Artifact Reading Inspector-Chapter 125 - Visitor from the Desert (4)

“Rembrandt’s Portrait of Titus?”

“Yes.”

She sounded determined.

“You said we must get it. Are you going to buy it?”

Hassena, however, shook her head.

“No, I cannot buy that painting. I cannot lay a hand on Herold Mortgage, either.”

“Do you know what you are saying is contrary to what you said before?”

“At the time, I didn’t know about the organization Mr. Holton was going after.”

“Oh… and it turned out that you knew this organization?”

“You should know it, too. Maybe you already do…”

Haejin recalled Lee Shian.

“You mean…”

Hassena calmly raised her hand, it meant Haejin shouldn’t say more. Then, she spoke to Eric.

“As I said, I can’t get involved in this. It is because of a personal reason, so I cannot tell you. Please, do not ask about it to Mr. Park here.”

Eric laughed.

“What have you two talked about without me? You are so close now! Are you going to really get married?”

Eric was joking, but Saliyah’s reaction was sharp.

“Please be careful with what you say. What you just said is extremely dangerous. I hope you were not trying to diminish the honor of the Abu Dhabi family?”

“Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to.”

Eric hastily apologized. It showed how powerful the Abu Dhabi family was.

“That’s enough, Saliyah. He was only joking.”

However, Hassena scolded Saliyah.

“Your Highness, but…”

“Please don’t break the mood. Anyway, I think you have understood what I meant.”

“Hmm… okay. I’m dying to know, but I won’t ask.”

Eric glanced at Haejin as he replied. Hassena turned back to Haejin and continued.

“I’ve been exposed to them already. Unlike my sisters, I often worked outside to collect ‘them’, and eventually, I was exposed. Of course, I don’t think they can harm me. But the moment I try to get in their way, a war would start. There would be no turning back.”

She clearly knew well Lee Shian’s organization. It was the artifact crime syndicate Eric was going after, and the moment Hassena tried to buy that bank, she would be in danger.

Haejin had more than a few questions, but he decided to start with the most urgent one.

“Then, how are you going to get it?”

“I heard from Mr. Holton that you didn’t want to buy it. It doesn’t matter if it’s fake. Of course, it would be even better if it’s real… but I want you to buy it.”

After that, she mouthed, ‘don’t worry about the money’. The painting’s price was 4.7 million dollars, but she spoke as if she was paying for lunch. It was shocking.

“Is there a reason why I should buy it even if it’s fake?”

“First, Mr. Holton wants to see what that organization would do if its plan goes wrong. Would they give up or try to get it back? I want to know that, too. In addition, I also wonder what kind of story this painting has.”

Did she know? About the existence of magic that allowed one to look into the past? It would be shocking, but Haejin thought it could be. She knew all kinds of things, so she must have known about the different types of magic.

“Ha… okay. I will buy it. And if it was stolen from the museum, I will sell it back to it at a reasonable price. Would that be a problem?”

Eric shook his hands as if Haejin could do whatever he wanted, and Hassena also slightly shook her head.

“No.”

“Then, when do I get to appraise Rembrandt’s painting?”

Eric grinned and clapped.

“Now.”

The door opened, and two men carefully carrying a painting came in. Behind them, a bald man in his 50s followed.

He wasn’t that tall, but his back was bent, so he looked timid and like someone who could be scared easily. However, his gaze was strong while he looked around.

Haejin got the feeling that the man wasn’t going to be easily controlled just because he had no power.

“This is Mr. Alfred Bacon, who supplies seafood to this hotel. He is also the owner of this painting that is assumed to be Rembrandt’s.”

Hassena and Haejin nodded. Alfred slightly bowed and wiped off the sweat on his forehead with a handkerchief.

“I’m Alfred Bacon. I came because I wondered if you could recognize the painting’s true value.”

That was clever. He was asking if they had the ability to recognize the painting’s value, and also implying that he was ready to leave if they didn’t.

Princess Hassena would seem extraordinary at first sight.

There were bodyguards outside, and her clothes, accessories, and the secretary standing behind her said that, but Alfred was openly testing her.

Haejin’s father had told Haejin that it was wrong to handle men with schemes with words. People who talk a lot in front of antiques are mostly frauds, and the more you talk, the more easily they get to fool you.

Haejin quietly stood up and went to the painting. Alfred looked at him as if asking, ‘who the hell are you?’, but Haejin didn’t say anything. He touched the frame and examined the painting.

The texture of the oil painting and colors were right, and Rembrandt’s unique way of controlling light was used as well.

There was no trace of crude overpaint and the touch of the brush, which are frequently seen in forgeries, and the canvas itself appeared to be extremely long.

Haejin nodded and concluded it as real, but on the right top corner of the frame, there was a small damage.

“Why? Is there a problem?”

Eric got curious as Haejin kept staring at a corner.

“It is real.”

Haejin was sure, even without using magic. Nevertheless, he used magic to look into the past. It wasn’t to find out if it was real but to check how it was stolen.

“Really? But is there a problem?”

“Hmm… let’s discuss the rest later.”

Haejin returned to his seat and sat down. Alfred drew a chair and sat down as well.

“Then, which of you is going to buy it?”

“I will,” Haejin said.

Alfred looked at him in surprise, he probably thought Haejin was only the appraiser.

“Hoo… well, it’s not important who’s the buyer. What matters is how much you can pay.”

“Three million dollars.”

Haejin offered a much lower price than what he had in mind to see how he would react. However, Alfred smiled and shrugged.

“If you don’t want to break this deal, you will have to give me the price you have in mind. I am not someone patient.”

He neither got mad nor jumped to his feet. He was good at this. It made Haejin wonder how the organization made this man get involved in the real estate scheme.

“Fine. Four million dollars.”

“I guess you are not the one who will buy it.”

Alfred even excluded Haejin from the potential buyers. But now, Eric frowned.

He thought 4.7 million dollars would be enough to clear all of Alfred’s debt and even leave him with some money, but he acted like it wasn’t enough at all.

“Hey, you, you should…”

Eric stopped there. Haejin raised his hand and showed he was going to take care of it.

He looked at Alfred’s eyes that were full of greed. Then, he pointed at the painting and asked, “That was stolen, wasn’t it?”

Alfred didn’t know Haejin would point that out so openly. He flinched, but then he raised his voice.

“Huh! You think you can rip me off like that? Is there proof that I stole it? I bought this at a flea market three years ago!”

He was going to insist he had no receipt as he had bought it at a flea market. This is why catching the thief is hard if more than a decade has passed since a work of art was stolen.

However, Haejin was accusing Alfred so openly because he was already in an inescapable trap.

“What if I ask the security guard of Norton Simon Museum? Will you still give me the same answer?”

At that moment, Alfred’s eyes shook. He had to find out whether Haejin was bragging or not. Tens and hundreds of conflicts happened in that short second. His eyes showed that.

Eric shifted as if he wanted to ask how Haejin had found that out, but he managed to restrain himself. He just drank his wine.

After ten seconds, that could be both long and short, Alfred said, “I don’t know anything about it.”

“And I will not try to find out. How about 4 million dollars?”

Silence. Then, Alfred spoked again, “5 million dollars.”

“4 million. Take it or leave it.”

Haejin had planned to pay 4.7 million or even more before he saw the past.

There was a possibility of Alfred being an innocent good man who got the painting by chance and was being threatened. However, after looking into the past, his mind completely changed.

Surprisingly, the thief who had stolen the painting was a security guard of the museum and Alfred’s brother-in-law. He had given it to Alfred for safekeeping.

That man framed another security guard to steal the painting. It was a perfect crime.

However, Alfred was trying to sell it without his brother-in-law knowing, so it could end in a gunfight if he got to find out about it.

Alfred clenched his fists, but he finally nodded.

“Fine.”

His debt was 3 million dollars so he would be left with a million dollars. Haejin didn’t care about his brother-in-law as Alfred was supposed to handle him himself. Maybe he was planning to leave the country as soon as he got his million dollars.

“Please write a contract and leave the painting here. You will get the money as soon as the deal is over.”

If it had been a normal painting, a number of signatures would have been required, but as everyone knew it was a stolen good, Alfred signed only once, checked that he had the money and hurried to leave.

“Security guard? A security guard stole it?”

Eric asked the moment Alfred was out of the room.

“I just thought so. It is hard to steal a painting from a museum unless you have a security guard on your side. I just said to test him, and he took the bait.”

“Oho… you are a sly fox! I didn’t know you were capable of such a thing.”

“I got lucky.”

Haejin shrugged, but Eric smiled and asked, “Then, are you going to sell this to Norton Simon Museum?”

“No, we can’t move immediately. It would look like we are openly trying to mess up with them. Why don’t you keep it and secretly talk to the museum in time? If the painting is switched to the real one without anyone knowing, even that organization wouldn’t be able to know.”

“Hmm… okay, I will get you more than 4 million dollars. Of course, it looks like you just got yourself a great sponsor, but more money is always good. It is scary to keep a 20-million-dollar painting.”

He was just saying that. He had many paintings that were worth much more than 20 million.

“Then, are we done here?”

“I am, but there’s someone who heard rumors about you and wants to meet you.”

“Who is he?”

“Howard Johns, governor of New York. But he won’t tell me what he needs to have appraised.”