A Room Full of Cameras
The next afternoon.
The VIP reception room at the Sotheby’s Hong Kong branch.
A place with a panoramic view of Hong Kong’s skyline.
Si-woo and Shin A-young had come here to go through the settlement procedures.
Even a day after the auction ended, the whole thing still didn’t feel real.
80 billion won.
Once the number passed a certain point, the situation still seemed unreal.
"You must be nervous."
Shin A-young asked as she set down her teacup.
"Yes. To be honest, I was so tense yesterday I didn’t sleep at all."
"I would have been the same."
A small smile touched Shin A-young’s lips.
Before long, the door opened and Andrew Wong, the Hong Kong branch manager, stepped in with an animated expression.
Two secretaries followed behind him, carrying a thick briefcase and a gift box.
"Mr. Kim Si-woo, Ms. Shin A-young. I apologize for keeping you waiting. It took a little longer because we were finalizing confirmation with our London headquarters."
Unlike his usual cold composure, Andrew Wong couldn’t quite hide his delight.
"This is the highest price ever achieved in Sotheby’s 200-year history for a porcelain piece! Art news headlines all over the world are plastered with the Qianlong-era Nine Dragons vase. This is a historic event. Haha."
Andrew Wong gave the secretary a nod.
The secretary carefully placed a black box on the table.
"Before we get down to business, this is a small gift to express my personal gratitude."
"A gift?"
Click.
When the box opened, a bottle of wine with a gold label lay elegantly on red velvet.
[Romanée-Conti 2014]
"That’s a 2014 Romanée-Conti. At current market prices, you’d have to pay at least 25 million won for that vintage."
Shin A-young recognized its value at once.
25 million won?
True, there was 8 billion won about to hit his account.
But Si-woo, who was a commoner to the bone, had a psychological ceiling of his own.
Honestly, would he even be able to tell how good it tasted if he drank it?
He felt like he’d never be able to bring himself to open it.
To be honest, though.
A chilled draft beer with ice crystals in a 500cc glass was more his speed.
Still, if it was being offered as a gift, he should gratefully accept it.
"I’d been saving this for a special day, but I don’t think there’s a more special day than today, so I brought it along. Please accept it as a small token."
"I’m not sure I’m worthy of receiving something this precious."
"Of course you are. Mr. Kim Si-woo, you’re now one of Sotheby’s VVIP clients."
Andrew Wong rewrapped the wine and handed it over.
"Then let me walk you through the payment process in detail."
He took a file folder from the leather briefcase and opened it.
Andrew Wong pointed to the first document.
"Normally, for a high-value auction like this, we allow about thirty days for payment..."
He took out a tablet and showed the transfer record.
"But Chairman Wang was eager to receive the piece quickly, so this morning he immediately deposited 92 million Hong Kong dollars, which is 20 percent of the winning bid, as a deposit."
"16 billion already?"
Si-woo’s eyes widened.
"Yes. That’s Chairman Wang’s style. He has also officially committed to transferring the remaining 80 percent in full before bank close this Friday. This is his written payment commitment, personally signed."
Andrew Wong kept flipping through the pages as he explained.
"Under Sotheby’s regulations, the seller’s settlement is ordinarily made thirty-five days after the auction date."
The waiting period was longer than expected.
But given the price, it was easy enough to understand.
"However."
Andrew Wong picked up a pen and drew a line under the bottom of the document.
"This case is highly unusual, and because the sum involved is so large, headquarters approved a special early-settlement benefit."
"What does early settlement mean, exactly?"
"As soon as Chairman Wang’s final payment is confirmed, we’ll transfer the full amount to Mr. Kim Si-woo’s account within twenty-four business hours. You should be able to see it in your bank account by next week."
His heart thudded.
Without having to wait a month.
By next week, that enormous sum of 80 billion won would be in his account.
"And as promised..."
Andrew Wong handed over the final settlement statement he had just run through a calculator.
"Sotheby’s is waiving the seller’s consignment commission for this auction, and we’ll also bear all associated expenses in full, including catalog production, insurance, and shipping."
At the very bottom of the document.
The number written under Net Proceeds.
- HKD 460,000,000 (KRW 80,000,000,000)
He carefully lifted the paper.
8 billion won.
It was truly, not a single won short, entirely his.
"Did you happen to check with the Korean tax team?"
Andrew Wong asked worriedly.
"Yes. Don’t worry about that."
Shin A-young answered for him.
"There’s still a tax deduction available from the donation of the Baekje gilt-bronze Maitreya seated Buddha, so the income tax on this profit should be completely offset. We’ll need to discuss the details with the accountant, but you can think of it as effectively no tax at all."
"If you needed help, we could have assisted, but I see that isn’t necessary. Haha."
They exchanged a few more words and then got up from their seats.
Andrew Wong rose as well and extended a courteous hand.
"Mr. Kim Si-woo, the appraiser. It was an honor to work with you and Sotheby’s. Congratulations, sincerely."
* * *
Before returning to Korea.
He met separately with Yang Dong-seok.
"We found the person who sold the Bird Box to Old Man Lee."
"How did you find them? Didn’t they say they’d never release the personal information?"
Yang Dong-seok grinned and made a circle with his hand.
"A little money in the right place and that stubborn old man’s mouth opened right up. He kept insisting he’d never tell anyone, too. Haha. We got the contact information for a laborer named Ah-Cheng, went straight to him, and finally met him last night."
"What did he say?"
Curiosity made Si-woo lean forward without thinking, still seated.
"He said he found the object at a demolition site in the Tokwawan area of the Kowloon Peninsula. It was an old communal villa built in the 1940s. While pulling apart the kitchen sink on the fourth floor, he found a hidden space underneath."
"A hidden space?"
"Yes."
Si-woo’s heart started pounding.
"It probably came over from Shanghai around December 1941, just before the Japanese army occupied Hong Kong. Then the war broke out, and there’s a good chance it got trapped here in Hong Kong with nowhere to go."
Yang Dong-seok sounded certain.
"Now that we’ve secured the exact building address, we can start tracing the people who lived around that place. We’ve already hired a large number of local private investigators and coordinators to begin field inquiries. Headquarters has made it clear that cost is no issue. Haha!"
"That really is good news."
Yang Dong-seok took out the restored family photo of Anna.
"This photo has already been sent to a world-class facial-recognition analysis firm. They’ll use AI to restore it in high resolution and generate age-progression composites from her twenties through her eighties. Since there’s an original photo from her teens, the accuracy should be quite high."
"So you plan to investigate using those composites?"
Yang Dong-seok held up three fingers.
"Shanghai, Hong Kong, and New York. We’ll focus our investigation in those three places. We’ll handle the fieldwork in Shanghai and Hong Kong ourselves, and the U.S. headquarters team will take care of New York."
Yang Dong-seok spoke with conviction.
"From the Shanghai Jewish Refugees Museum to the Jewish Historical Society in Hong Kong, and all the way to the Holocaust survivor communities in New York. We’ll keep searching until even one person appears who remembers Anna’s family."
His eyes burned with determination.
"Whether Anna ever reunited with her father, Joseph, and what kind of life they lived through the storm of war, we’re going to find the answer."
It looked as though Yang Dong-seok had taken on some kind of mission.
"Please take care of it, Director Yang Dong-seok. Find them, no matter what."
"Don’t worry. Leave it to us and trust us. Haha."
* * *
Incheon International Airport arrivals hall.
The moment the automatic doors slid open, he stopped walking.
There were more people inside the arrivals hall than he had expected.
The atmosphere was distinctly different from that of ordinary travelers.
People with cameras, people holding microphones, were scattered everywhere.
What is this?
Then two airport staff members approached.
"You must be appraiser Kim Si-woo. We’ll escort you."
"Pardon? Escort me?"
"Yes. There are a lot of reporters waiting, so we’d like to take you to the briefing room for a moment."
"Ah..."
As Si-woo hesitated, Shin A-young quietly said at his side, "It seems the auction information has gotten a lot of attention."
"What?"
"Your identity was already revealed in China, and articles are all over the place. There’s no way the domestic press wouldn’t know about it. And there was also that Nutflix shoot. I’ll wait outside. Take your time."
He followed the airport staff to the briefing room beside the arrivals hall.
The door opened, and already more than twenty reporters were waiting, cameras and microphones in hand.
"He’s here! Appraiser Kim Si-woo!"
At the shout from one network reporter, the room’s atmosphere changed in an instant.
Flash, flash, flash, flash.
Bursts of light exploded from all directions.
It was hard to keep his eyes open.
As if possessed by something, he stepped up onto the platform.
Countless eyes were fixed on him.
He barely managed to hold back the tremor in his legs.
"Look this way, please!"
"Appraiser Kim Si-woo! Please wave for us!"
He was dazed.
The airport staff handed him a microphone.
"We’ll take questions."
In an instant, a forest of hands went up.
"Appraiser Kim Si-woo! Please tell us your thoughts on the 80 billion won Qianlong-era Nine Dragons vase auction!"
"I’m still in a daze. I still can’t really believe it, and I think I was just very lucky."
He answered briefly.
"What are your plans going forward?"
"How did you uncover the treasure at IBEA?"
"What do you plan to use the proceeds for?"
Questions came crashing at him one after another.
Then one reporter raised a hand and shouted, "Appraiser Kim! On Chinese social media, there’s a lot of buzz about you catching a pickpocket in Hong Kong. Could you say a word about that?"
Even that had gotten around?
"It was just something I had to do."
"In the video, you subdued the culprit very quickly and decisively."
"I’ve been exercising a bit."
The reporters gave a short burst of laughter.
It wasn’t a joke.
"When will the Nutflix documentary be released? Everyone’s dying to know."
One female reporter asked.
"I’m not sure either. We’re still filming, but if the editing goes quickly, maybe it’ll come out in the second half of this year?"
After a few more questions, the airport staff stepped in and wrapped things up.
"Due to time, we’ll end here. Thank you."
"Appraiser Kim Si-woo! One last word, please!"
He gave a light wave and stepped down from the platform.
His mind was swimming.
He couldn’t remember what he’d said up to this point.
He hadn’t made any major mistakes, had he?
He left the briefing room and headed back toward arrivals.
A few reporters were still following him, but airport security held them back.
Outside, he saw Eterna Gallery’s black luxury sedan waiting.
A gallery employee quickly opened the rear door for him.
"Thank you."
As he got in, Shin A-young was already seated in the back.
"Hoo."
He let out a sigh and leaned back against the seat.
It felt as though all the energy had drained out of his body.
"You worked hard."
Shin A-young took a bottle of water from the minibar and handed it to him.
"Thank you. Still, I was shocked. It really felt like I’d become a celebrity."
"The auction became a worldwide sensation, after all. And 80 billion won is an enormous sum."
"That’s true. But I never imagined there’d be that many reporters waiting."
Si-woo gave a wry smile.
"Then we’ll be departing now."
With the staff member’s words, the vehicle began to move slowly.
Once they left the airport and entered the highway, he finally felt the tension ease.
Incheon’s scenery flashed past the window in a blur.
* * *
As soon as he got home.
He showered and flopped down onto the bed.
He stared blankly up at the ceiling.
What do I do now?
The room had gone from a lavish Hong Kong suite to a one-room apartment.
But his heart felt more at ease here.
Then his gaze fell on the laptop on the desk.
Habits were frightening things.
Even after going through all that trouble in Hong Kong.
His body had already reacted on its own.
For some reason, if he didn’t check the laptop, his body started to itch with restlessness.
"Let’s just look for thirty minutes."
He turned on the laptop and began browsing the domestic and overseas auction sites he had bookmarked.
While he’d been in Hong Kong, quite a few new items had been listed.
His hand stopped dead as he scrolled the mouse.
"Huh?"
An online antique auction site in the United States.
LiveAuctioneers.
The miscellaneous category, which he normally wouldn’t have paid any attention to.
An item listed there was drawing a great deal of attention.
The starting price was only $100.
And yet.
Current Price:$12,500 (16.5 million won)
The thumbnail for the photo must have glitched, because it wouldn’t appear.
Click.
The moment he clicked the mouse and entered, a brilliant golden radiance filled the room.