Vanity. Ares

Rafaele were walking away.
Basically, Rafaele liked the painting and
thought he could perhaps make a little money
from it. He explained to the painter that he was a
curator mainly for this gallery in Milan, and even
gave the painter the correct name of the gallery
and told him that he could get the painting a
commission as another collector that lived in Bari
would perhaps like it, as the colours reminded him
of Rothko Rafeale said. Raffaele added that he was
actually going to see the collector that lived in Bari
that coming weekend and that the painter should
give him the painting to take with him. At first the
painter was reluctant, I could tell from his body
language as I noticed this point and slightly
followed what was happening. The painter stepped
back and kept saying: “E Costoso! E Costos!”
Which I knew meant: it is expensive, referring of
course to his painting. But, then Rafaele’s
explanation seemed so plainly honest, to me even
at the time, so much so that I forgot that it could
have been a con. As Rafaele’s explanations seemed
to get more and more long winded and spoken so
quickly, that it seemed to verify what he was saying
as a default, in effect. As I stood, in retrospect, I
could see the intricacies of the transaction being:
How could a perfectly sane looking man, dressed
as well as Rafaele (Always a nice white shirt, and
Armani Jeans with the logo on the pocket) be
telling the painter such lies so freely and easily?
Well, that is what the painter concluded as after a
few minutes of this, I made out him remove his
yellow hat in a sighed fluster and then saying; “Ok
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
36