Same old saying: only dead artists had value—like Van Gogh, da Vinci, and so on. While they were alive, they might have enjoyed considerable renown—hell, even international fame—but the value of their paintings was just so-so...
It could even be said that most artists lived in poverty during their lifetimes. After all, people with money weren't fools. If an artist wanted a small fortune for a single painting, who knew how many paintings they could produce in a day?
That was why there was also a famous saying in the art world: "Only dead artists are good artists..."
Of course, this era could not be compared with the past. Some exceptionally skilled artists were still sought after, like Mashiro—
The fact that she could be received by a queen of an entire nation spoke volumes about her artistic gifts and abilities.
Even Sogo Doma had said, "If Mashiro's paintings were put on the market, they'd probably fetch more than twenty million..."
However, Sogo Doma's assessment was based on the assumption that Mashiro's paintings were masterpieces—at the very least, the kind selected for the royal collection. Otherwise...
If any random painting she drew could be priced at twenty million, would the Shiina Family have let Mashiro come here?
Think about it carefully. If one of Mashiro's paintings were worth twenty million, and she could paint ten, twenty, or even thirty paintings a day, how much wealth could Mashiro add to the Shiina Family in a single day?
Two hundred million? Five hundred million? Six hundred million?
That was just one day. What about a year? Tens of billions? Hundreds of billions?
But could Mashiro really do that? Of course she couldn't!
Perhaps the painting for which Mashiro had been received by the queen could sell for more than twenty million. But