蘇富比新晉大股東陳東昇其人其事

BEIJING — Three decades ago, the Chinese tycoon Chen Dongsheng became enchanted by televised glimpses he caught of Europe’s opulent auction houses. When one of van Gogh’s “Sunflowers” paintings sold in London in 1987 for $39.9 million, the merging of art and wealth left a deep mark on him.

北京——30年前，中國大亨陳東昇在電視上瞥見歐洲富麗堂皇的拍賣行裏的情景，並由此着了迷。1987年，當梵高的一幅《向日葵》(Sunflowers)在倫敦賣出3990萬美元（約合2.6億元人民幣）時，藝術與財富的結合給他留下了深刻的印象。

“The images of the auction on television seemed inconceivably distant from my own life,” Mr. Chen wrote in his memoir. “So aristocratic, so refined. For China, an economically backward country that had never shaken off its revolution, the disparity with those scenes on television was too much.”

“西方上流社會的一種高雅游戲是那麼的遙遠、那麼的神祕、那麼的高貴、那麼的典雅，對於像中國這樣一個還沒有擺脫革命的國家，一個經濟落後的國家，那樣的電視畫面裏的情境反差太大，相離甚遠，”陳東昇在他的回憶錄中寫道。

Now, though, in a confirmation of how far he and China have risen as forces in the art business, Mr. Chen has emerged as a major player in the future of Sotheby’s, the auction house he long dreamed of emulating.

但現在，他已經成爲了蘇富比拍賣行(Sotheby's)的未來的主要參與者，而長期以來，蘇富比一直是他的模仿對象。這證明他和中國已在藝術商業領域崛起，成爲了業內的重要力量。

Taikang Life Insurance, of which he is chairman and chief executive, disclosed last week that it had become Sotheby’s biggest shareholder, with 13.5 percent of its stock after a string of purchases.

陳東昇擔任董事長和首席執行官的泰康人壽上週透露，經過一連串的買入後，該公司已成爲蘇富比的最大股東，持有後者13.5%的股份。

“There couldn’t be a clearer indication of the globalization of the market,” said Thomas Galbraith, an art market consultant at the Petraeus Group, an advisory firm in New York.

“這是該市場全球化最明顯的標誌，”紐約諮詢公司彼得雷烏斯集團(Petraeus Group)的藝術品市場顧問托馬斯•加爾佈雷思(Thomas Galbraith)說。

Mr. Chen has long been a powerful player in China’s market for fine arts and ancient artifacts. Taikang’s biggest shareholder is China Guardian Auctions, a company that Mr. Chen helped found in 1993.

長期以來，陳東昇一直是中國藝術品和古董市場的一個實力強大的參與者。泰康的最大股東是陳東昇1993年參與創立的中國嘉德國際拍賣有限公司。

“I want to create China’s Sotheby’s, and I want to recreate China’s cultural aristocracy,” he told a Chinese newspaper two years ago. So far, he has not commented publicly on the announcement about Sotheby’s.

陳東昇兩年前對中國的一家報紙表示，“我要做中國的蘇富比，再造中國的文化貴族。”迄今爲止，他尚未公開評論過有關蘇富比的公告。

Despite his high-culture aspirations, Mr. Chen, 58, is minor Communist nobility. His father was a People’s Liberation Army soldier, and his wife, Kong Dongmei, is a granddaughter of Mao Zedong. He has described auctioneering as a patriotic cause to protect China’s heritage, but he also supports contemporary art. He has been an advocate of market forces, but established himself in businesses — art sales and insurance — that required keeping wary regulators on his side.

儘管心懷對高端文化的志向，現年58歲的陳東昇自己卻是共產黨貴族中地位不算顯赫的一員。其父是一名人民解放軍軍人，其妻孔冬梅是毛澤東的外孫女。他把拍賣稱作是一項保護中國遺產的愛國事業，但他也支持當代藝術。他倡導市場的力量，但卻在需要讓心存戒備的監管機構站在自己一邊的商業領域——藝術品拍賣和保險——確立了自己的地位。

Meg Maggio, the director of Pékin Fine Arts, which has galleries in Beijing and Hong Kong, said it would be foolish to dismiss Mr. Chen and his team as new arrivals with cash but no expertise.

在北京和香港設有畫廊的北京藝門的總監馬芝安(Meg Maggio)表示，如果對陳東昇和他的團隊不以爲意，認爲他們只是有現金沒專業知識的新手，則頗爲愚昧。

“Chen is an ambitious powerhouse,” Ms. Maggio said. “These are far from neophytes. These are sophisticated, savvy art world veterans.”

“陳東昇滿懷抱負，有着巨大的能量，”馬芝安說。“這些人根本不是新手。他們是老練、精明的藝術界老手。”

Sotheby’s has its own operations in China, including offices in Beijing and Shanghai, and an additional office in Hong Kong, where it competes with Guardian and other auction houses.

蘇富比在中國有自己的業務，包括在北京和上海的辦公室。此外，蘇富比還在香港設有辦公室，在那裏同嘉德和其他拍賣行展開競爭。

Art investors and gallery owners in China said they would be watching to see how far Taikang’s stake in Sotheby’s would translate into cooperation between the two companies, and perhaps Guardian Auctions as well.

中國的藝術品投資者和畫廊老闆表示會進一步觀察，看泰康在蘇富比的持股，會在多大程度上轉化成兩家公司，或許還包括嘉德之間的合作。

“This might give Sotheby’s an important ally in China,” Ms. Maggio said. “Guardian also needs a strong overseas presence.”

“這可能會讓蘇富比在中國獲得一個重要的盟友，”馬芝安說。“嘉德也需要強勁的海外表現。”

Taikang has said it has ideas for possible members of Sotheby’s board, and if Mr. Chen is nominated, he will not need tutorials about how the company works. When he quit as an editor for a government-run magazine and plunged into auctioneering in the early 1990s, he copied Sotheby’s, right down to the fine points. He borrowed a video camera, visited a Sotheby’s auction in Hong Kong and furtively recorded the proceedings.

泰康表示，已經對可能會進入蘇富比董事會的人員有了想法。而如果陳東昇被任命爲董事，在公司的運作上他將不需要他人的指導。上世紀90年代初辭去一家官方雜誌的編輯職務並投身拍賣行業時，他照搬了蘇富比的一概細節。他借了一部攝像機，現場觀摩了蘇富比在香港舉行的一場拍賣，並偷偷錄下了拍賣過程。

“I was scared that they’d say something, and videoed on the sly, my legs and hands shaking,” he wrote in his memoir, published in 2014. Back in Beijing, he and his colleagues studied the video in all its details, down to the design of its bidding paddles.

“就怕被人家說，腿打抖，手打顫地偷偷拍，”他在2014年出版的回憶錄中寫道。回到北京後，他和同事對視頻進行了詳細的研究，細緻到號牌的設計。

In the decades that followed, Guardian prospered as China’s newly wealthy created a booming market for fine art.

在接下來的幾十年裏，隨着中國的新富人羣創造出了一個興旺的藝術品市場，嘉德繁榮發展。

Now Sotheby’s and Guardian have strong reasons to turn to each other. The Chinese economy has slowed, as have art sales. Sales of contemporary Chinese works, for example, fell in value by 41 percent in 2015 compared with the year before, according to a report from Deloitte.

如今，蘇富比和嘉德有充分的理由互幫互助。中國經濟放緩，藝術品銷售也一樣。德勤(Deloitte)的一份報告顯示，2015年當代中國藝術品成交額同比下降41%。

In the race to adapt, Guardian has been outmaneuvered by Poly Auction, a state-backed firm that has surged ahead of rivals while also generating disquiet in the industry about its opacity. Poly reported its sales in 2015 rose by 19.1 percent compared with 2014, while China Guardian recorded a 5.6 percent decrease, according to the Deloitte report.

在適應變化的競賽中，嘉德被有着國有資金支持的保利拍賣領了先。後者在超越一衆競爭對手的同時，也引發了業內對其不透明的不安。德勤的報告顯示，保利通報其2015年的成交額同比增長19.1%，而嘉德則宣佈其成交額下降5.6%。

Sotheby’s, for its part, has been outpaced in China by Christie’s and needs a stronger bridge to reach potential customers there, said Mr. Galbraith, the art market consultant. In 2013, Christie’s beat out Sotheby’s to become the first international auction house granted a license to operate independently in China.

前述藝術品市場顧問加爾佈雷思表示，就蘇富比而言，它在中國的業務被佳士得(Christie's)領先，因此需要一座更強大的橋樑，去爭取那裏的潛在顧客。2013年，佳士得擊敗蘇富比，成爲首個獲准在中國獨立開展業務的國際拍賣行。

“Sotheby’s lost the battle to enter the Chinese market, objectively quite badly. But this may help them win the war,” he said. “Whereas China Guardian has fallen behind Poly in their international presence, and this deal changes that dynamic overnight.”

“蘇富比輸掉了進入中國市場的戰鬥，客觀地說輸得很慘。但這件事可能會幫助他們贏得這場戰爭，”他說。“儘管嘉德在國際業務上落後於保利，但這項協議在一夜之間改變了局勢。”

Above all, auction houses in China must adjust to the changing tastes of wealthy art buyers, who increasingly look abroad to fill their collections. Buyers here appear to be following a pattern already seen in Japan and other countries, where they initially concentrate on domestic art and then expand their focus, Mr. Galbraith said.

首先，中國境內的拍賣行必須要適應富裕的藝術品買家不斷變換的品味。在收集藏品時，他們越來越把目光投向海外。加爾佈雷思說，這裏的買家似乎正在重複日本和其他一些國家出現過的模式，即最初把重點放在國內的藝術品上，然後擴大關注範圍。

In November, Liu Yiqian, a former taxi driver turned billionaire art collector, bought a painting of a nude woman by Amedeo Modigliani for $170.4 million at a Christie’s auction in New York. Art Basel, a major fair for contemporary art, has sought to draw in more Chinese buyers through an annual fair in Hong Kong.

去年11月，出租車司機出身的億萬富翁、藝術品收藏家劉益謙，在佳士得在紐約的一場拍賣中以1.704億美元（約合10.8億元人民幣）的價格，購得阿梅代奧•莫迪利亞尼(Amedeo Modigliani)的一幅女性裸體畫。主要的當代藝術展巴塞爾藝術展(Art Basel)也試圖通過每年在香港舉辦一次展覽，吸引更多的中國買家。

“There are changing tastes, which is coming from international travel, education and working experiences,” said Jinqing Caroline Cai, the president of Christie’s in China.

“因爲出國旅遊、受教育和工作的經歷，人們的品味不斷變化，”佳士得中國區執行董事蔡金青說。

“Growing interest in international art has been a very, very strong trend,” she said. “The reputation and brand value is very strong for Chinese to come into Christie’s or Sotheby’s.”

“對國際藝術品的興趣升溫是一個非常非常強勁的趨勢，”她說。“選擇佳士得或蘇富比時，口碑和品牌價值對中國顧客的吸引力非常大。”

Taikang is not the only investor angling to win more value from Sotheby’s. Shanda Payment Holdings, a company in Singapore, received approval in May to raise its stake, Bloomberg reported. Third Point, a hedge fund that has been Sotheby’s biggest shareholder, fought two years ago to shake up management of the auction company.

泰康不是唯一一個希望從蘇富比贏取更多價值的投資者。彭博社(Bloomberg)報道稱，新加坡公司盛大支付(Shanda Payment Holdings)於5月獲准增持。兩年前，一直是蘇富比最大股東的對衝基金第三點(Third Point)奮力試圖調整蘇富比的管理層。

But Mr. Chen has cast himself as a serious patron with a long-term view. Taikang Life Insurance runs its own airy contemporary gallery in a part of northeast Beijing dense with galleries. Guardian Auctions has commissioned the firm of Ole Scheeren, an avant-garde German architect, to build an art center within walking distance of the Forbidden City.

但陳東昇把自己塑造成了一個態度嚴肅、目光長遠的贊助人。泰康人壽在北京東北部一個展館密佈的地區經營着自己窗明几淨的當代藝術展廳。嘉德則委託德國先鋒派建築設計師奧勒•舍倫(Ole Scheeren)在紫禁城的步行距離範圍內修建一個藝術中心。

“Entrepreneurs are the guardian spirits of great art,” Mr. Chen said last year. “Without commerce, there is no art, because if art has no value, then nobody will go to enjoy it.”

“企業家是偉大藝術的守護神，”陳東昇去年說。“沒有商業就沒有藝術。因爲藝術沒有價值大家不會去欣賞。”