpack.
"Hello, how can I help you?" When he walked into the office, a receptionist asked him.
"Oh, hello, I called to make an appointment yesterday. My surname is Jiang." He nodded to the girl at the front desk.
"Mr. Jiang? Your appointment time is at nine o'clock in the morning. It's almost time. I'll take you to the third reception room to wait for a while. I'll ask Manager Zhang to come down." Hearing Jiang Hai's words, the girl smiled at first He nodded and then led Jiang Hai to a VIP hall. After giving Jiang Hai a cup of tea, he left again. Not long after, a man in a suit walked in from the outside. This man looked about forty years old. , but he looked very capable, and he laughed when he saw Jiang Hai.
"Mr. Jiang, are you? I am the account manager of Phillips Auction House's Imperial Office. My surname is Zhang. How can I serve you?" After shaking hands with Jiang Hai, the middle-aged man asked with a smile.
"It's like this. I have a batch of gems and I want you to help me identify them." When shaking hands with this person, Jiang Hai also explained his purpose. Hearing that he was here to identify things, the person was not surprised. .
After all, when you come here, you are either here for appraisal or auction, and even if you are here for auction, you will have it authenticated before the auction. Jiang Hai's statement seems to be normal to him.
"Of course it's possible, but it's not easy for our auction house to operate. For appraisal, you need to charge a certain fee." Manager Zhang said with a smile as he and Jiang Hai sat on both sides of the coffee table.
"I know this, but I don't know what the charging standards are." Jiang Hai nodded lightly. He had already inquired before coming. Auction houses naturally charge for appraisals. In fact, their main income is With this money, as for the auction, it means that if it does not open for three years, it will last for three years after opening.
"Our auction house basically charges two types of appraisals. One is to charge a 1% handling fee as the appraisal fee based on the item being appraised. If it is some collection worth thousands or tens of thousands, it can be like this The second choice is a fixed appraisal fee, two thousand for each item." Looking at Jiang Hai, the account manager said with a smile.
"That's it, then I'll choose to fix it!" After thinking about it, Jiang Hai didn't know the value of these things on his body, but if there is a treasure, the price is more than 200,000, the second one will be higher than the first one. It was worth it. He had confidence in his gems. Seeing that Jiang Hai had already chosen them, Manager Zhang went out and invited two people in without saying much.
One of the two people was a middle-aged man who seemed to be a master, and the other was a young man who was probably an apprentice. He came here to gain knowledge and hand over things. After the two came in, they briefly introduced themselves. Jiang Hai also introduced himself. The stone obtained from the cave was taken out.
In the cave, he got a total of 213 unbreakable stones. They all were appraised. He didn't have enough money, so he could only see whether the stones appraised were worth anything. If it didn't work, he could only sell a batch of them. Re-identification.
Now he is reluctant to use snake scales to grow flowers. He thinks these stones will always be worth the money for appraisal.
The two prepared the instruments, and Jiang Hai also took out some stones and placed them on the coffee table, watching as the two began to identify them.
"This is a natural crystal. It's not valuable. Such a big piece costs about 3,500 yuan." But soon, the man finished looking at the first 'gem'. Jiang Hai sighed after hearing what this man said. He also knows that crystals may have been quite valuable in the past, but since they can be made artificially, the price of natural crystals has never been high. If it were not for the purity of his piece, it might not even be worth three thousand and five thousand.
"It seems that I am a little too optimistic." I muttered in my heart, and at the same time, I put away all the items on the table that were of similar quality. Since they were all crystals, there was no need to appraise them.
The appraisers over there don't care. After all, there are too many varieties of gems and too many laymen. There is no need to cheat such money.
After appraising more than a dozen pieces in a row, they were all natural crystals. Jiang Hai was already a little helpless. Fortunately, the price of these crystals was not less than 2,000, so he earned back the appraisal fee.
"Huh?" But just when Jiang Hai was about to become numb, the appraiser suddenly let out a sigh and looked at the gem in his hand emphatically. This time, he fiddled with it for almost ten minutes before lifting it up. He turned his head and looked at Jiang Hai.
"You are lucky. This piece is not a natural crystal, but a natural sapphire. It is about ten carats in size and worth 1.2 million." Jiang Hai was stunned for a moment after hearing the appraiser's words. This time the appraisal fee came out. .
After thinking for a while, he put the ones with confirmed crystals back into his bag, and the remaining ones that he was not sure about, a total of one hundred and thirty-two yuan, took them out and piled them next to him, looking at the workload. , the appraiser couldn't help but smile, but he didn't say anything, because that's what his job is, and what he earns is the commission in this area.
If a gemstone is appraised for 2,000 yuan, he will get a commission of 1,500 yuan. Jiang Hai is also giving him more money.
Maybe it was because of the sapphire that the appraiser looked more carefully. However, crystal is crystal. You don’t have to look carefully to see it as a gem. Among Jiang Hai’s remaining gems, there are 120 Eleven pieces, all natural crystals.
Basically, the big ones are natural crystals, and the rest that look like gemstones are smaller.
In the blink of an eye, the appraiser has looked at one hundred and thirty pieces. Except for two pieces that have not been looked at, only nine pieces are gemstones.
The most valuable piece is a 12.37-carat ruby with an estimated value of 2.3 million.
There are also two smaller rubies, which together can be sold for about half a million.
The remaining three emeralds are worth about 1.6 million together.
The two sapphires were worth 400,000 together, which was only 1.6 million compared to what was initially identified.
The remaining three gemstones, two aquamarine and one golden green, are all fifty carats in size, which is about ten grams.
Together they can be sold for about one million, which means that the total value of these stones is seven million soft sister coins.
Although there is a big gap between the tens of millions and hundreds of millions that Jiang Hai imagined, seven million is not bad.
While comforting myself in my heart, this trip was worth it. The appraiser over there has almost appraised the things.
Among the two pieces that were finally appraised, one was a natural crystal worth thousands of dollars, but when looking at the last piece, the appraiser’s eyes suddenly turned green...
He kept looking at this stone for almost half an hour. After half an hour, he looked at the assistant beside him and told him to get some machine.
Soon, the young man came back with many machines in his hand, and then the appraiser began to test them one by one.
About another hour and a half later, the appraiser took the gem and sat there without saying anything.
"Uh, is there any problem?" Jiang Hai asked a little strangely when he saw the appraiser's appearance.
"There is no problem, but if nothing else happens, Mr. Jiang, you may have to give it away." Looking at the pink hexagonal gemstone in his hand, which is about the size of four thumbnails, the appraiser's eyes It's all glowing inside.
"Have you made it? Well, I did get it a little bit. After all, those gems are worth more than seven million." He laughed at himself. In a sense, he did make it.
"No, with this gem, the value of the gems you just bought is about the same as the stones on the roadside." After hearing Jiang Hai's words, the appraiser's eyes began to shine, and he said to Jiang Hai excitedly.
"This stone of yours, I can tell you with 99.99% confidence that it is a pink diamond. The craftsmanship of the four C's is the ultimate. The net weight is 31.6 carats. Do you know the transaction price of this diamond?" ?The transaction price per carat is 380,000 U.S. dollars!" The appraiser seemed to be unwilling to let the pink diamond disappear from his eyes for a second, and said with a serious face.
"Three hundred and eighty thousand dollars, one carat? Then thirty-one-six dollars is twelve million dollars?" Hearing the appraiser's words, Jiang Hai's mind felt as if someone had suddenly hammered him, and he was a little dazed. , but the appraiser didn’t seem ready to let him go just like that.
"No, it's more than that. Your pink diamond is a complete pink diamond, a 31.6-carat complete pink diamond. The price is at least twenty times higher!"
"Hiss... I seem a little confused, wait, don't talk to me, I want to be quiet..."