藝術收藏家爲何一擲千金

When a group of wealthy investors compete with each other to buy an asset, surely they have a clear idea of its financial value? Jussi Pylkkänen, president of Christie’s, who on Monday night auctioned Picasso’s “Les Femmes d’Alger” (Version O) to an anonymous buyer for $179.4m, thinks they do.

當一羣富有的投資者競購某項資產時，他們肯定特別清楚這項資產值多少錢嘍？佳士得(Christie's)總裁尤西•皮爾卡寧(Jussi Pylkkänen)認爲確實如此。上週一晚，皮爾卡寧以1.794億美元的價格把畢加索(Picasso)的《阿爾及爾的女人(0版)》(Les Femmes d’Alger (Version O))拍賣給了一位匿名買主。

“People sometimes think of buying art as a frivolous occupation but these bidders are very conscious of what the object is worth, and they make decisions in an extremely considered way,” Mr Pylkkänen assured me afterwards. He emphasised that the final bids for the Picasso, in a New York auction that raised $706m for 34 works of 20th-century art, proceeded in careful, $500,000 increments.

“人們有時認爲購買藝術品是一種無用的佔有，但這些競標者很瞭解標的的價值，他們是經過深思熟慮才做出決定的，”皮爾卡寧後來向我保證說。他強調稱，買家對畢加索畫作最後報價時，小心翼翼地每次只加價50萬美元。上週一的紐約拍賣會上成交了34件20世紀藝術品，成交金額達7.06億美元。

Amid record-breaking auctions in London and New York, art is increasingly treated as a financial asset. “Swamped”, a painting by Peter Doig, a 56-year-old Scottish artist, sold for $25.9m on Monday night. Billionaires fly to Art Basel Miami Beach to buy from big galleries, private bankers tell clients to diversify into art; masterpieces clog free port warehouses in Geneva.

隨着倫敦和紐約拍賣會屢次拍出破紀錄價格，藝術品越來越被當做金融資產對待。56歲蘇格蘭藝術家彼得•多伊格(Peter Doig)的《沼澤地》(Swamped)上週一晚以2590萬美元成交。億萬富豪們飛往巴塞爾邁阿密海灘藝術博覽會(Art Basel Miami Beach)，從大型畫廊購進作品，私人銀行家們告訴客戶要提高資產配置多樣性，增加藝術品配置；著名作品堆滿了日內瓦的自由港倉庫。

But paintings are not securities. The financial value of any work of art remains as unknowable and intangible as the Mona Lisa’s smile. As the economist William Baumol put it 30 years ago, the prices of paintings “float more or less aimlessly . . . exacerbated by the activities of those who treat such art objects as ‘investments’”. Those seeking intrinsic value, in the financial sense, must look elsewhere.

但畫作不是證券。任何一件藝術品的金錢價值仍像蒙娜麗莎(Mona Lisa)的微笑一樣不可知曉、難以確定。正如經濟學家威廉•鮑莫爾(William Baumol)30年前所說，畫作的價格“或多或少無目的地上下波動……那些把這些藝術品視爲‘投資’的人們的行爲，會進一步加劇這種波動”。那些尋找金錢意義上內在價值的人，必須把眼光轉向別處。

Although we do not know who bought the Picasso, beyond the fact that he or she can afford to drop $179m on a work that would be difficult to shift for the same price in a market panic, we can speculate on the motive. The true value lies in owning a painting that the Tate or Getty museums would love to display in public, and being able to dazzle yourself and others in private.

儘管我們不知道誰買走了上述畢加索作品，除了他或她有強大的財力，能以1.79億美元買下一幅難以在市場恐慌時以同樣價格售出的作品之外，我們還可以推測其動機。真正價值在於，擁有一副泰特博物館(Tate Museum)或者蓋蒂博物館(Getty Museum)將願意公開展出、也能在私下裏讓自己和其他人歎服的畫作。

The only way to prove that you are the kind of person who is both cultured and wealthy enough to own a major Picasso is to buy one. Auction houses prosper by holding it in front of you briefly, while offering to sell it to your rival. “They suddenly say, ‘I am never going to get this chance again’, and go all the way,” Mr Pylkkänen says of the world’s ultimate art collectors.

要證明自己是既有文化品位、又富有到買得起畢加索重要作品的那類人，唯一方式就是購買一幅畢加索重要作品。拍賣行的生財之道就是，把作品短暫地向你展示，同時又向其他競購者提供購買這幅作品的機會。皮爾卡寧談起世界上那些終極藝術收藏者時說，“他們會突然說，‘我再也得不到這個機會了’，然後就一鼓作氣把它買到手了”。

Works of art are “a very rational choice for those who derive a high rate of return in the form of aesthetic pleasure,” Mr Baumol concluded. The economist John Picard Stein wrote in 1977: “Any superior performance derivable from paintings can be attributed entirely to the viewing pleasure they provide, not capturable by speculators.”

藝術品“對那些能夠從審美享受方面獲得很大回報的人來說，是非常合理的選擇，”鮑莫爾總結道。經濟學家約翰•皮卡德•斯坦(John Picard Stein)在1977年寫道：“畫作產生的任何超常表現，都可完全歸功於它們提供的觀賞樂趣，這是投機者們所理解不了的。”

There are social as well as aesthetic rewards. The status value of buying art — being invited to gallery and museum dinners, and regarded as a person of exquisite taste — is alluring. Sixty one per cent of collectors surveyed last year by Deloitte, the accounting firm, admitted to this motivation.

除審美方面的回報以外，還有社會地位方面的回報。購買藝術品在提高社會地位方面的價值——被邀請參加畫廊和博物館晚宴，被當做具有優雅品味的人士對待——是有吸引力的。去年接受會計師事務所德勤(Deloitte)調查的收藏者中，有61%的人承認這一動機。