Artifact Reading Inspector

Chapter 77: Back in Korea Again… (2)

What was she talking about? Why would Saeyeon Gallery sell such a crude forgery…

“Did you really buy it from Saeyeon Gallery?”

“Yes! Why would I lie? And cra, cra, what?”

“Craquelure. When you paint with oil, in time, the painting shrinks as humidity changes, and small cracks naturally appear on the surface, like here… of course, cracks appear if you paint over before the paint dries or if the underpainting is absorbed too well, or if the varnish (transparent paint applied on surfaces of wood and other materials) and the paint are not mixed well, and the speed of the drying is not even. Anyway, a painting that has gone old naturally doesn’t get this kind of craquelure. This was baked. In an oven…”

“Oh, oh… no way. This is really fake?”

Haejin had to restrain his anger. She was so rude.

“If you don’t believe me, take it to the Korea Appraisal Committee. Stop ramping around in a shop.”

“I, I didn’t… oh, so dirty. I cannot even breath here… I should go out. What are you doing? Go and start the car! Now!”

She nagged at her innocent chauffer and left without looking back. When the car was out of sight, Haejin went back into the shop and tried to comfort Sujeong. She was very mad.

“Don’t pay attention to it. She doesn’t know a thing.”

“She doesn’t know much. However, she should at least listen to others! She just yells without listening! So stupid…”

“She doesn’t even know she is stupid. I guess her kids are also like that. The only thing they’ll ever learn from her is yelling. Just think of it having a bad day.”

“It was the worst day I’ve ever had.”

Sujeong’s eyes turned red as if she was about to cry. Byeongguk hugged her.

“It’s okay. She was humiliated, too, so she must be very ashamed by now. So just forget about it. Okay?”

“Okay.”

Sujeong now felt better with her father’s comfort. However, Haejin never got to ask when the woman bought that painting.

He regretted not using magic. And eventually, he left the shop and headed to Saeyeon Gallery.

“Huh? Mr. Haejin! It’s been a while. I heard you were in Hong Kong.”

When he arrived, Eunhae was very busy. She was preparing for the upcoming Baroque special exhibition.

“I thought the Baroque special exhibition is Hyoyeon’s.”

To counter the Haevici Gallery’s Salvador Dali exhibition, Hyoyeon, Vice Chairman Lim Sungjun’s daughter, was planning a Baroque exhibition.

Eunhae smiled bitterly and looked at the pamphlet in her hand.

“Yes, but how can I let her handle everything when she doesn’t know a thing about exhibitions? Shall we go in?”

“Okay.”

They went into Eunhae’s office and sat down. Someone brought them tea.

“Why did you go to Hong Kong?”

“I just did some sightseeing and shopping with a friend.”

Haejin had done too many things, so he just replied like that.

“Wow… I envy you. I wish I had the time to go on a trip.”

“But it’s strange. Didn’t you want this exhibition to be ruined?”

Eunhae nodded.

“Yes. And I still hope it doesn’t go well so that I would be able to keep my position.”

“Then, you are being busy just as a cover?”

“Yes. However, this is hard. Although I want Hyoyeon to fail, when I see the paintings she is planning to exhibit, I keep giving her advice. It’s stupid, right?”

“I didn’t know you have such enthusiasm.”

“Haha, enthusiasm, I like it. But when I turn my back, I feel like cursing at that enthusiasm. It would not matter if the paintings will make the exhibition fail, but Hyoyeon keeps choosing things that are neither good nor bad… now, I am trying hard to not think about it, reminding myself, ‘If you keep helping, you are crazy.'”

“Hahaha! That’s great enthusiasm.”

“It’s more like madness. However, why are you here? I think you didn’t come here just to pay a visit.”

Haejin thought about how to talk about it, but he decided to be straightforward. That was his style.

“You know my friend Sujeong, right? The restoration expert.”

“Yes, of course, I do. But why?”

“She was asked to restore a painting by Oskar Kokoschka from the wife of the Federation of the Korean Industries’ high official. She said that some hot water had been poured on it, but it had smudges in a corner.”

“Oh… and?”

Eunhae’s face didn’t show anything yet.

“However, it turned out that it was a fake. The quality is not good… probably between A class and B class from Dafen Oil Painting Village?”

“Oh, really?”

“But the problem is that she claimed she had bought it from here, from Saeyeon Gallery.”

“What?”

Eunhae’s eyes widened. She was confused. Haejin could see that she was not acting.

“That’s why I came. Now that she knows her painting is fake, she might come here because of it.”

“Oh… wait. Mina, could you come in for a second?”

Eunhae was clearly surprised. She called someone with an interphone.

“Did you want to see me?”

The person who came in was Curator Jeong Mina, who Haejin had met a few times before.

“Yes, have you sold Oskar Kokoschka’s painting before in this gallery?”

Mina was always calm and reserved, but she got nervous at Eunhae’s question.

“What? I don’t really…”

“No, think about it. The wife of a FKI’s high official tried to have that painting restored, but it turned out to be a fake. I must know who she is to come up with a plan. So, think about it carefully. You started working here before I did.”

“Well, I…”

Mina bit her nail. Her eyes were shaking, so she must know something.

“If you know something and don’t talk, there can be legal problems. The painting is worth eighty million won, if the buyer asks for that money and compensation for mental damages, you know Sayeon Gallery would have to make the employee, who’s responsible for that, pay, right? So, it would be better to confess everything you know before that happens.”

Eunhae looked at Haejin at hearing this. She couldn’t see why Haejin would say that, but Mina was about to cry now.

“It’s… it’s… Mr. Vice Chairman’s wife…”

“What did my aunt do? Tell me.”

“After you came… she opened an exhibition for VVIPs at Hilton Hotel without telling you…”

Haejin interrupted.

“She did an exhibition at a hotel? What do you mean? Is that normal?”

He looked at Eunhae. She, however, shook her head.

“I’ve never heard of such a thing, either. So? You’re saying Oskar Kokoschka’s painting was sold during that exhibition?”

“We sold five paintings in total…”

“Oh…”

It wasn’t Haejin’s business; however, he couldn’t help but groan. Eunhae was so shocked. She didn’t know what to do and what to say. She just kept sitting down and getting up. After a while, she talked.

“First, give me the list of the people who bought the paintings at the time. I’ll contact them and take care of everything. Do not let my aunt and uncle find out about this. Understand?”

“… Yes.”

“And write me a report about it.”

“Okay.”

After Mina left, the air turned chill. Eunhae blankly stared at the wall and talked.

“Before I came, my aunt managed this place. She objected so strongly when my grandfather gave this gallery to me… she openly criticized me in front of my grandfather… but strangely, she was quiet on the day she stepped down. At the time, I was grateful for that. I was being a fool…”

“However, I do not understand. This can be revealed at any time. Then, her reputation will be damaged along with the gallery’s reputation.”

“No, her reputation will remain intact. She is Hwajin vice chairman’s wife. Who would dare to accuse her? They will put the blame on me.”

“How does that make sense? It’s not like those buyers do not know how things are going.”

“They know, and that is even worse. My aunt wants me to fall, and those buyers all know that. So, although they will get angry, they would blame me instead of blaming my aunt.”

“Then, what about the gallery’s reputation?”

“Companies can always make mistakes. Think about it. Has Hwajin always done good things? When it poured oil into the sea and paid an extremely low compensation… when it sued families of the workers who died of leukemia after working at its factory rather than giving compensation… people were enraged, but eventually, they bought Hwajin’s products. And this is not about the public but is about mistakes that only concerns VVIPs, so she would not care about it at all.”

Eunhae replied sadly. She looked weak as if her soul had left her.

“So, what are you going to do?”

“I must visit them one by one and compensate them. At least, I found out about it early thanks to you. If I had known it late, I would have been humiliated without doing a thing. Thank you. You saved me again.”

“Well, it was a coincidence… but what if you get kicked out of here?”

Eunhae looked dispirited, but she shook her head.

“If I get kicked out, the artifacts here will be sold to the world. I must keep my place to not let that happen.”

“Hmm… anyway, I hope things go well for you. Oh, and I’ll come to this Baroque special exhibition and do my best to make a fuss.”

“Haha, I’ll look forward to that.”

Haejin felt bad about leaving Eunhae, but there was nothing he could do for her.

He went home, took a shower, and held the incense burner stand again. As he had put a lot of effort into getting it, he hoped to meet its matching incense burner while casting the spell…

“Umm…”

Was it because he looked at the past for too long? He frowned at the sharp headache, but his lips smiled.

“Iksan…”

Fortunately, the incense burner was probably still buried underground.

In joy, Haejin didn’t take a break and used the Internet to find the exact location of the place he’d seen through magic. And the next day, he went to Iksan instead of going to his museum.

The problem about Oskar Kokoshka’s fake Sujeong had tried to restore wouldn’t be solved so easily.

So, Haejin needed to finish his business in Iksan as soon as possible and go back to Seoul.

“Wow… it’s driving me crazy. It has to be here…”

Sadly, the stand had been excavated during the Joseon period. So, the incense burner, which was buried together, had to still be underground. However, Haejin couldn’t determine the exact spot.

As the assumed location was in the middle of a residential area, Haejin could not compare it with the Joseon period he had seen to find out the location. He just thanked for it not being in the middle of an apartment complex.

“Yes, I cannot go to work till next month.”

He even told his employees, at the museum, that he couldn’t go there for a while and checked into a nearby motel.

He spent a week going around the area to find similar geographical features which he had seen through magic. Then, he got tired and went into a convenience store to get some ice cream, but then he spotted a huge tree next to the playground.

He went closer to take a look. The plate in front of the tree said it was more than 600 years old.

“I’m a fool… I’ve seen this before…”

He scolded himself. He had seen this tree a few times during the last few days.

However, he had just passed by without thinking about it, but now he recalled seeing this tree through magic.

He searched for the spot according to his memory and eventually stopped in front of a small two-story villa, but there was a sign hanging over the door.

“Yeanhwadan?”

Judging from the strange symbol drawn under the sign, the place clearly belonged to a fortuneteller.