Negotiations (Part Two)

Precisely because merchants were so shrewd and calculating, Chu Chen did not want to trade with them. He felt that if he did, he would likely expend a great deal of effort, only to find that the final gain fell short of his expectations. That was why he was not particularly enthusiastic about today's deal.

Besides, he was not desperate to trade away that work. If it failed to meet his expectations, he could simply display it in his future private museum. When the time came, it would be far more effective advertising for his museum than any advertisement on television.

After hearing Chu Chen's reply, Vincent could not help frowning. Bartering was also very popular internationally, and he had made such exchanges before. However, he usually proposed an exchange only after taking a fancy to someone else's item. That created a problem: the person who proposed the exchange would definitely lose out in the transaction. After all, they were the one asking for something.

To Vincent, if the item was worth tens or hundreds of thousands of euros, then using an exchange to complete the deal was no big deal. But this was a work by Raphael. Most of his works were housed in museums, and very few circulated on the market. His previous record had been a drawing sold at Christie's in 1996 for 5.3 million Pound Sterling.

It was important to note that this referred to a drawing, and specifically a black-chalk drawing. A work like that could fetch 5.3 million Pound Sterling, which showed just how popular Raphael's works were.

Moreover, that had been in 1996. Six years had passed, and prices in the art market had risen astonishingly. The auction prices of many works by famous foreign masters had increased substantially.

By Chu Chen's estimate,