Artifact Reading Inspector

“No way! Giorgio told me…”

He must have said they had retrieved this painting after an arduous and long chase.

However, the criminals who had stolen Raphael’s painting gave up this fake to avoid being tracked by the Cultural Administration and made it look like it was taken from them.

And thanks to this, the officials of the Cultural Administration did slow down their pursuit, and they got some extra time to take a breath.

It almost worked perfectly. If it had been concluded as real and displayed at the Uffizi, the leaders of those criminals would have made fun of the appraisers’ foolishness.

However, their plan failed after Haejin chimed in. The pursuit was about to resume once more, therefore there would be a long and boring fight. Unless Haejin got involved in that as well…

“First, send me my fee and tell Giorgio what just happened. If you can’t accept my answer, discuss the matter with the local appraisal agency, find a logical flaw, and send the refusal email to a lawyer. Is there any problem?”

Claudia stared at the painting for some time. Then, she quickly came to her senses and stood up. She looked at Haejin and calmly said, “The deal was about appraising two artifacts. Shouldn’t you take a look at the other one?”

She was asking Haejin to appraise the krater, but actually, he had already appraised it with magic when Giorgio came looking for him.

He had seen who had made it through magic, but he couldn’t find out who it was, and he didn’t think taking another look now would make any difference.

And thankfully, the deal he had made with Giorgio said that appraising the painting was the priority while Haejin could decide to not appraise the krater if he wanted.

It was the sort of one plus one deal.

“If you are saying that because you want me to appraise the krater, I’m afraid I have to refuse.”

“Why? You think you’re not good enough?” Claudia calmly provoked Haejin, but he could see what she was thinking.

“Haha! You can think so if that’s what you want to believe. But… I don’t want to talk with you anymore.”

That was shocking. Claudia bit her lips, but she couldn’t say anything. Haejin left her and went out while Eunhae followed him and grabbed his arm.

“That was so cool!”

“Let’s go have lunch. I just earned a lot…”

“Of course, let’s go!”

Haejin had earned more than a billion won as the appraisal fee, so this business trip was very successful.

He was planning to go sightseeing before going back to Korea as he was in Florence, so he decided to forget about work.

Eunhae was so happy to have lunch at the fanciest restaurant in Florence. She took a sip of wine and looked at Haejin.

“When are you going to call me Eunhae?”

“Hmm… well… how about now?”

Haejin thought it would not be manly for him to back off when he knew how she felt about him. Besides, he liked her as well.

At first, he just didn’t want to get distracted when he had so many things to do.

But now, he knew that kind of behavior can hurt others, and people can leave anytime at the most unexpected moments, so he thought hiding his feelings wasn’t the answer.

Eunhae was surprised to see Haejin change so suddenly. She blankly stared at him for some time and then looked down. She smiled.

“Haha… oh… then, can I call you oppa?”

(oppa is how a female informally calls a male older than herself. Both older brother and boyfriend can be called oppa.)

“Okay, you should call me that in private.”

“Heh heh… but oppa, do you know that you sucked a little bit?”

“Me? Why?”

“You acted like a monk in front of a beautiful lady like me. You could have shown your feelings once in a while…”

“Haha! Aren’t you being too much of a princess?”

Eunhae was shy, but she said what she had to say, “I was really famous, you know. When I was in school, boys came to meet me all the time that I had to hide. There were even boys from other schools!”

“Okay, okay. I get it.”

“Hahaha! Anyway, you should consider yourself lucky. Oh, then where are we going now?”

“Let’s go to the Uffizi and then go to Duomo.”

“Great!”

Eunhae was now full of charms. It wasn’t bad, so Haejin gladly looked at her when he suddenly received a call.

It wasn’t a Korean phone number, so he answered in English.

“Hello?”

“Mr. Park, it’s me, Giorgio Sayor. I just heard about what happened.”

“Oh, yes, I see. I’m afraid my conclusion won’t be wrong. Well, you can prove it with scientific tests if you want.”

Giorgio sounded urgent, he explained and apologized, “I heard what happened while you appraised the sketch. Of course, she must have kept some parts to herself, but I do know what kind of misunderstandings occurred.”

It had been a clear case of racial discrimination. How could he call it a misunderstanding? Haejin thought he said that because he couldn’t admit the researcher of a worldly famous gallery racially discriminated someone.

“Misunderstanding? Well, I don’t think it was a misunderstanding…”

“No, she isn’t such person. She is diligent, careful, and respects others. It’s just that she loves artifacts too much and is a little too passionate that she… sometimes argues with people. I admit that.”

“You sound like you are very close to her.”

“It’s more like we have spoken a lot about work. Anyway, we fully accept your conclusion about the sketch.”

He had no choice… it had Luca Giordano’s signature, so discussing its authenticity further would be admitting his own lack of ability.

“Really? Then I guess I will get my fee without any problem.”

“Of course. And… I thought you came here to appraise the krater.”

Actually, Haejin could appraise it. However, he would have to put great efforts into finding the craftsman he had seen through magic, and it was a little risky.

Because if he spent that much time and energy on it and failed, his reputation would call.

“Honestly, I don’t want to stay here anymore. I didn’t expect to be treated like that. As I am here, I will just look around and go back to Korea. The most important thing was the sketch, right? You should be satisfied with it.”

Haejin knew that it sounded cold, but he said that because he feared Giorgio wouldn’t let him go if he spoke nicely.

And basically, even if he could get near to finding out the krater’s truth, the rest of its pieces were unlikely to be retrieved, so he didn’t want to waste his time and energy.

“Hmm… okay. That is the deal we made… but you are not leaving today, right?”

“Yes, I am planning to look around Florence and Venice for a few days.”

Florence and Venice were both Italian cities, but they show a slightly different artistic style.

Florence’s art started to flourish when Lorenzo de Medici (Lorenzo the Magnificent) started sponsoring major artists in the city, but Venice’s art was way behind Florence’s innovative art until Giovanni Bellini.

Venetian art is also different from Florence’s art in many ways. As Venice is a city that was built on water, the technique of using the color of water and using the reflection of the light was often used.

As it was also the center of trade, because of various goods and ornaments that came from other parts of the world, various and changeable colors were used.

The weather also had a great effect on Venetian art. Unlike Florence, where the weather is hot and dry, Venice is humid, so they couldn’t make frescos.

Instead, there were many places that made sails for ships in Venice, so canvases were easy to get. The artists of Venice worked with canvas and oil paints, they developed a style that stressed the color instead of the lines.

“That’s good, then I will call you tomorrow. There’s something I must tell you in person.”

“Is it about an appraisal?”

“Yes. As you are in Italy, I will go to you so that your plan for sightseeing won’t be disturbed.”

If he had had something he wanted to be appraised by Haejin, he would have mentioned it when they were in Korea… Haejin wondered what he had to say now and asked, “Why didn’t you ask me in Korea? Why meet again now?”

“It’s, it’s… I unexpectedly got something that must be appraised by you.”

He was stammering and was clearly nervous. He didn’t fully trust Haejin when he met him in Korea. Otherwise, he would have had no reason to ask again now.

It was absurd, but it meant Giorgio was appreciating Haejin’s skills, so there was no reason to say no. It wasn’t like it would require much time and effort like the krater…

“Okay then, call me tomorrow.”

“Thank you. I will call you tomorrow and come to you.”

Haejin hung up. Eunhae lightly grabbed his arm and asked, “Why? Is someone asking your help again?”

Now, she felt even closer to him as he was calling her using her name.

“Giorgio Sayor, he wants to meet me again. He needs another painting appraised.”

“Wow… he couldn’t trust you before? But you’re the man Prince Sahmadi of the Arab Emirates fully trusted!”

“White people are egocentric. He didn’t fully believe that an Asian could properly appraise a great artifact that belonged to white people.”

“Huh!” She had every reason to feel bad about it.

“But he is asking for my help, so let’s just focus on the fact that I will earn more,” Haejin said.

“But you refused to appraise the krater.”

That was unexpected. Haejin wondered what he had to say, but then he decided to be honest.

“Actually, the krater is an unfamiliar genre to me. I haven’t seen and studied it enough. I know some things about it, of course, but I’m not good enough to appraise an artifact that is worth billions. That’s why I left there.”

“Oh… you did well, then.”

“Yeah, right? But paintings are different. I just earned a billion with just a few words, so who knows? Maybe I will get to earn that much again. Judging from how things are going now, they are really anxious.”

“Because of the stolen paintings?” Eunhae asked.

“Yes. They lost more than one or two paintings. They want to retrieve them and check if they are real, but there are only a few appraisers they can fully trust.”

“Why? There are only a few trustworthy appraisers in Florence?”

That was the right question, but Eunhae was curious about that as she was only considering the art world.

Haejin then asked, “Who do you think the local artifact criminals of Florence are?”

“What?”

“They are not like Korean gangsters who work in their areas.”

Eunhae now realized what he was talking about and slapped her hand.

“Oh! The Italian mafia!” Eunhae exclaimed.

“Yes, the mafia is involved in this.”

Haejin was sure of that as he had seen the past through magic. He could figure out how the scheme, that happened all around Europe, was unfolding now.

“Then, you think all the local appraisers are working with the mafia?”

“Not all of them, but most of them are not free from their influence, probably. That’s why Giorgio went all the way to Korea to ask me. He thought an appraiser from Korea couldn’t be working with the Italian mafia. Then, I verified that fake Raphael’s sketch, so…”

“They would beg you to stay and help them.”

“Probably.”