Artifact Reading Inspector

Haejin could understand that. Given the importance of the painting, taking enough precaution was necessary.

“Hmm… well then, I will appraise it.”

Haejin stood up and went to the painting. As he got closer, the scenes of the painting got even clearer. They pierced into his eyes.

Cavani and Albert stared at him while both looking quite worried.

Van der Veken, the Belgian restorer, drew three different things in his painting so that it wouldn’t be the same with the original Righteous Judges.

One of the differences was that he added Leopold III’s face to one of the judges’ face, and the second was that he didn’t draw the ring of another judge, and the last thing was that he moved the head of yet another judge so that his face wouldn’t be covered by his fur hat.

These three differences were easy to find, so even normal people could easily guess how the original looked like.

Of course, Haejin had seen photos of the original painting and he still remembered every detail of it.

Because of that, the thrill he felt as he slowly traced the painting was enough to let him know that it was real.

Maybe it had started when he learned magic, but he could get that kind of feeling the moment he saw any work of art.

When it was fake, it felt awkward while he didn’t get that feeling when it was real.

Cavani was surprised to see Haejin’s hand tremble. Then, Haejin used magic to see the past, he wanted to know the truth behind the painting.

When Haejin straightened his back, Cavani stood up as if he couldn’t wait anymore. Then he asked, “How is it?”

Instead of answering, Haejin asked, “Are you going to return this to St. Bavo’s Cathedral if it is real?”

Cavani thought about it and answered, “I am willing to return it, as long as they will pay me the right price.”

“The right price…”

“You sound like you don’t like it,” Cavani commented.

Haejin then said, “This belongs to you, but you sound like you are about to get paid for it, a lot.”

“With ‘the right price’ I mean the money I spent to buy it and the fees I have paid to the many appraisers for it. Is that a problem?”

That was reasonable, and Haejin had no choice but to admit it.

“Well, then… this is the original Righteous Judges that was lost in 1934,” Haejin spoke calmly.

Cavani was confused a moment, and then he widened his eyes as if he couldn’t believe it. Then he asked, “This is the real Righteous Judges?”

“Yes. Honestly, I find that hard to believe it, too, but it is real. The panel is old, and the craquelure of the oil painting is so natural that I cannot think it is less than a century old,” Haejin said.

Cavani then asked, “But can’t this kind of craquelure be made after about 90 years?”

“You don’t know how forgers are. It is possible to create centuries-old craquelure in just ten years. But think about it. What kind of forger would spend a decade on forging a painting? Waiting for just two years is hard for them.”

“The greed of forgers… I never considered that. I hope you are right, but is there really no forger with such patience?” Cavani asked.

Haejin explained, “I assure you, one does not have to forge if he or she has that patience. Anyone who is good enough to imitate this painting so perfectly would have become a successful artist in less than a decade.”

“Hmm… it makes sense,” Cavani commented.

“Plus, if this were fake, it wouldn’t be so natural even if it was more than a century old. Forgers try to make fakes as realistic as possible in a short time, but they do not spend much time to make them perfect.”

Cavani nodded and then asked again, “Is there any other evidence?”

Haejin hesitated for a moment, but he continued speaking, “The panels of the Ghent Altarpiece were all made with the same wood. The current panel of the fake Righteous Judges in St. Bavo’s Cathedral may not look different from the other panels, but if you have it analyzed, you will be able to find out that they were made out of different woods.”

Albert jumped to his feet and said, “Ha… how did you find out that this panel is that same wood? Are you a wood appraiser or something? And how do you know that the panels of the Ghent Altarpiece were all made of the same wood? That’s…”

Haejin couldn’t bear to say that it was something he didn’t know. And he was right. Haejin hadn’t known just a minute ago.

By using magic, he saw the Eyck brothers making the paintings. At the time, they cut down a huge tree and made 12 panels with it. He cheered quietly because explaining why the painting in front of him was real, only with its context, wasn’t easy.

He wanted to talk about Jan van Eyck’s coloring and lines, but as a genius restorer, Van der Veken, had already made an imitation that was almost perfect, so talking about them didn’t mean anything.

The painting was real, but he had to give pieces of evidence, so he was in trouble, but then the Eyck brothers showed him the inarguable proof.

“Please do not ask how I know that, I just appraise with the things I know. And what is important is not how I know this, but to check if the panels of the Ghent Altarpiece were all made from the same wood. If they were, this painting is real.”

Haejin didn’t know what wood it was. He wished he knew.

“Yes, that is not what matters,” although Haejin’s explanation wasn’t perfect, Cavani nodded. He easily accepted Haejin’s opinion because he believed he had no ties to the mafia.

“Do you need more?” Haejin asked, but Cavani sat down and shook his head.

“There was a reason why Mat recommended you so much. He examined this for more than an hour but couldn’t find out anything, but you figured out all that in just 10 minutes. If I hadn’t seen that with my eyes, I wouldn’t believe it,” Cavani said.

“Thank you.”

Cavani raised his finger. Then a man ran to him.

“Pay him his fee. Oh, Mr. Park! Let me ask you something. How much do you think this painting is worth?”

That was a really hard question. It was one of the 12 panels of the Ghent Altarpiece, one of the greatest artistic work, so Haejin couldn’t say it was worth a certain amount of money.

Its value depended solely on what kind of owner it would meet.

However, the problem was that its value had to be high for him to get more fees. He had been promised 10% of the price as the fee, so if he said 10 billion, he was going to get a billion, but he could get 10 billion if he said 100 billion.

Although he didn’t know if Cavani would accept if he said 100 billion…

“Are you going to accept the price I propose?” Haejin asked.

“You are the best appraiser I know. If I don’t listen to you, then who should I turn to set its price?”

“As you know, I might think about my own interests.”

Cavani smiled and said, “Do you think an appraiser who appraises for one’s own interests can work for long?”

In a way, he was wise, but in another way, he was foolish. However, that foolish comment defeated Haejin’s greed.

“I see, I think the appropriate price would be 40 million euros.”

That was a huge sum of money, but Cavani thought it would be at least that much. He nodded and talked to his servant, “Hmm… I see. Take care of it.”

“Yes, sir.” The servant went away.

Haejin then asked in shock, “I hope you haven’t forgotten you must have the other 11 panels and this panel analyzed?”

Cavani leisurely crossed his arms, clearly satisfied.

“As you said, I will have to have them analyzed, but I don’t think you are wrong. Maybe I, myself, want this to be real.”

“You said you were going to return it to the cathedral, but you still want this to be real?” Haejin asked.

“I don’t know what you think of me, but I love art. Thinking that such a masterpiece would be in the hands of criminals who lust for money, even if it isn’t mine… it doesn’t exactly make me feel good. And as I am going to charge the cathedral for the money I spent on getting and appraising this painting, I won’t lose even if I pay you a lot. There is no need to play a tug-of-war.”

“Yes, but what if this is fake?”

“Your fee will be paid following legal procedures. And the contract says if there’s anything wrong with what you said about this painting, I can get it back. Is there any problem?”

Of course not. He was offering to give Haejin 4 million euros, so it was time to stop arguing.

“No, thank you,” Haejin answered.

Cavani then said, “I think you will be able to do much more here in Europe. No, I think you should do much more.”

“I don’t understand…”

“Although Italy is the home of artifact smugglers, the center of that smuggling has always been somewhere else. England. What happens here is just the tip of the iceberg. And I want you, who isn’t corrupted, to do more,” Cavani explained.

“I am not just saying this, but isn’t Mr. Harrington good enough?”

“Of course. He is my dear friend and one of the best appraisers, but you are, what should I say… you seem to be from a different world. No one in history has appraised so quickly and so perfectly like you. Maybe… no, enough with these useless talks. It has been my pleasure,” Cavani was about to ask something, but then he stopped.

Haejin wanted to know what it was, but he couldn’t ask. So, he replied, “It has been mine, too.”

Cavani said he would reach out to Haejin and they would meet again. Then, he went up, but Albert was still there.

“Is there something you want to say?” Haejin asked.

Albert sat down where Cavani had sat and started saying, “Actually, I have more than a few questions. I want to grab your neck and make you confess everything, but I can’t, and I know it would make me even more miserable, so I probably shouldn’t.”

“Then?”

“I didn’t know you would appraise that painting so quickly. I thought it would take at least one day,” Albert said.

“So, what are you trying to say?”

Haejin was about to raise his voice as Albert kept changing the subject, but then he heard something very unexpected from Albert.

“I need your help.”