Pokémon Detective: Cynthia Forces Me to Adopt a Pokémon

Chapter 114 The End and Rebirth of the Feiyun City Art Museum

Good things do happen occasionally in this world; not all cases have a tragic ending.

In fact, just two hours after Hugo revealed the whole truth of the case, the crisis caused by the destruction of the famous painting was resolved.

The specific situation is as follows—

With the joint advice of the detective and the policewoman, Mr. Attire finally decided to deal with the mess in the simplest way: to openly admit his mistake and try his best to make amends.

So, after leaving the Feiyun Dojo, the group headed straight for the art museum. Yati took the initiative to approach the director of the Feiyun City Art Museum, sincerely apologized to the middle-aged man, and confessed his actions over the past two days, as well as the grim fact that the Feiyun Dojo was about to be converted into an art gallery, attracting away the museum's audience.

"I am deeply sorry for the loss caused to the museum. I will bear all the expenses incurred as a result of this incident. If your museum still agrees to exhibit my paintings after this incident, I am willing to create four, no, ten new paintings for the museum! Although this cannot change the fact that the museum's limelight has been stolen by the renovated dojo, I think this should make up for some of it."

Following Officer Sera's prior instructions, the great artist memorized his lines perfectly and fluently, even increasing the amount of compensation he received, and bowed deeply at a ninety-degree angle, apologizing with utmost respect and sincerity.

That set of movements is so perfect...

Recalling how Sera taught Adi, Hugo couldn't help but glance at the expressionless policewoman beside him. What had she gone through to come up with such profound life experience?

"Police officers aren't just thugs who only know how to battle Pokémon. Police academy has a course that teaches us how to handle civil disputes. Please don't underestimate our professional abilities."

The policewoman noticed the detective's gaze, adjusted her glasses, and said, "Usually, if this procedure is followed, both parties can settle the case privately and close it off—at least it won't escalate the conflict."

Things unfolded exactly as Sera had predicted.

“Uh… Mr. Ati, although I still don’t understand your intention, since the destroyed painting was originally yours, there’s no question of loss… and there’s no need to mention compensation anymore. Art museums are not institutions that exist on the charity of artists.”

Surprisingly, the unremarkable middle-aged curator was easy to talk to and accepted Aya's apology without a word. However, his voice carried obvious confusion, suggesting he was still unclear about the full picture of the case.

Just when Sera and the detective thought the case was about to end, the curator continued speaking—

“Mr. Artie, to be honest, even if your dojo hadn’t been renovated, this art museum would have been on the verge of closing down.”

"What?" This was unexpected information. The artist gasped dramatically, genuinely shocked. "What's going on?"

The middle-aged man sighed and poured out his grievances to the artist—

“Take this morning for example. The museum only had one visitor all morning. The ticket revenue is not enough to cover the operating costs. The art subsidy from the Pokémon League hasn’t been increased in a long time, even though prices have been rising... How can a museum like this keep going? Your ‘Four Virtues’ is indeed a masterpiece, but it’s a work from ten years ago. The number of visitors attracted by just these four works is limited. In fact, I’ve had the idea of ​​renovating the Feiyun City Art Museum for a long time.”

"Remodel? You want to make the roof movable too?" Hugo raised one eyebrow, unable to resist making a joke, and looked at the museum director with interest.

"No, no, no, I plan to change the way I run the business and transform the Feiyun City Art Museum into an art gallery."

"Is there a difference?" Officer Sera asked curiously. "Art museums and galleries sound pretty much the same, aren't they? They're both places that exhibit artworks?"

“It’s different.” The detective wagged his finger, delighted to have a chance to show off his knowledge.

However, this joy was quickly interrupted when the museum director, who was more familiar with the difference between the two, offered an explanation—

"The art museum is a non-profit organization open to the public. It combines social functions such as collection, research, exhibition, education, and promotion. It can obtain some funding from the Elf League for the purchase and acquisition of artworks, but the main operating expenses come from the ticket sales of visitors."

"Galleries, on the other hand, target the art market. Galleries can acquire artworks directly from artists, discover emerging artists through representation and collaborations, and then introduce them directly to collectors and buyers through exhibitions, thereby generating sales. Of course, galleries also regularly exhibit some artworks to the public to increase the visibility of the works, artists, and galleries themselves."

"After transforming the Feiyun City Art Museum into a gallery, although the alliance will no longer provide subsidies, this will allow us to participate in the intermediary transactions of artworks. The profits from art transactions are far greater than those from ticket sales and subsidies, so we will no longer have to worry about operating costs."

The explanation was complete… The detective watched regretfully as the middle-aged man rattled off a string of artistic terms, then retaliated by raising an objection—

"Director, if the renovation is carried out according to your plan, how should the ownership of the artworks in the museum be determined? Which ones are deposited by artists, which ones were acquired with subsidies from the alliance, and which ones were collected by the museum based on theory? It's not easy to distinguish these. You don't mean to make them all the property of the museum, do you?"

"How could that be? All of our collections have a clear provenance, and it's impossible for the ownership of any artworks to be unclear."

The curator, with a serious expression, waved his arms to indicate that he would absolutely abide by the law.

“For the past month, I’ve been studying these things every day in the office. Now it’s almost done. The ownership of 30% of the works is held by the museum, which is enough for a large gallery to operate.”

Officer Serra, recalling the scene of the "perspective room," suddenly realized: "So that's why you were in the closed office when the incident happened."

“Perhaps this is even better,” Mr. Yates suddenly said. “By changing the business model, galleries without the pressure of ticket sales can exhibit more works by emerging artists, which is great news for the entire city’s art scene. This is truly exciting!”

“The artists’ good news doesn’t stop there,” Hugo said to Aydi, turning around with a serious expression. “After the events this morning, I started paying special attention to fine threads like insect silk. Guess what I noticed when the curator waved his arm just now?”

Yati and Sera stared intently and noticed a faint, almost imperceptible thread of silk fluttering along the middle-aged man's sleeve.

"Could it be... a fragment of 'The Four Virtues'?" The artist's eyes almost lit up. He then remembered that the museum wouldn't just throw away the remnants of a painting as waste; it would still attempt some restoration.

The dojo leader strode up to the dojo master, startling the latter.

"Are those threads still there?"

“After all, these are works stored in the museum. Even though they’ve become like that, we can’t just throw them away.” The curator scratched his head. “The threads are currently in the office. Before you arrived, the experts I invited were trying to restore them to their original state. Unfortunately, although they were able to distinguish the threads in the four works, they couldn’t turn the threads back into works of art like Mr. Artie did.”

"No need for repairs, the silk thread is enough!" Yati was overjoyed, her curly hair swaying confidently back and forth—

"These will become the raw materials for my latest work! I want to give new meaning to things that have lost their shape, just like how a caterpillar melts all its organs in its pupa before it can transform into a butterfly and fly. Meaningful materials and beautiful forms will surely create new value when they collide. This is the true meaning of regeneration! I believe that both my new work and the future Feiyun Gallery will be reborn!"

"You should be grateful to tears. After the museum is converted into a gallery, no one will put in such a lot of effort to restore the paintings."

The detective rolled his eyes and offered a very realistic reminder—

"Be careful, it's hard to say which of the Fei Yun Gallery, which exhibits emerging artists, or the Fei Yun Dojo, which exhibits a collection of Ya Ti's old works, will be more popular in the future."

"I couldn't ask for more," the artist said.