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.
当一群富有的投资者竞购某项资产时，他们肯定特别清楚这项资产值多少钱喽？佳士得(Christie's)总裁尤西•皮尔卡宁(Jussi Pylkkänen)认为确实如此。上周一晚，皮尔卡宁以1.794亿美元的价格把毕加索(Picasso)的《阿尔及尔的女人(0版)》(Les Femmes d’Alger (Version O))拍卖给了一位匿名买主。
“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.
“人们有时认为购买艺术品是一种无用的占有，但这些竞标者很了解标的的价值，他们是经过深思熟虑才做出决定的，”皮尔卡宁后来向我保证说。他强调称，买家对毕加索画作最后报价时，小心翼翼地每次只加价50万美元。上周一的纽约拍卖会上成交了34件20世纪艺术品，成交金额达7.06亿美元。

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.
随着伦敦和纽约拍卖会屡次拍出破纪录价格，艺术品越来越被当做金融资产对待。56岁苏格兰艺术家彼得•多伊格(Peter Doig)的《沼泽地》(Swamped)上周一晚以2590万美元成交。亿万富豪们飞往巴塞尔迈阿密海滩艺术博览会(Art Basel Miami Beach)，从大型画廊购进作品，私人银行家们告诉客户要提高资产配置多样性，增加艺术品配置；著名作品堆满了日内瓦的自由港仓库。
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.
但画作不是证券。任何一件艺术品的金钱价值仍像蒙娜丽莎(Mona Lisa)的微笑一样不可知晓、难以确定。正如经济学家威廉•鲍莫尔(William Baumol)30年前所说，画作的价格“或多或少无目的地上下波动……那些把这些艺术品视为‘投资’的人们的行为，会进一步加剧这种波动”。那些寻找金钱意义上内在价值的人，必须把眼光转向别处。
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.
尽管我们不知道谁买走了上述毕加索作品，除了他或她有强大的财力，能以1.79亿美元买下一幅难以在市场恐慌时以同样价格售出的作品之外，我们还可以推测其动机。真正价值在于，拥有一副泰特博物馆(Tate Museum)或者盖蒂博物馆(Getty Museum)将愿意公开展出、也能在私下里让自己和其他人叹服的画作。
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.
要证明自己是既有文化品位、又富有到买得起毕加索重要作品的那类人，唯一方式就是购买一幅毕加索重要作品。拍卖行的生财之道就是，把作品短暂地向你展示，同时又向其他竞购者提供购买这幅作品的机会。皮尔卡宁谈起世界上那些终极艺术收藏者时说，“他们会突然说，‘我再也得不到这个机会了’，然后就一鼓作气把它买到手了”。
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.”
艺术品“对那些能够从审美享受方面获得很大回报的人来说，是非常合理的选择，”鲍莫尔总结道。经济学家约翰•皮卡德•斯坦(John Picard Stein)在1977年写道：“画作产生的任何超常表现，都可完全归功于它们提供的观赏乐趣，这是投机者们所理解不了的。”
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.
除审美方面的回报以外，还有社会地位方面的回报。购买艺术品在提高社会地位方面的价值——被邀请参加画廊和博物馆晚宴，被当做具有优雅品味的人士对待——是有吸引力的。去年接受会计师事务所德勤(Deloitte)调查的收藏者中，有61%的人承认这一动机。