A new art market season has begun, and with it another sequence of multimillion-dollar auctions that will amaze and mystify those unacquainted with the inner workings of the art world.

新的艺术市场季已经开始，随之而来的是新一轮数百万美元的拍卖会，它们会让那些不熟悉艺术界内幕的人感到震惊和迷惑。

Auctions have, for centuries, been a theatrical way to sell art. But over the past two or three years, with the proliferation of high-value guarantees at Sotheby’s and Christie’s flagship contemporary sales — and the complex financial arrangements that go with them — they have become a form of spectacle that even experienced audience members can struggle to fully understand.

几百年来，拍卖会一直是一种激动人心的艺术品销售方式。但是，在过去两三年里，随着苏富比拍卖行(Sotheby’s)和佳士得拍卖行(Christie’s)的一流当代艺术拍品大量出现高价保证金以及复杂的财务安排，拍卖会变成一种奇观，甚至连有经验的观众也很难完全理解。

In London in October and in New York in November, auctioneers will invite bids for certain artworks that have, for all intents and purposes, already been sold. A flurry of imaginary “chandelier” bidding often leads up to the undisclosed guarantee price being bid, either by an unidentified third-party (who ensured the sale in return for a cut of any “upside”) or by the auction house itself, usually through a staff-member on the phone. This may well be followed by further bidding from unidentified would-be buyers on telephones or in the room, sometimes against further bids from the guarantor, until the hammer finally falls.

10月份在伦敦，11月份在纽约，拍卖公司将对某些实际上已经卖出的艺术品进行竞价。莫须有的紧张的“吊灯”叫价（拍卖师在竞价初期假装看到有人出价，实际上拍卖师手指的方向可能只有吊灯——译注）通常会导致叫价达到秘密的担保价（提供担保的是不透露身份的第三方[回报是能获得部分“溢价”]或拍卖公司），这种叫价通常是员工在电话中报出的。之后，不知名的未来买家可能会通过电话或在拍卖现场继续叫价，有时是与担保人竞价，直到拍卖槌最终落下。

“The auction houses have created a theatrical experience, heightening the emotion of buying and selling,” Greg B. Davies, head of behavioral and quantitative finance at Barclays Bank, said in a telephone interview. “The insiders are in a privileged position. They are networked. Outsiders can buy access to the assets, but not the knowledge base. This creates a barrier. You’re either in the fold or not.”

巴克莱银行(Barclays Bank)的行为与量化金融主管格雷格·B·戴维斯(Greg B. Davies)在接受电话采访时说，“拍卖公司营造了一种激动人心的体验，拉动买卖情绪。内部人士拥有特权。他们有自己的关系网。局外人能够付钱获得某些信息，但是得不到整个信息库。这就树了一道屏障，把圈内人和局外人隔开。”

A painting might sell at a public auction for more than $100 million, and the identities of the seller, the guarantor, the external bidders and the final buyer will remain cloaked in confidentiality. More than four months later, the wider world has yet to gain any definitive idea who sold, guaranteed or bought the 1955 Picasso painting “Les Femmes d’Alger, (Version ‘O’)” which soared to an all-time auction high of $179.4 million at Christie’s on May 11.

一件画作可能在公开拍卖会上以一亿多美元成交，但是卖家、担保人、外部竞价人以及最终买家的身份依然不得而知。四个多月后，外部世界仍不知道毕加索(Picasso)1955年画作《阿尔及尔女人（O版）》(Les Femmes d’Alger [Version ‘O’])的卖家、担保人和买家。在5月11日的佳士得拍卖会上，那件作品的成交价飙升至史上最高的1.794亿美元。

Back in January, at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, the American economist Nouriel Roubini, who is a collector, ruffled feathers by telling The Financial Times that the art market needed more regulation because it had become routinely susceptible to trading on insider information, money laundering, price manipulation and tax evasion.

今年1月，在瑞士达沃斯的世界经济论坛上，美国经济学家兼收藏家努里尔·鲁比尼(Nouriel Roubini)愠怒地对《金融时报》(The Financial Times)说，艺术市场需要更多监管，因为这个行业往往是靠内部信息进行交易，存在洗钱、价格操纵和逃税等行为。

The theme was picked up again on Sept. 3 at the 2015 Art Business Conference in London. Robert Hiscox, former chairman of Hiscox Insurance and another prominent collector, told more than 300 delegates that the art trade was the like “the Wild West.” He added that it was the last “unregulated market” and that unregulated markets did not work because “people are too venal.”

9月3日，在伦敦的2015年艺术交易行业大会(Art Business Conference)上，这个话题再次被提起。著名收藏家、希斯考克斯保险公司(Hiscox Insurance)的前总裁罗伯特·希斯考克斯(Robert Hiscox)对300多名代表说，艺术品交易就像“疯狂的西部”。他补充说，艺术市场是最后一个“未被监管的市场”，这样的市场难以维持，因为“人们往往见利忘义”。

This year, outsiders have been given a peek into the murk at the top of the art world courtesy of the continuing legal dispute between the Russian billionaire Dmitry E. Rybolovlev and the Swiss businessman and dealer Yves Bouvier. Mr. Bouvier is alleged to have made excessive undisclosed profits while compiling a collection of about 40 works by famous artists for Mr. Rybolovlev.

今年，透过俄罗斯亿万富翁德米特里·E·雷博洛夫列夫(Dmitry E. Rybolovlev)和瑞士商人兼交易商伊夫·布维耶(Yves Bouvier)之间的一系列法律纠纷，圈外人看到了艺术界顶层的黑暗。据称，布维耶为雷博洛夫列夫收集了约40件著名艺术家的作品，其间暗自谋取过量收益。

Among the transactions, Mr. Rybolovlev said he paid $127.5 million for a Leonardo da Vinci that he subsequently discovered Mr. Bouvier had acquired privately for between $75 and $80 million. In Monaco, Mr. Bouvier is fighting private and public legal actions on charges of fraud and complicity in money laundering, and in France he is under investigation for the alleged theft of two Picasso gouache paintings.

雷博洛夫列夫说，他支付1.275亿美元购买了莱奥纳多·达芬奇(Leonardo da Vinci)的一件作品，后来发现，布维耶私吞了7500万美元至8000万美元。在摩纳哥，布维耶被指控诈骗，串通洗钱，正在应对私下和公开的法律诉讼；在法国，因为涉嫌参与盗窃毕加索的两幅水粉画，他正在接受调查。

These cases would seem to validate the assertion made at the Art Business Conference by Pierre Valentin, a partner in the London law firm Constantine Cannon, that to characterize the art market as unregulated was “complete nonsense,” since legal processes are at least in operation. He told delegates that research by his firm had shown that the British art market, for example, was governed by 167 laws and regulations, “and that figure was going up, not going down.” He did suggest, however, that there should be “targeted” measures to regulate “certain auction practices and certain types of insider dealing.”

这些案件似乎证实了伦敦律师事务所Constantine Cannon的合伙人皮埃尔·瓦伦丁(Pierre Valentin)在艺术交易行业大会上的说法。他说，称艺术市场缺乏监管“毫无道理”，因为法律诉讼至少正在进行。他对代表们说，他的公司的调查表明，以英国艺术市场为例，有167项法律条文和规章制度在监管这个市场，“而且这个数字在上升，而非下降”。不过，他也提到，应该有一些“针对性的”措施来监管“某些拍卖行为和内幕交易”。

All the major auction houses maintain that they are rigorous in upholding ethical business practices at their sales. Mitzi Mina, head of Sotheby’s London media office, said in an e-mail that her auction house “has in place a comprehensive and robust know-your-client program which amongst other things, ensures we are in compliance with the latest anti-money laundering/anti-corruption regulations in place throughout our selling locations.”

所有大型拍卖公司都坚称自己在拍卖中严格遵守职业道德。苏富比的伦敦媒体主管米齐·米纳(Mitzi Mina)在接受邮件采访时说，该拍卖行“设立了全面有效的客户了解程序，确保遵守所有拍卖地最新的反洗钱、反腐败规定”。

Nonetheless, it’s not particularly difficult to dream up ways of making money in the art market in a gray sort of way.

不过，想出在艺术市场上用灰色手段赚钱的方法并不太难。

Say, for example, I discover a brilliant young artist on Facebook. After a crazy week at my house in the Hamptons, he has made 30 abstract paintings for me, which I’ve bought for a total of $90,000. Having posted examples on Instagram, I enter one of these paintings into a contemporary day sale and ask two business associates, who are cut in on the deal, to bid it up to $150,000. After the sale, a benchmark auction price posted on Artnet, and news of the artist’s inclusion in a forthcoming museum show — which happens to be curated by a friend of mine — establishes my new acquaintance as a hot young artist. Over the next six months, we discreetly sell 20 more paintings at auction and privately for an average price of $70,000 each.

假设，我在Facebook上发现一位有才华的年轻艺术家。他在我汉普顿的家中疯狂创作一周，画了30幅抽象画，我以9万美元全部买下。我在Instagram上发布一些样品，把其中一幅画提交到一场当代艺术品拍卖会上拍卖，让两位商业伙伴半路加入叫价，把拍卖价拉升至15万美元。拍卖结束后，在Artnet上发布基准拍卖价，同时发布新闻，宣告这位艺术家的作品已列入即将举行的博物馆展览——展览碰巧是我的一位朋友策划的——这样，我就把这位刚结识的朋友塑造成热门年轻艺术家。在接下来的六个月里，我们在拍卖会上悄悄卖出20多幅画，每件的平均售价为7万美元。

This fictional scenario may or may not have parallels with last year’s mania for “flipping” young art at auction. But there’s no escaping the increasing opacity of certain moments at recent public sales. Just what exactly is going on when a dealer tops up the bidding on a young artist in whom he has taken an investment position? And are there conflicts of interest when an auction house shares a financial guarantee with a third party?

这个虚构的情节可能与去年“迅速转售”年轻艺术家作品的狂热有雷同之处，也可能不太一样。不过，毋庸置疑的是，最近的公开拍卖出现了越来越多不透明的时刻。交易商既是年轻艺术家的投资人，又在拉高此人作品的叫价，这到底是怎么回事？拍卖公司与第三方共同提供担保的做法是否存在利益冲突？

“There is a growing sense that some business practices, particularly at the high end of the auction sector, lack transparency and invite suggestions of insider trading,” Tom Flynn, director of the art market master’s degree program at Kingston University, in London, who moderated a panel at the conference, said in a telephone interview.

汤姆·弗林(Tom Flynn)是伦敦金斯顿大学(Kingston University)的艺术市场硕士学位项目主管。他在艺术交易行业大会上主持了一个专题讨论。他在电话采访中说，“人们越来越觉得，有些行业行为缺乏透明度，存在内幕交易的嫌疑，尤其在高端拍卖领域。”

Mr. Flynn and Mr. Valentin are among a number of people who think that the auction houses might benefit from some more regulatory attention.

弗林和瓦伦丁等人认为，更多监管可能有益于拍卖公司。

But this is rather different from the systemic issues that nearly 20 years ago led the United States Justice Department to began a three-year criminal investigation into auction house collusion. In 2000, Sotheby’s and Christie’s were compelled to pay a combined $512 million to settle claims that they cheated their buyers and sellers. In April 2002, a federal judge sentenced A. Alfred Taubman, Sotheby’s principal owner and former chairman, to a year and a day in prison and fined him $7.5 million for his role in the price-fixing scheme.

不过，这与约20年前的系统性问题大不相同。当时的问题导致美国司法部对拍卖公司的合谋定价进行了为期三年的刑事调查。2000年，苏富比和佳士得被控欺骗买卖双方，被迫联合赔偿5.12亿美元，才得以和解。2002年4月，苏富比的主要所有者兼前总裁A·艾尔弗雷德·陶布曼(A. Alfred Taubman)因参与价格垄断被美国联邦法院判处一年零一天刑期和750万美元罚款。

Mr. Taubman died in April, at the age of 91. Emphasizing how times have changed since that collusion scandal, Sotheby’s has secured its former boss’s art collection for sale in November and January, but only after guaranteeing the Taubman estate a minimum price of $500 million to stave off Christie’s, its rival.

今年4月，91岁的陶布曼去世。为了击败对手佳士得，得到这位前老板的艺术藏品拍卖权，苏富比提供了5亿美元的最低担保金。拍卖将于11月和明年1月进行。这说明，从那次串通丑闻之后，情况已大有不同。

For the moment, most people involved in the art world remain pretty relaxed about the murkiness that awaits them in the forthcoming season.

目前，艺术界的大部分人对即将到来的拍卖季的黑暗一面仍保持相当轻松的心态。

“The opaqueness is an attraction,” Suzanne Gyorgy, global head of art advisory and finance at Citi Private Bank, said in an interview. “You become part of a game, with insider rules. I would like some more transparency with third-party guarantees. But people don’t want the art market to be regulated, because then all the fun would be taken out of it. Kind of like when Dorothy pulled back the curtain on Oz.”

花期私人银行(Citi Private Bank)的全球艺术咨询和融资主管苏珊娜·捷尔吉(Suzanne Gyorgy)在接受采访时说，“这种不透明性具有吸引力。你按照内部人士的规则参与游戏。我希望第三方保证金能更透明。但是人们不想让艺术市场遭到监管，因为那样的话，就没什么乐趣了。就像多萝西（Dorothy，《绿野仙踪》的女主人公——译注）拉开了奥兹国魔法师的帷幕。”