(单词翻译:单击)
In September of 2008, something unheard of happened in the art world.
2008年9月，美术界发生了一件闻所未闻的事情。
A British artist, Damien Hirst, took 223 pieces of his new work to Sotheby’s auction house and sold every single piece.
英国画家达明安·赫斯特将自己的的223件新作品带到了苏富比的拍卖会上并悉数售出。
I’ll start the bidding here at 2,500,000 pounds. 2,500,000...
我们以250万英镑的价格开始竞标。250万……
It was a 2 day event, and the total sale was about 200 million dollars.
拍卖活动为期2天，总售价约为2亿美元。
It broke the record for single artist auction of 20 million dollars back in 1993.
打破了1993年创下的一件画作2000万美元的纪录。
Hirst’s works included things like this zebra, this unicorn, and this painting made from butterflies.
赫斯特的作品包括斑马、独角兽，还有这幅用蝴蝶拼成的作品。
So how did he –?how do artists?– do this?
那他，艺术家是怎么把自己的作品卖出去的呢？
Well, for the most part, the artists aren't the ones behind it.
原来，大多数情况下，艺术家们本人并不是拍卖活动背后的推手。
Okay, so obviously, money isn’t the only value that defines a work of art,
好吧，显然，金钱并非决定一件艺术品的唯一价值，
and?who knows how history will remember this unicorn.
而且，谁知道这只独角兽能不能被历史铭记呢。
But in order to sell a million-dollar artwork,
但一件艺术作品要想卖出数百万美元的价格，
you need strong market value and you need extremely high demand.
你得把它变得有市无价。
And a ton of work goes into creating that.
要做到这一点需要花费大量的工作。
As Don Thompson describes in his book, the formula for art pricing goes something like this.
正如唐·汤普森在他的书中所写的那样，艺术作品定价的公式是这样的。
The bigger the work, generally the more expensive it is.
作品越大，通常也就越昂贵。
But, the biggest variable is the reputation of the artist.
然而，最大的影响因子还是艺术家的名气大不大。
Sometimes you’re world-famous, and sometimes you’re not. What?
一朝举世闻名，一夕默默无闻。你说什么？
But when a new artist steps into the art market, the reputation of the artist heavily relies on the name of the dealer.
不过，一位新晋艺术家进入艺术市场时，他的声誉很大程度上取决于代理商的名号。
This shark by Damien Hirst is a good example.
达明安·赫斯特卖的这条鲨鱼就是一个很好的例子。
Hirst first began working with an art industry giant, Charles Saatchi, in the 1990s.
赫斯特90年代就和艺术界的巨头查尔斯·萨奇达成了合作。
Saatchi commissioned Hirst to make anything he wanted for 50,000 pounds after seeing this cow’s head at a show shortly after Hirst’s graduation in 1990.
赫斯特1990年毕业不久，萨奇在某个展览上看到这个牛头，然后他就给出了5万英镑的价格，委托赫斯特画一幅作品，内容随意。
Hirst bought a shark for 6000 pounds from an Australian fisherman and created this, injecting it with tons of formaldehyde.
赫斯特以6000英镑的价格从某澳大利亚渔民那里买了一条鲨鱼，然后给它注入了大量的甲醛。
Later in 2004, it was sold for 12 million dollars to a billionaire hedge fund manager, Steve Cohen.
到了2004年，他以1200万美元的价格将这条鲨鱼卖给了亿万富翁，对冲基金经理史蒂夫·科恩。
It was roughly 130 times the original price, but it makes sense considering Saatchi’s reputation.
价格是原价的130倍，但考虑到萨奇的名气，能卖出这样的高价也不奇怪。
And it makes more sense when you think about how it was bought –dealers can use selective information to get potential buyers to pay more.
而考虑到它是怎么被买到的——代理商可以利用选择性信息让潜在买家支付更高的价格——这个价格就更不奇怪了。
Hirst’s huge auction I mentioned before…
想想我前面提到的赫斯特的大型拍卖......
For dealer-sold work, everything is private, including the prices, which gives dealers the upper hand in pricing.
对于代理商销售的艺术作品，一切都是不公开的，包括价格，这就让代理商在价格方面占了上风。
In 1988, New York City tried to ban this by reinforcing the Truth in Pricing law,
1988年，纽约市试图加强价格真实条例的执行从而禁止这一操作，
and galleries fought back HARD, paying fines and protesting saying that showing prices will be "getting in the way of the enjoyment of the exhibition."
结果遭到了各个画廊的大力反击，他们交了罚款，还抗议说公开价格会“妨碍人们享受展览”。
By keeping the price private, art dealers can rely more on their reputation to make the artwork feel more valuable to the buyer.
通过保密价格，艺术品代理商可以更多地利用自己的名气，让买家觉得他们的艺术品有着更高的价值。
Outside this equation, the basic laws of economics also apply.
经济学的基本定律也适用于这个等式之外的情形。
The next step of operations for the dealer is creating scarcity.
代理商的下一步操作是创造稀缺性。
In 1999, when Jenny Saville, a new emerging British artist became affiliated with Charles Saatchi,
1999年，一位新晋英国艺术家珍妮·萨维尔和查尔斯·萨奇签约了，
he convinced her to cut her work down to only 6 paintings per year.
他说服她将作品数量控制在每年6幅。
He sold them for 100,000 dollars each.
然后以每幅10万美元的价格卖了出去。
So what does this all result to?
结果怎么样呢？
According to Artnet, the estimated size of the art market was 64 billion dollars in 2015.
据全球艺术网估计，2015年艺术市场的规模为640亿美元。
And?market is growing outside of traditional sales of galleries and auction houses.
而且，画廊和拍卖行这些传统销售渠道之外的市场正在崛起。
This chart shows the art world might be learning the lesson Saatchi taught Jenny Savile –
这张图表显示，艺术界可能学到了萨奇传授给珍妮·萨维尔的经验 -
the total value of the art that’s being sold is growing faster than the number of pieces.
售出艺术品总价值的增长速度超过了作品数量的增长速度。
Sell less of it, for more.
少卖，多得。
But to sell that million-dollar artwork, you’ll need reputation bigger than Hirst’s, or Charles Saatchi’s.
然而，要想卖出百万美元的价格，你还是需要比赫斯特，查尔斯·萨奇更大的名气。
The dealer model still dominates the fine art world, but for the rest of us, selling art online has never been easier.
代理商模式仍然主导着艺术界的销售活动，但对于我们普通人来说，在线销售艺术作品从未如此简单。
The prices are open and it’s accessible for a broad group of people.
价格是公开的，而且要买大家都能买得到。
And for one thing, now you know where to start: think big.
再者，现在你知道该从哪里下手了吧：要敢想。
