Artifact Reading Inspector

Chapter 196: What Happened in Austria (1)

Mat spent another day in Seoul and left. The next day, Haejin got a visitor.

“Tell me honestly. You knew, didn’t you?”

Haejin had anticipated Hwajin-Nomura consortium would lose, but he didn’t know Hyoyeon would storm into his museum like that.

“I only appraised. The decision was up to Prince Mohammed. You must know that.”

However, Hyoyeon didn’t buy it and plopped down on a chair in Haejin’s appraisal room.

She must have known that her underpants could be seen as her skirt was short, but she didn’t care and crossed her legs.

“Do you think I am a fool? I wasn’t talking about that. You knew the prince was obsessed with porcelains, but you pretended to be ignorant,” Hyoyeon replied.

“I had no idea about that.”

Haejin was a little confused, but he was also thinking hard.

Even though the woman in front of him was somewhat stupid and far from being capable, there had to be a reason for her to insist hard like that.

He didn’t know how she had found out about the prince’s obsession with porcelains, but it wasn’t a good reason for Hyoyeon to come and act rudely.

Then, she was doing it because she wanted something…

“You really didn’t know?” Hyoyeon asked.

“I swear.”

“Hmm… okay. I thought you knew and told the opposite side. Isn’t it strange? That they brought porcelain?”

It was a mere coincidence, but Haejin didn’t bother to point that out and said, “I guess Yuseong-SG consortium got lucky.”

“Ha! Fine, let’s say that is the case. Oh, and as I am already here…”

What she was about to say had to be the real reason she had come.

“What?”

“You are close to Prince Sahmadi, aren’t you?” Hyoyeon asked.

She had a purpose, after all. But what was up with Prince Sahmadi?

“And?”

Hyoyeon continued, “We are working on a deal about oil development, and Prince Sahmadi is in charge of energy development. So…”

“No,” Haejin refused even before Hyoyeon finished speaking. She looked puzzled and asked, “What? But you haven’t heard what I’m about to offer…”

“There’s no reason to hear it. Who says I am close to Prince Sahmadi? And even if I was, I know almost nothing about him. I wouldn’t be able to help you even if I wanted to.”

“Are you going to keep being hard on me? You think I do not know you are close to him? I already know everything. Just listen to me, you will get to realize my offer isn’t that bad,” Hyoyeon tried to tempt him.

“No, I do not want to get involved in anything that has to do with the prince. And I really know nothing. I don’t know about his hobbies and I don’t know about his interests.”

“Really nothing?”

Hyoyeon looked at him with doubt, but Haejin really didn’t know much about the prince.

Of course, he could have asked Silvia and get to know her father better than anyone, but there was no reason to do that.

Plus, Haejin was still feeling sorry for Prince Sahmadi because of Silvia. He didn’t want to get involved in his matter at all.

“Yes, I swear. I know nothing about him. I’ve never even had a meal with him, how am I supposed to know about his interests and hobbies?”

“Hu… fine. If you recall anything, call me. This is about the life of many people.”

Haejin mocked her on the inside, but he didn’t show it and nodded, “I will.”

Since when she cared about her employees like that… it was funny, but it looked like she really thought so. She even looked very serious as she left.

However, right after she left, Eunhae came in smiling.

“I heard Hyoyeon was beaten hard.”

“You already know? How did you find out?”

“Yaerin called me.”

“So, you two now call each other?” Haejin asked.

“She called because the news was good for both of us. It’s not like we’re still kids. We can’t keep fighting. Haha!”

However, her awkward smiled made Haejin think their fight would resume anytime with the right cause.

“It doesn’t look like you came to tell me that… what is it?” Haejin asked.

Eunhae usually came down to talk about issues unrelated to work during lunchtime or after working hours.

She had never come down herself in the middle of the office hour to talk about a private matter.

“Actually, you were just offered a case. I thought about saying no, but I had to hear your opinion first.”

If she had thought about refusing the offer, it must have been a foreigner who proposed it.

“Why were you going to refuse it? Is it a foreigner’s offer?”

“Yes, it is, but that isn’t the only reason,” Eunhae replied.

“Then?”

“It sounded like it would take a lot of time. At least… two weeks.”

“What is it that it would take so long?” Haejin asked.

“I don’t know. It is the Medici’s offer, and they won’t tell me what it is about. They just said they wanted you to appraise a number of artifacts, and you had to keep secret on the case,” Eunhae explained.

“I must keep the secret? It is tempting…”

As it was the Medici that was requesting secrecy, Haejin couldn’t help but get interested.

“So, I came down immediately to ask you,” Eunhae continued.

“Did you get a call? Or…”

“They called me and sent fax after that, but your destination is a little strange. It isn’t Florence, Italy.”

“Where is it?” Haejin asked.

“Vienna, Austria.”

Haejin felt his body getting goosebumps.

Maybe…

“I’ll go. I will work till tomorrow, so please announce I won’t appraise for about three weeks starting the day after tomorrow.”

Haejin had this feeling that he would get to see amazing artifacts in Vienna.

Haejin arrived at the international airport of Vienna with a beautiful woman.

She was Silvia. As Haejin couldn’t leave her alone in Korea for safety issues, and she had changed her identity and appearance, she had joined him.

If Eunhae had come with Haejin, Silvia would have had no choice but to stay in Korea. However, as Eunhae had gone on a long business trip, she couldn’t accompany Haejin on this one.

“Haha! Isn’t the weather so beautiful?”

She took Haejin’s arm and smiled brightly.

“But it looks like it’s about to rain…”

The weather was gloomy and humid, but Silvia liked even that type of weather.

“But I like it! It’s not hot. And wouldn’t it be so romantic if it rains? I would be so happy if I could listen to music and have coffee with you in a café of the raining Vienna,” Silvia replied. She spoke so sweetly that Haejin couldn’t help but laugh like a fool and reply, “Haha, I would be so happy as well,”

“Really? Really?”

Haejin didn’t know what to say. But then, someone talked to him.

“Are you Mr. Park?”

When he looked, there was a tall and handsome man in a suit.

“Yes, I am,” Haejin confirmed.

“Welcome to Vienna. I am Marchelo Padeli from the House of Medici. I have prepared a car. Would you like to come?”

“Okay.”

He took Haejin’s huge traveling bag and started to walk forward.

When Haejin and Silvia arrived at their hotel, they had to get back on the car again right after unpacking their stuff.

They were a little confused at all the rushing, of course. Marchelo then took them to a desolate mansion in the outskirts of Vienna.

The mansion had a wide vineyard. It was so peaceful and beautiful that Haejin wished he had enough money to buy it.

“It’s been a long time.”

Surprisingly, when he went inside, Cavani di Piero Medici, himself, greeted him.

Haejin didn’t expect he would be waiting for them, so he was surprised when he took his hand.

“Did you call me yourself?”

Cavani confirmed, “Yes, there are only a few people who know we are here. Even the members of my family don’t know.”

It meant he had come in secret, and it aroused Haejin’s interest even more.

“But why did you bring me here…”

Cavani replied, “Haha, you are so impatient, like most of the other Koreans. Please sit first. This mansion’s vineyard produces good grapes. So, I always drink wine made with them and enjoy the scenery when I come here. Would you like to try it?”

“Thank you.”

Haejin drank some white wine and introduced Silvia to Cavani. After that, Cavani lowered his voice and said, “What I am about to say is extremely sensitive.”

It meant Silvia couldn’t hear it.

“Silvia and I share deep secrets. She knows a lot about antiques and is very capable.”

Cavani looked at her for some time and nodded, “If you say so.”

He made everyone else leave the room. Then, he slowly started to talk.

“Do you know that the Nazi stole a huge number of artifacts during the Second World War?”

“Of course, I know that well.”

Cavani continued, “At the time, the troops of the Allies had found artifacts hidden in salt mines and warehouses in Austria. They then kept them in Mauerbach monastery near Vienna.

“There were 8,500 artifacts in total. They tried to return them after the war, but it wasn’t easy.”

“It wasn’t easy?” Haejin asked.

“As most of the record about the original owners had been destroyed, only a few artifacts could be returned,” Cavani explained.

The Allies made a unit that specialized in retrieving artifacts stolen by the Nazi. Its story was very famous and was even made into a movie.

At the time, the unit succeeded in retrieving the artifacts, but a problem occurred after that.

The people who had some sort of records that showed their ownership of the artifacts, before they were stolen from the Nazi, could get back what belonged to them. However, most of the previous owners didn’t have such records or had lost them during the war.

At the time, the monastery showed the artifacts until 1972 and found the original owners, but only a few artifacts could be returned.

“Oh, I’ve heard of that. As far as I know, those artifacts were sold on auction,” Haejin commented.

The government of Austria couldn’t find the owners until 1995. In the end, it handed them over to the Jewish community in Austria.

After that, the artifacts were sold on auction, and the revenue was used to help the victims of the Holocaust and their families.

“That is the story you know,” Cavani replied.

“And it isn’t true?”

Haejin had been listening comfortably, but now he was interested.

“At the time, some criminals were in the Austrian Museum of Applied Arts that held the auction. So, most of the artifacts were switched with fakes or smuggled away.”

It was really shocking.

“That’s remarkable. If someone else had said it, I would have never believed them,” Haejin replied.

“I couldn’t believe it either when I first heard about it,” Cavani commented.

“But you are telling me this today because…”

“Because I have found a few of the artifacts they had stolen, and you are the only appraiser I can fully trust.”