Artifact Reading Inspector

Chapter 55: Secret of the Gilt Bronze Buddha (3)

“Why not?”

He took out a piece of paper from his home and wrote the contract in an instant. Haejin then transferred the money. After that, the man looked at him as if saying he should get going with it, but he couldn’t.

“It would be wrong of me to just take it away, so I will tell you what this is.”

Eunchae’s husband was about to tell him to just leave, but he shut his mouth and looked at the buddha. He was probably curious since Haejin bought it for ten million.

It was less than 20cm tall, even including the halo. The buddha’s body itself was less than 10cm tall.

Its gilt was mostly worn off so it looked quite shabby, and this kind of gilt bronze buddha was common in temples, so people would not know if it was valuable, except those who knew a lot about antiques.

It was not overwhelming like the western paintings, and it didn’t draw attention like white porcelains and celadons. As it also had a strong religious meaning, some people just refused to accept all buddha statues.

“Can you see this?”

Haejin pointed at the topknot on the buddha’s head.

“This is called Yukgyae. This buddha is wearing a cloth with a V-neck. And, if you look closely, the left hand is down while the right hand is in the opposite direction, up. All of these point to one country: Goguryeo.”

When Haejin finished with a smile, Eunchae’s husband’s face was quite funny.

He couldn’t get mad. His face was red, but he couldn’t show his regret. He pretended to be calm.

“That’s hilarious. The person who appraised this before said this is a common buddha that used to be in a temple in the 60s or 70s.”

There were so many frauds in this field, so Haejin knew what happened. Someone had lied to make them sell it at a giveaway price.

“Who is it? I really wonder. There are only a few Goguryeo buddhas in Korea now. This buddha is at least worth hundreds of thousands, and that person devalued this like that…”

Surprised, Eunchae came closer.

“It was Mr. Gong Byeoksang. He’s an appraiser who often meets with my husband. He also has a shop in Insadong. He did that on purpose?”

“When it comes to appraising, there is no answer. There’s nothing you can do if he says he really thought so. It was just a mistake.”

“However, his reputation would be damaged.”

It seemed like Eunchae didn’t believe in Haejin’s appraisal results. She trusted more that Gong Byeoksang.

So, Haejin added, “Even members of the Artifact Appraisal Committee make mistakes. Those who appraise authenticity for auction agencies also make mistakes. Mistakes happen all the time when appraising antiques. This kind of mistake won’t hurt his reputation by much. Plus, there are only a few appraisers who specialize in buddha statues in Korea.”

Then, Eunchae’s husband interrupted.

“And, one of those few is you?”

“If you can’t believe it, you don’t have to. However, if you have to see the end, shall we go to the Korea Appraisal Committee and have it appraised? Their answer would be different from what you think.”

Now, the married couple looked at each other and started to blame themselves.

“Why did you sell it like that? I told you that the dealer said it was not ordinary!”

“Am I the one who said it was not good? Am I? It was Gong Byeoksang!”

“However, we shouldn’t have sold it like that… hu… well, it’s all good. It was the right choice for you to sell it. If you had kept it, you would have continued to be mean to me, so it’s all good.”

Eunchae sighed and gave up. At last, she even smiled and told Haejin to leave with it.

“I am glad that it was Haejin who bought it. If Gong Byeoksang had fooled me and took it, I wouldn’t have been able to sleep. You must be happy about giving a hard time to an innocent person and selling that.”

“I didn’t give you hard time.”

However, unlike before, the husband’s voice was small.

“Fine. If you want to know more, go to the appraising agency with Mr. Haejin here. However, he is the man who told the secret of the jade buddha, which no one knew, at the Korea Auction and had it sold at billions. I don’t think he is lying or making a mistake.”

“That jade buddha that was sold at 4.8 billion?”

“Yes. Anyway, I ended up giving you a present, Mr. Haejin. If you see me later, please help me.”

She had let Haejin buy that buddha, so that wasn’t a problem.

“Of course. I will appraise for you any time.”

“Then goodbye. I should go in now, I have a headache.”

Eunchae went in first while grabbing her forehead. Haejin lightly bowed his head at the husband who looked away in shame and left, carefully carrying the buddha.

He thought the man would insist on going to the appraising agency, but he didn’t. He probably had given up.

“Wow… is this really a Goguryeo buddha?”

Sujeong forgot the war of love that just had happened. She lightly touched the buddha’s topknot and asked.

“I think so.”

“Then, that Gong Byeoksang or something tried to con them?”

“He’s a fraud, but he cannot be arrested for that. As I just said, he can pretend that he didn’t know. It has to be clear that he planned to fool someone. However, if he insists that he didn’t know this buddha is from Goguryeo, he cannot be charged. Plus, he probably wasn’t going to buy this himself.”

“Then?”

“He probably would have said he would introduce a buyer and bring someone he knows. That’s how horidasis work. They never buy things themselves. They make someone else do it and get the money from behind.”

“Wow… such a perfect crime!”

“Yes. They’re not the ones who buy it, so if someone accuses them, they would just say, ‘I’m sorry’, ‘I didn’t know’, ‘There’s nothing I can do as someone else has bought it already’.”

“Wow! Those bastards!”

Sujeong shook her fist and let out her anger. Of course, she was angry, as Byeongguk had been conned by horidasis before.

They came back to Insadong and had another uproarious time. Byeongguk made a great fuss again when he saw the buddha.

So, Haejin, Byeongguk and Sujeong were celebrating for gaining another great artifact at a nearby makgeolli place. Next, Sujeong’s phone started ringing.

“Huh? I have never seen this number. Hello?”

Sujeong answered and her face soon turned dark.

“Oh, really? We are at the makgeolli place. Go straight from our shop and turn right at the first crossroad you see. Come here.”

“What was that about?”

Sujeong ignored Byeongguk’s question and looked at Haejin worried.

“The person who just called me, he’s Gong Byeoksang. He sounded extremely angry.”

“Really?”

Eunchae and her husband probably had made him pay for what he had done. A while later, a man in his 50s arrived. He was half bald and was wearing a modernized hanbok. He was already steaming while coming in.

“Here!”

Haejin raised his hand high to greet him. He looked slightly puzzled. However, soon he gathered his senses and walked to Haejin.

“I am Gong Byeoksang.”

“Oh, really? I am Park Haejin. I’m the one who appraised that buddha and bought it.”

Byeoksang brought a chair from a nearby table, sat on it and talked in a low voice.

“Hey, there are ethics in this business. How could you get it like that?”

Haejin didn’t see that coming. He couldn’t even laugh. He had thought Byeoksang would insist his appraisal was wrong and they should find out the truth, but he was very straightforward.

“I’m sorry, but I didn’t know you were working on it.”

Haejin casted the bait to see how it goes. Then, Byeoksang thought about it and continued talking.

“You just had one look and took it, but we have put too much effort in that buddha. We cannot give up now.”

“I don’t care if you have been working on it. It just happened to come in my way, and as it wasn’t being appreciated enough, I bought it. You are not here to buy it from me, right?”

Haejin thought of course not, but Byeoksang went beyond his expectation.

“I will buy it from you. Give it to me.”

“Hahaha!”

Haejin couldn’t help but laugh. Byeoksang was making a hilarious demand so openly.

“It’s not that funny to me. That buddha you took practically belonged to us.”

“However, it wasn’t yours.”

“Please, name your price. I’ll just think we were too greedy. We’ll take some loss.”

That was nonsense, but Haejin suddenly wondered how much loss he was willing to take.

“Ten billion.”

Byeoksang wasn’t even surprised and shook his head as if he knew that Haejin would be like that.

“No, it’s not worth that much. So, stop kidding. Let’s not stress ourselves. Name the price you really want. A hundred million? Two hundred million?”

“A hundred million? Do you know what that buddha is? It was made in Goguryeo. You’re trying to buy it at a few hundred million?”

Byeoksang thought about it again and started talking.

“How about a billion?”

At that moment, Haejin’s chopsticks stopped. Not anyone can call a billion for a buddha statue.

Especially in cases like this in which people like Byeoksang try to work like a horidasi and fail. They get stingy and try to get things back with as little money as possible.

A billion would have been enough to buy that buddha before all that…

“That’s strange. Why didn’t you buy the buddha with that amount of money?”

Byeoksang didn’t answer right away. He always took some time to think and then opened his mouth.

“Greed is not easy to overcome.”

Haejin couldn’t understand what he meant, but Byeongguk clapped.

“Yes. If you tell them it is not good, people will sell it easily. However, if you tell them that it is valuable, they will never sell it easily. If he had offered a billion for that, they would have never sold it.”

Now, Haejin could understand. As Byeongguk said, if Byeoksang had said a billion, the buddha’s owners would have wanted two billion, and if he had said two billion, they would have thought three billion.

Offering the right price and making the deal would have taken at least a year.

People who need money would make a deal quickly; however, as Eunchae and her husband were rich, they would have taken a considerable amount of time to make their decision.

“However, why did you offer a billion to me? I could also get greedy, like anyone else.”

Byeoksang thought again and spoke.

“Because you know the buddha’s exact value.”

“I know a billion is huge money, and that you have offered a price high enough…”

Byeoksang interrupted Haejin for the first time.

“Two billion.”

“What?”

Unlike porcelains, buddhas were seldom sold at such a high price. So, offering two billion for a buddha meant Byeoksang was offering more than enough…

“However, only until this evening. We work in the same field. Let’s play the tug-of-war only with the clients. That is our Maginot line. We’ll wait till evening.”

He left a business card, stood up and left.

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