The growth of an artist’s skills is never a smooth curve, and is related to everyone’s physical condition, learning ability, talent, and the artistic environment they can access.

An artist from a remote area,

arrives in big cities like New York, London, Paris, or Provençal.

The cutting-edge art trends come crashing like waves; not being swept away by these waves, it’s easy to undergo a transformative and rapid growth.

Many black artists from Kenya and Tanzania only reached the peak of their careers after arriving in New York.

But generally speaking, excluding environmental influences,

artists between the ages of 25 and 33 experience a period of rapid growth in their painting skills. Their learning abilities are stronger, their techniques improve faster, and their creative style matures quickly.

Titian rose to fame in Florence, Picasso’s "Blue Period" marked the formation of his personal style, and Monet and Renoir began participating in French Salon exhibitions, giving birth to the idea of creating Impressionism, all happening within this age range.

This is the golden age for artists to advance their techniques and experience bursts of inspiration.

There are also artists in their thirties who switch from non-artistic professions like actuarial work or law to painting, eventually becoming late-blooming talents, but they are ultimately in the minority.

The younger the age, the stronger the plasticity.

After reaching middle age, skill levels begin to stabilize.

If Ma Shi Gallery were to sign a 43-year-old oil painter,

they certainly wouldn’t and couldn’t expect that by the time this artist is 53, their painting level would have any impressive improvement.

Not to mention ten years,

even if after twenty years he is still creating, the painting style may change, but in terms of brushwork, it typically won’t grow much.

But young artists are different.

A 23-year-old artist doesn’t even need to be 33; with proper nurturing and a good learning environment, in just three to five years, their painting skills can easily undergo a transformative change.

Every five years represents a completely different realm.

The reason why Ma Shi Gallery is willing to pay a one million dollar penalty to poach Koizumi Katsuko is certainly not because the young girl is pretty... at least not mainly because the young girl is pretty.

It’s because she is not yet an adult, and her painting techniques are already quite mature.

Among painters of the same level, Koizumi Katsuko is much younger than others; it’s almost unimaginable where her skill limit will be when she turns thirty.

In the eyes of the gallery, Koizumi Katsuko is like a scratch-off lottery ticket with a high probability of winning a big prize.

Whether she can turn out to be the next Yayoi Kusama, no one is sure.

Becoming a great painter at the pinnacle of the Pyramid requires standing at the forefront of the era, possessing excellent personal skills, and having one-in-a-million luck, with all three being indispensable.

It’s a type that relies seventy percent on fate and thirty percent on effort.

But giving her enough time, it is entirely expected that she can become the next Yakai Ichiro, an Asian first-class artist.

A paradigm of future potential.

The worth of such a genius naturally cannot be compared with other adults of similar level.

Just like racehorses on a racetrack,

with the same performance, the market value differs by several zeros if the horse is a seven-year-old adult, a four-and-a-half-year-old young horse, or a three-year-old just qualified to compete.

Now, suddenly, there is a three-year-old colt with "Gu Weijing" hanging shyly on its neck, appearing in Hanks’ line of sight.

His heartbeat began to accelerate slowly.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

The heart pounded against Hanks’ chest, his breath becoming faster and faster, although he wasn’t drinking at all, his face started to flush.

He realized the best part was.

At this moment, this name is still unknown.

Being unknown means the potential for appreciation is unimaginably large.

Of course,

there are many uncertainties on the art road.

He now just looked at a draft, knowing only two very rough pieces of information: Gu Weijing’s name and age.

Saying it is possible to cultivate the next Takashi Murakami or a top master like KWAS is too far-fetched now.

But Hanks, thinking about it for a while, still felt his blood boiling.

The more you invest early on, the more return you can reap.

There is no more profitable business than nurturing an unknown individual into an art master in the world; for a gallery, it means a gold mine for mass minting money.

For a hunter agent, achieving this in a lifetime means living a financially free life with yachts and supermodels; just taking a cut from the contract amounts to tens of millions of US Dollars.

Hanks wiped the sweat off his forehead.

He felt he shouldn’t wait any longer.

"122000 yen, welcome!"

Hanks looked up, and Master Takatani in the restaurant still held a sake bottle, blocking his way like a watchdog, with an attitude of not letting him go without paying.

He shook his head, took out his wallet from his pocket, and pulled out a bank card. After thinking for a moment, he simply threw all the yen mixed with a five-hundred euro note with modern architecture on it onto the counter.

"That’s enough to pay."

I’m going to shape the next rising star of the art world and earn tens of millions in big business as a gold medal agent, too lazy to fuss over this small change.

Hanks didn’t wait for Master Takatani’s change and grabbed his briefcase with one hand, snatched the sake bottle from the other, and rushed out of the restaurant.