经济学人：从毕加索到齐白石

woikuraki

转自龙腾网

From Picasso to Qi Baishi--Christie’s and Sotheby’s are getting a smaller share of an expanding pie

SLURRING is a method used by auctioneers to build excitement and anxiety among the bidding crowd. It uses carefully crafted phrases that create an illusion of rising intensity, such as “One dollar. Now two. Will you give me three? Do I hear four?” to put pressure on bidders and boost the final price.

Yet buyers in Hong Kong and the Chinese mainland have in recent years needed little encouragement. Sales in the region have soared from €691m ($859m) in 2004 to €9.8 billion last year (though the first half of this year was weak). Artprice, a research firm, reckons that Picasso, long the world’s most expensive artist, was knocked off the top spot in 2011 by two hitherto lesser-known Chinese painters, Zhang Daqian and Qi Baishi (one of whose pieces, pictured on the next page, sold in Beijing last year for $65m).

从毕加索到齐白石，苏富比分享到了日益膨胀的蛋糕较小的一块

连唱法是拍卖人用于在竞拍人中制造兴奋及焦虑气氛的手法。通过精心编排的言辞营造出节节上升的紧张感，譬如“一美元。现在两美元。谁出三美元？有人喊四美元吗？”之类给竞拍人施加压力、催高竞价。

不过对于来自香港和大陆的买家不需要用到这些抬价技巧。这个区域的销售从2004年的6.91亿欧元飙升至去年的98亿欧元（尽管今年的市场比较弱）。调查公司Artprice估算后得出结论，长期占据全球最贵艺术家宝座的毕加索已经让位于迄今为止比较不为人知的华人艺术家张大千和齐白石（下页插图是他们的一幅作品，去年在北京以0.65亿成交）。

Art auctions had long been dominated by two houses established in 18th-century London, Sotheby’s and Christie’s. But the surging demand from China’s new rich for art—increasingly, Chinese art—has led to the emergence of two Beijing-based giants, Poly and Guardian, whose combined sales of Chinese art are now near twice those of the London duo. Overall, art sales in China are now 30% of worldwide sales, up from 9% in 2008. Though the Chinese pair have only 26 years’ experience between them, compared with the four centuries the Western duo have amassed, they have been quick learners. Last year their combined revenues were $3.1 billion, up from $397m in 2008.

The two Chinese challengers have interesting pedigrees. Poly’s owner is China Poly Group Corporation, a state-owned defence manufacturer better known for artillery than art.

艺术品拍卖过去长期由18世纪在伦敦创立的两家拍卖行苏富比和佳士得所把持。然而中国暴发户中对艺术品（其中又以日渐吃香的中国艺术品为甚）爆发的需求催生了两大北京巨头——保利和嘉德，如今它们的销售总额已经将近是伦敦双雄的两倍。总体而言，中国境内艺术品销售份额已经由2008年的占据全球9%上升至如今的30%。虽然较西方双雄4个世纪的沉淀而言中国巨头只有26年的经验，它们学习的很快。它们去年的总收入是31亿美元，而2008年只是3.97亿美元。

两家中国竞争对手的身世都很有意思。保利拍卖行的东家是中国保利集团公司，一家以武器而非艺术品闻名的国有防务制造商。

Guardian was set up by Wang Yannan, daughter of Zhao Ziyang, the Chinese Communist Party leader until he was purged during the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. Unlike Poly, it seeks to emulate its Western peers. “Guardian is far more transparent than Poly. I can get my head around this firm,” says Clare Mc Andrew of Arts Economics, a consultancy.

So far Western firms have been doing quite nicely running their Chinese art auctions from Hong Kong, though now Sotheby’s is seeking to enter the mainland, by means of a joint venture with Gehua, a smaller mainland auction house. The head of Christie’s in Asia, François Curiel, is sceptical of its rival’s move, arguing that to sell art to mainland Chinese buyers free of import taxes, Sotheby’s would need an auction licence from the government—which no Western firm has yet been given. Ms Mc Andrew also sees no sign of this changing, though of course Sotheby’s may be betting on the longer term.

嘉德则是由因1989年TAM事件下台的中共领导人赵ZY女儿王雁南创立的。与保利不同的是，嘉德竭力仿效西方同行。“嘉德远比比保利透明。我了解并且接受这家拍卖行，”来自市场咨询公司Arts Economics的Clare Mc Andrew认为。 目前为止尽管西方拍卖行在香港相当成功的经营中国艺术品拍卖，苏富比还是在寻求进入大陆市场，方法是与较小的大陆拍卖行歌华合资经营。佳士得亚洲掌门人Franois Curiel则质疑竞争对手的举动，如果想给大陆买家免进口税销售艺术品，苏富比需要取得目前没有任何一家西方公司获得过的、政府颁发的拍卖牌照。Mc Andrew女士认为目前看不到政策改变的任何迹象，显然苏富比是在为未来下赌注。

The art market in China is not entirely a pretty picture. For a start, some local auction houses seem to be wildly exaggerating their sales to big themselves up. The Chinese Association of Auctioneers reckons that $885m-worth of 2010’s reported sales have not been paid for, and may thus not have taken place. Worse, the recent sharp downturn—ArtTactic reckons auction sales in China, including Hong Kong, fell 32% between autumn 2011 and spring of this year—may prove to be more than just a blip.

China’s auction market is much like other types of business in that country. Statistics are unreliable and the government gives local firms—often owned by the state itself or those with high-up connections—unfair advantages over foreigners. Even so, as with all sorts of other industries, from carmaking to consumer goods, Chinese consumers are splashing so much money about that it is too big an opportunity for Western firms to ignore.

中国的艺术品市场并非尽是这般美好。有些本地拍卖行是先从给自己业绩疯狂注水开始的。中国拍卖行业协会估计2010年上报的销售中有价值8.85亿美元没有付款，甚至可能是实际没进行过那些拍卖。更让人担忧的是，由于最近严峻的经济低迷，ArtTactic估计中国境内包括香港在内，拍卖收入从2011年秋季到今年春季间下降了32%，可能还不是衰退的尽头。

中国的拍卖市场正如别的生意一样，数字都是不可靠的，相对外资而言、政府给予本地公司（通常是国有或者是有关系的人士所开办）不公平的优势。尽管如此，就像所有的其它行业——从汽车到日用消费品一样，在中国消费者花钱如流水、商机如此滔滔面前，任何西方商人都难以视而不见。

Darwins Toothpick  

For more than half a century Zhang Daqian and Qi Baishi are internationally well known Chinese painters. That the writer of this article calls them “two hitherto lesser-known Chinese painters” shows that he has never opened any art book on Chinese art in general because as a matter of course some examples of their paintings will have been printed in them.
Nevertheless it is sad that this work of Qi Baishi fetched such a high price. This is really not his best work. He was already very old when he painted it. He wasn’t critical enough of his own work anymore and the large format got the best of him. In my view he was also not as good as a bird painter.
Shu Hua Shuo Ling (1714-1779) in his “Scrapbook For Chinese Collectors” as translated by R.H. Van Gulik, writes on judging paintings;
半个多世纪以来，张大千和齐白石是国际著名的中国画家。总体上来说，本文作者称他们是“迄今为止两个鲜为人知的画家”显示了他从来没有看过任何中国美术方面的书籍，因为自然而然的他们的一些画作被出版在这些书籍上。
然而可悲的是，齐白石的这些作品卖了如此高的价格。这些画作真的不是他最好的作品，当他画这些作品的时候他已经很老了。目前他的作品没有受到足够的批评而且这些夸大的评价使他占据了上风。在我看来，他还不如一个花鸟画家。
高罗佩翻译了《书画说铃》(1714-1779)，他写进了《中国绘画鉴赏》。
（译注：高罗佩，荷兰汉学家、东方学家、翻译家、小说家，收藏家)

-------------译者：daisyhe17 -------------

“If the personality is there, and the picture is also of high quality, that means that the artist achieved full self-expression, though modeling his work after the methods of the ancients.
If the personality is there but the picture not beautiful, it means that the artist was too intent, and thus could not rise above his media and his subject.
Pictures lacking both personality and beauty are mere daubs.
Pictures without personality but yet beautiful point to natural talent.”
I’m afraid this work falls into the second category. But just like in the West people with too much money often lack character and taste. They only want to show off with buying the work of a well established name. I am afraid that much paintings of 20th century well known Chinese artists are overpriced.
(上接)“如果个性已经达到那个程度，并且画作也高质量，就说明这个艺术家充分地表达了自己，尽管是用古人的手法临摹了他的作品。
如果个性有了，但是画作不漂亮，就说明这个艺术家太急切了，所以无法驾驭他的画笔和工具。”
既没有个性也没有美感的画作就是个鬼画符而已。
没有个性只是好看的画作是源自天赋。“
我觉得这幅画就是上面的第二种。但是在西方，有钱人一般都没什么个性和品位。他们只是想买个著名人物署名的作品来炫耀一下。
恐怕很多20世纪著名中国画家的作品都被高估了。

EcoNguyen  
Westerners still believe their contribution to art, literature, philosophy etc, which are very subjective areas, are greater than East Asian. Just wishfull thinking.
西方人始终认为他们在艺术、文学、哲学等非常主观的领域所做的贡献比东亚人要大。其实这只是个美好的愿望。

radwrite in reply to EcoNguyen
Wishful thinking ?
So why have the Asians spent the last several decades trying to make their own societies more like the West ?
（回复LS）
美好的愿望？
那亚洲人为什么要花几十年的时间来学习西方社会？

EcoNguyen in reply to radwrite
It is called modernizing. Many Westerners, like you, like to believe that modernizing mean westernized. No, it is not. Most of East Asian countries now are far more advanced technologically (though not economically) than most of western countries now, but culturally, they are more Easternized than several decades ago.
For example, despite of current Sino-Vietnam conflict, if you go to bookstore in Vietnam, you will find that most books on philosophy are from classical Chinese philosophers; Chinese classic romances and novels are dominating, unlike several decades ago. The intelligentsia now like to quote from Chinese classic, not from Western classic, still unlike several decades ago, when Vietnam was colonized by France and the US in the South, as well as under Soviet influence in the North.
（回LS）
这叫”现代化“。很多你这样的西方人喜欢认为现代化就是西方化。但它不是。大部分东亚国家现在已经比大部分亚洲国家先进了，虽然只是在技术上（还不是经济上）。而在文化方面，他们其实比几十年前更东方化了。
举个例子，尽管现在有中越冲突，但是如果你去越南的书店，你会找到很多中国古典哲学的书籍；中国古典浪漫主义和小说是主导产品，不像几十年前那样了。知识分子现在喜欢引用中国经典，而不是西方经典，不像几十年前越南南部被法美殖民北部被苏联殖民时那样了。

李刚s son in reply to EcoNguyen
unfortunately for your argument, if you are a university graduate from any of China's tier 1 universities, most the scholars you read are from the west. Then the kick ass job you get upon graduation will want you to dress like you're from the west as well. I do believe modernization and westernization are not the same. That as well contradicts what you are saying.
（回复LS）（译注：这人ID叫”李刚之子“）
不幸的是，如果你是从中国重点大学毕业的学生的话，大部分你读到的学者都是西方的。你毕业后找的苦逼工作也会要求你穿西装。我确实认为现代化和西方化是不同的概念。但你说的那些是两码事。

Phillip SK Wong in reply to 李刚s son
This is funny, but no. Chinese see modernization as internationalization, and not westernization. Secondly, I really would say science, engineering and economics as western, because for obvious reasons, they don 't infuse culture. They are biases free
（回LS）
有意思，但不对。中国人视现代化为国际化，而不是西方化。第二，作为西方人我要提一提科学、工程学和经济学，因为很明显，它们都不会灌输文化。它们是没有偏见的。

Phillip SK Wong in reply to 李刚s son
I think you are a racist white guy pretending to be Chinese.
（接着回LS）
我觉得你是个冒充中国人的种族主义白鬼。

李刚s son in reply to Phillip SK Wong
You obviously failed to understand my comment. Go back and try again. Hang in there champ.
（回LS）
你显然没看懂我说什么。再回去重读一遍吧。认真看吧天才
。