Artifact Reading Inspector

Jan van Eyck was famous for realistically describing each fur of the cats and dogs.

However, even though the fur of the cat in this painting was very realistic, its color was dull compared to the other parts of the painting.

Additionally, as he touched the surface of the painting, he could feel an incomprehensible trace of overpainting.

It was a very thin and extremely delicate trace of overpainting.

Usually, overpainting is used when fixing mistakes, but in this case, it didn’t match the surrounding colors, so it seems awkward. It can be easily seen.

However, someone overpainted on this painting so delicately that it looked like it had been painted that way. The original painting was actually covered.

It now looked like the artist was not someone skilled…

However, why would someone do such a thing?

“What is it?” Rachel asked while standing up when she realized that Haejin had found something.

“Just a moment, please.”

Instead of explaining, Haejin used magic to look into the past. But…

“Asian appraisers put a great show when appraising. Do you always make a fuss like that? Or does that let you earn more?”

Albert sneered at Haejin. Eunhae tried to protest, but Haejin raised his hand to stop her. Then, he slowly stood up and started speaking while still looking at the painting.

“I am sorry if this looked like a show. I have disturbed your eyes and ears. However, Mr. Harrington, you said this was fake. Why was that?”

“Why? You can’t see it yourself?”

Haejin calmly shook his head and said, “No, I can see it way too well, but I want to know if that is why you concluded this painting as fake.”

Now, Albert was getting nervous. He thought Haejin might have seen something he had missed.

“The colors are too crude to be Jan van Eyck’s. He creates a bright and clear mood with layers of transparent coating, but there is no such thing in this painting. There is no evidence that says Jan van Eyck made this.”

That was an extremely rational opinion. If it had been another appraiser, he or she couldn’t have found any reason to argue with that… but unfortunately for him, his opponent was Haejin.

“It makes sense,” Haejin agreed.

“It makes sense? It makes sense? Hahaha! This man is really funny!”

Albert burst into laughter, and the people who had been watching laughed with him as well.

Normally, Albert is the one who had been teaching others, therefore what Haejin said was even harder to accept. It was the nonsense of a fool who was too full of himself.

The other aristocrats knew that, so they were laughing together. Seeing this, the Butlers started to get even more worried.

However, Haejin didn’t care. He just continued to say what he had to say.

“I said it made sense because even non-experts can clearly see that this painting doesn’t have Jan van Eyck’s clear colors. However, I want to ask the Butlers something. Ms. Butler? Why do you believe this painting is Jan van Eyck’s?”

Rachel looked around and grimly said, “My late mother said that her grandfather had left it, and it was Jan van Eyck’s. My great-grandfather was from Flanders, and it has been in our family from generations.”

Haejin had already found that out with his magic, so he asked, “Did you mother say anything about this painting? Even the smallest thing would be fine.”

However, Albert spoke before Rachel could say anything.

“You are wasting our time. Do you think you are Sherlock Holmes? If it was real, give us the reason why it is real, and if it is fake, give us the reason why it’s fake. Why are you doing this nonsense?”

“Oh, I’m sorry. I just want to know the reason,” Haejin replied.

“What reason?”

“The reason why the painting was damaged.”

Hearing this, Albert jumped to his feet and asked, “It is damaged?”

“Very carefully, I almost didn’t notice it.”

Haejin had noticed that there was nothing wrong, but he couldn’t be sure as he had no scientific tools. If he hadn’t seen the past with his magic, he wouldn’t have been able to say anything about the painting.

He was so confident only because he had seen the past and that was why he was asking.

“What do you…”

“Ms. Butler? Let me ask you again. Did your mother say anything about this painting?”

Rachel thought hard, trying to recall, but she couldn’t say anything. But then, Edmond, who was sitting next to her, said in doubt, “Can it be…”

Rachel turned to her brother, “What?”

“Mama told us that when her grandfather gave her this painting…” Edmond started speaking, “He said not to blame him, yes.”

Even if Haejin could look into the past, he couldn’t see everything about the painting. How could he know about the countless things that happened after it was made?

“Don’t blame him… I think I know what it means. Hmm… first of all, this is Jan van Eyck’s painting. It is his. It’s just that someone ruined this after he drew it.”

Haejin might as well have dropped a bomb, and murmurs were heard from everywhere. Now, either Haejin or Albert was about to get humiliated.

Of course, the aristocrats thought it would be Haejin, but things were clearly escalating.

“No way! Who would ruin a masterpiece like this?”

“Hubert van Eyck,” Haejin answered.

“What?”

“Hubert van Eyck. You can’t not know that name…”

Of course, Albert knew it. However, he was puzzled as he didn’t expect that name to come out now.

Hubert van Eyck was Jan van Eyck’s brother. He was even less known than his brother.

“Of course, I know Hubert van Eyck. But what does he have to do with this painting? And why would he ruin it?”

The Eyck brothers were among the pioneers of northern Europe Renaissance because they invented oil paints.

Before that, painters found colors in rocks and plants, then processed them to make their own paints. Next, they would mix the paint with egg.

However, egg-mixed paints were not useful to depict details. Additionally, preserving paintings drawn with that type of paint was hard. The Eyck brothers changed that.

The oil paint they invented brought about the freedom of expression. As oil was used, the colors turned clear and heavy. Moreover, as you can paint over, once the painting is dry, you can give depth to the painting, which is the characteristic of oil paintings.

Oil paintings can also be preserved for a long time as they don’t easily change, but they cannot be melted again once they dry, so you have to finish drawing before that.

Hubert van Eyck was a bit famous, but unlike Jan van Eyck, he couldn’t leave any masterpiece.

So, although he is called the pioneer of northern Europe Renaissance with his brother, he is thought to be a lesser painter.

“As you can see, the painting is too strange. I mean the colors, not the contents. Overall, it is an oil painting, but in some of the parts the balance isn’t right.”

“It’s not an oil painting?”

Albert eventually stood up and came next to Haejin.

“I didn’t say that, I said the balance wasn’t right. Don’t you think it is strange? You must have thought it is an oil painting, even if this wasn’t from Jan van Eycks. But look, some of the parts have been overpainted with different paints that have different varnish content. It’s right here, and here, and here…”

Albert put his face close to the parts where Haejin pointed at. He then started to tremble.

“This painting wasn’t like this at first, but someone changed it after it was made. So delicately and carefully… as this painting has a strong feeling of oil painting, such overpainting with the same paint with different varnish content is hard to notice.”

It meant Haejin had succeeded in doing something very hard. However, he decided to be bold to give a punch to the proud Albert.

“You found out the varnish content is different with just your eyes?” Florence couldn’t believe it and muttered while staring at Haejin.

“I got lucky. The texture and touch of the brush of this blue cat are different from the other parts of the painting. That’s how I noticed it.”

“No way…”

Haejin had noticed the different textures, but he was sure because he had looked into the past.

It wasn’t like his eyes had infrared ray sensors. How could he have noticed a slight difference in the varnish content?

However, he had seen Hubert van Eyck ruining the painting. Because of that, he could confidently talk about it.

“No, no. This isn’t…” he was yelling and jumping to his feet, Albert couldn’t believe it.

“Should we take a sample of the part I talked about and have it analyzed?”

“…”

Albert couldn’t say anything. Having a sample analyzed wasn’t hard, but there was no turning back for him.

He needed to avoid that at all cost. He could have finished there, but when the Butlers sent the sample to a lab, he wouldn’t be able to cover what had happened.

Then, Florence tried to save his brother by saying, “But that doesn’t prove Jan van Eyck made this painting. And it doesn’t prove Hubert van Eyck ruined it, either… it’s all guesses, isn’t it?”

Florence looked around to gather everyone’s confirmations. They nodded and agreed with her.

“Yes, it doesn’t prove that Jan van Eyck made this painting. However, the evidence lies somewhere else. It’s on the small ball the blue cat is playing with,” Haejin replied.

As soon as he said that, Albert hastily turned around and looked at the painting again. Haejin smiled to see this and continued.

“I could see why the other parts had been overpainted. They all showed how great of a painter Jan van Eyck was. The texture of the wool, the refraction of the light, the excellent depiction of the light and shade… but there is one part that is too normal, yet it was overpainted.”

Albert added in a daze, “The ball’s shadow…”

“That’s right. That part is too normal, so I wondered why it was overpainted. However, what Ms. Butler told me allowed me to realize the truth. ‘Don’t blame him’. Her ancestor knew that it had been ruined, but he didn’t have it restored. He thought he shouldn’t as he knew that was what the Eyck brothers wanted.”

Albert couldn’t believe it and asked, “Jan van Eyck knew?”

“Yes, even before the painting was finished… that is why he put his signature at such a place, where even the overpainting wouldn’t cover it perfectly…”