The world's most expensive art goes to auction: Why records keep being broken 世界上最貴的藝術品要拍賣了：為什麼拍賣金額紀錄一直在破紀錄
(CNN)It's a warm evening back in mid-May. A few stray latecomers are
just finding their seats as Christie's auctioneer Jussi Pylkkanen starts up the
bidding. "Wonderful painting," he says. "One hundred million to open
it."
回到一個五月中旬溫暖的傍晚，幾個零星的遲到者剛好找到他們在佳士得（Christie）藝術品拍賣人尤西•皮爾卡寧（Jussi Pylkkanen）成立的拍賣會的座位。「優秀的畫作」他說「從一億元開始喊價。」
And so it begins, the numbers rising quickly: one hundred five,
one hundred ten, one hundred fifteen million. One hundred twenty.
然後這場拍賣就開始了，拍賣金額的飆升非常快：一億五百萬，一億一千萬，一億一千五百萬，一億兩千萬。
Suddenly the bidding for Picasso's
brightly-colored 1955 "Les Femmes d'Alger" stops. The room is still.
Someone on the telephone offers $121 million. "Why not?" laughs the
auctioneer.
突然畢卡索1995年顏色鮮明的作品《阿爾及爾的女人》的喊價停了，整個室內一片寂靜，一個在電話中的買家出了一億兩千一百萬，「為什麼不繼續喊下去了？」拍賣人笑著問。
And on the numbers rise again, past $130 million, past $140
million, $147 million, $148 million. By now, the bidding is between anonymous
buyers on the telephone with Christie's experts.
然後喊價又再次開始了，來到一億三千萬，來到一億四千萬，一億四千七百萬，一億四千八百萬，到目前，在幾位匿名買家在電話中與佳士得的專家們進行競標。
At $159 million, just as Pylkkanen calls "fair
warning," a caller raises the stakes: "$159.5 million. A second
later, a counterbid closes the sale at $160 million, and applause rocks the
room.
目前一億五千九百萬，正當皮爾卡寧要開始倒數，一個打電話來的買家又提高了喊價「一億五千九百五十萬」一秒之後，這場喊價以一億六千元結束，並在室內響起熱烈掌聲。
With premium, the buyer will
pay a total of $179.4 million, making this the most expensive painting ever
purchased at auction.
包含保險費，買家將會付出一億七千九百四十萬元，使這幅畫成為買賣史上最貴的畫作。
What's striking about this
sale, however, is not just the record-breaking figure. It's that such sums paid
for important works of art are becoming almost commonplace.
然而，關於這場拍賣驚人的地方是，這次不只是金額破紀錄，這次的付款總額對於重要的藝術作品來說，會變成幾乎是司空見慣的金額。
Only six months later, on 9
November, Chinese taxi driver-turned-billionaire Liu Yiqian buys Amedeo
Modigliani's "Nu Couché for $174.4 million, also at Christie's New York.
僅六個月之後，在十月九日，中國從司機變成億萬富翁的劉益謙以一億七千四百四人萬元，在紐約佳士得拍賣，買下了藝術家亞美迪歐·莫迪里安尼的作品《沙發上的裸女》。
Factors driving record-breaking art sales
讓藝術拍賣破紀錄的因素
How to explain it?
怎麼解釋這情況？
Largely, this has come from
a confluence of forces: an eager and growing field of art collectors worldwide;
international economic growth, which increases competition for highly valued
pieces; carefully-calculated estimates, set to stimulate bidding; strategic and
aggressive marketing by the auction houses; and the built-in ability for these
global auctioneers, with their experienced and well-connected teams of experts,
to locate the very best paintings and sculptures in the world.
廣泛地說，這是由幾個力量所影響：全世界有一群逐漸成長、熱愛藝術產業的收藏家、全球經濟成長（讓高價作品的競價越來越多）、仔細計算的預估數字（會刺激喊價）、拍賣公司所做的策略性及侵略性的行銷，還有這些全球的拍賣者本身的能力，運用他們的經歷和關係良好的專家團隊，來找出世界上最好的畫作和雕刻作品。
Indeed, says John Hays,
Deputy Chairman for The Americas at Christie's, this ability is paramount.
"You have to have the specialists who understand what the market perceives
to be the top. It's like going to the prom with the best looking girl in
school: you don't need a marketing plan."
的確，美國佳士得的代理董事海約翰表示，這能力是最重要的，「你必須有很多了解市場認為最頂尖作品的專家，這就像帶著學校最漂亮的女生參加舞會一樣，你並不需要行銷計畫。」
But clearly it helps to have
one -- which is why both Sotheby's and Christie's go all out to promote their
top offerings: an auction, after all, is only truly successful if many people
all want the same work and so, bid against one another to get it. And for that,
they need to be enticed.
但是它可以幫助你擁有——這就是為什麼蘇富比拍賣和佳士得拍賣都要出來宣傳他們最好的拍賣品：畢竟一場拍賣是要有很多人想要同一個作品，和別人出價競爭得到，這才算成功，而要達到這樣的成功，他們需要一些吸引力。
Lisa Dennison, Chairman of
Sotheby's North and South America and the former director of the Guggenheim
Museum explains: "We do pro-active outreach well in advance to a sale to
get people interested and excited."
蘇富比美洲分部的負責人兼前所羅門古根漢美術館的館長，Lisa Dennison解釋：「我們主動在事前宣傳這個拍賣的訊息，激起人們的興趣。」
You have
to have the specialists who understand what the market perceives to be the top.
It's like going to the prom with the best looking girl in school: you don't
need a marketing plan."
John Hays, Deputy Chairman for The Americas at Christie's
Works are toured to major
markets: London, New York, Hong Kong, the Middle East. "Then there's the
catalogue, the online catalogue, Sotheby's TV. You bring as many people as you
can into the headquarters through dinners and cocktail parties, and your global
specialists center there and try to sell the work."
這些拍賣品在幾個主要的市場巡迴：倫敦、紐約、香港，和中東，「然後他們有一個目錄，線上的目錄，也就是蘇富比電視，可以盡可能的，透過晚餐、雞尾酒派對，把人潮帶入總部，而你遍佈全球的專家中心也在那裡，可以試著賣掉這些拍賣品。」
Still, in the end, it is the
collectors who drive the market, Hays and Dennison agree: the auction houses
can only try their best to fulfill desire. And these days, collectors know what
they want.
雖然，在最後，這個市場還是由收藏家主控，海約翰與Dennison都同意：「拍賣行只能盡力來滿足收藏者的收藏慾望，而最近，收藏者也都知道他們要的是什麼。」
New breed of buyers
新一代的買家們
"Today's buyer doesn't
buy in a vacuum," Dennison says. "People are doing their research. If
I say 'Our Modigliani portrait is the most important to come up in the market,'
I have to be able to back that up, because the market is smart."
「現在的買家不會沒有門路直接出手」Dennison說。「大家都自己做調查，如果我說『我們的亞美迪歐·莫迪里安尼的畫作是市場上最重要的出現』，我就必須要提出證據，因為市場是很聰明的。」
Buyers now, in other words,
understand those things that make a work great or significant: distinguished
provenance, rarity or freshness to the market, or that, say, a Modigliani nude
is rarer than a Modigliani portrait.
換句話說，目前的買家，了解這些讓作品變得很好、值得注意的東西：分辨來源、對市場來說是否是珍品或新鮮貨，或是說，一幅亞美迪歐·莫迪里安尼的《裸女》畫作比一般的肖像畫更稀有。
Today's
buyer doesn't buy in a vacuum. People are doing their research." --Lisa Dennison, Chairman
of Sotheby's North and South America
A work that has a solid
history of museum exhibitions also holds a certain cachet, its importance in
the artist's oeuvre verified, as it were, by curators, scholars, and others.
一件在博物館展出、有實際歷史的作品也享有一定的聲譽，它在藝術家畢生的作品中的重要性獲得證實，如同它在過去歷史上，被館長、學者和其他人所認可。
So, too, can something that
belonged to a celebrity, even one not particularly well known as an art-world
figure, like Yves St. Laurent or Eric Clapton (whose Gerhard Richter
"Abstraktes Bild" sold for over $34 million in 2012, setting a record
for a work by a living artist).
所以，同樣地，一些屬於名流的東西，甚至是某些不是在不是在藝術領域出名的人物，像是伊夫·聖羅蘭或是艾瑞克·克萊普頓（他的葛哈・利希特《抽象畫》在2012年，被以超過三千四百萬美元賣掉，破了還活著畫家的畫作拍賣紀錄。）
Nonetheless, sometimes even
the house experts can get it wrong, Dennison admits, as when a red Lichtenstein
enamel work came up at Sotheby's during the same auction season that a blue one
was being offered at rival Christie's.
雖然如此，有時候甚至連房子，專家也會搞錯，Dennison承認，因為當一幅羅伊·利希滕斯坦（Lichtenstein）的紅色珐瑯畫作在蘇富比出現，在同一個拍賣季另一幅藍色的正好在對手佳士得那裡進行拍賣。
"We
thought ours was more valuable because it was
red and red is more popular," she recalls, "But in the end, the blue
sold higher. They liked the blue one. Maybe it goes better with Warhol."
「我們認為我們的更有價值，因為我們的拍賣畫作是紅色的，而紅色的比較受歡迎」她回想起「但是到最後，藍色的畫作售出價格更高，人們喜歡藍色的畫作，或許是因為安迪·沃荷畫得更好」
But with auction records
nearing $200 million, and private sales that have already even surpassed the
quarter-billion mark, can the momentum continue?
雖然拍賣的紀錄將近兩億美金，但還有私人的拍賣紀錄已經超過兩億五千萬美元的紀錄，這股氣勢還會持續下去嗎？
What to expect in 2016
預測2016
Both Hays and Dennison are optimistic,
as are other market experts, though Fabian Bocart, an art market analyst and
founder of Tutela Capital, cautions that new records may be less likely in 2016
"because of a weaker China, Russia, and Middle East."
海約翰與Dennison都非常樂觀，如同其他市場的專家，雖然Tutela Capital諮詢公司創辦人、藝品市場分析師博卡特（Fabian Bocart）說要小心新的紀錄可能會比2016還要低，「因為中國、俄羅斯及中東的需求減弱」
On the other hand, he adds,
"there will be more candidate artworks for these records because people
are turning more to auction houses to sell their masterpieces.
另一方面，他補充：「會有更多可能超過這個紀錄的作品，因為大家開始都到拍賣屋來賣掉他們手上的傑出畫作。」
"There's a demand that
has not been met," says Dennison, who says she is confident in a
"strong, global market for art." Look for more Abstract Expressionism
and Pop Art works on the market, and figurative paintings of artists like Freud
and Bacon. Dennison also points to "extraordinary examples of Minimalism
-- Serra, Judd, and Ryman -- and in the Impressionist world, Modigliani,
Picasso of all periods, and beautiful Impressionist paintings, Monet in particular."
「市場上的需求還沒有被滿足」Dennison表示，她說她對於「藝術市場的走強」有自信，市場上在尋找抽象表現主義及普普藝術作品和具象表現藝術家，像是的畫作佛洛伊德和培根。Dennison也指出「特別的案例像是簡約主義——里查·塞拉、唐納德·賈德、萊曼——還有印象派的世界，所有時期的藝術家亞美迪歐·莫迪里安尼、畢卡索，尤其是漂亮的印象派畫作的作家莫內。」
But no matter what the
trends call for, and wherever the prices go, she says, "when it's about
the emotion and not the money, that's divine. We don't want people to think
about the estimate. We want people to think about the art work."
但不論趨勢如何走，不論價錢如何變動，她說：「當這是跟情感有關，而不是跟錢有關的事，這些就變的神聖，我們不希望人們用數字估計作品，我們希望人們用欣賞的藝術的角度。」
原文請看：http://goo.gl/svoiWL
