What you see may not be true

Upon hearing her words, the seller's face immediately turned pale. He rolled up the painting, defeated, and hastily ran out.

After he left, Rutherford curiously asked Arabella, "What did you say to him? Is there something wrong with the painting?"

Arabella smiled gracefully. "This painting has been stripped."

Ancient paintings, especially those depicting historical figures, could fetch astronomical figures, often in the millions, billions, or even tens of billions.

Faced with such enormous profits, there were always people willing to take significant risks.

Skillful art restorers could strip a piece of artwork into two or three pieces, then sell them separately to gain substantial profits.

The best could strip a painting into five or six layers. There were even legends of nine-layer stripping, but artworks meeting such standards were extremely rare, and the risks could be catastrophic—a wrong move could ruin the entire piece.

Rutherford's aged face turned gloomy, and cold sweat broke