劉益謙 買下天價名畫是爲建中國MoMA

BEIJING — Even as the cost of his quarry pulled away from the $100 million mark, Liu Yiqian remained calm.

北京——儘管劉益謙的獵物的競價已超過1億美元，他依然很平靜。

“I was on the phone with a girl from Christie’s Hong Kong who was bidding on my behalf, and she kept dropping the phone because she was so nervous,” Mr. Liu recalled in his Beijing hotel room on Friday. “I told her, ‘Why are you so nervous? I’m the one paying, and I’m not even nervous. Just buy it.’”

週五（11月13日），劉益謙在北京下榻的酒店接受採訪時回憶說：“我給佳士得(Christie’s)香港分部代我出價的那個女孩打電話。她緊張死了，手抖得厲害，電話老是掉。我說，‘這有怎麼好緊張的？我出錢都沒緊張，你緊張什麼呢？就是花錢把它買回來。’”

Thus did Mr. Liu manage to secure “it” — an oil portrait of an outstretched nude woman by the early-20th-century artist Amedeo Modigliani — at a Christie’s auction in New York on Nov. 9. During the tense nine-minute sale, he beat out five opponents by offering $170.4 million with fees, the second-highest price ever paid for an artwork at auction.

就這樣，11月9日，在紐約的佳士得拍賣會上，劉益謙成功得到了“它”——20世紀初藝術家阿梅代奧·莫迪利亞尼(Amedeo Modigliani)創作的舒展的裸體女人油畫。在緊張的9分鐘拍賣過程中，他擊敗5名對手，以1.704億美元（含佣金）購得該畫，成爲藝術品拍賣史上的第二高價。

“As soon as I heard that it went to an Asian buyer, I knew it was him,” said Wang Wei, Mr. Liu’s wife, who was in Hong Kong at the time.

劉益謙的妻子王薇說：“一說亞洲人我就知道是他拍的。”當時她在香港。

“Modigliani didn’t make very many nude paintings, and this is one of his best,” she added. “It was definitely worth it.”

她補充說：“他[莫迪利亞尼]創造的裸體畫不多，但這是他最頂級的。我覺得很值得。”

Before last week, Mr. Liu and Ms. Wang, both 52, had already made a name for themselves in China’s art circles, he in particular as the most flamboyant of the country’s small group of major collectors. To many, he is the brash former taxi driver turned billionaire who provoked an uproar when he bought a tiny Ming dynasty porcelain cup for $36.3 million at a Sotheby’s auction — and proceeded to be photographed drinking tea from the antique vessel.

在上週之前，劉益謙和王薇（都是52歲）已經在中國藝術界很出名了，尤其是劉益謙，他是中國重要收藏家這個小圈子裏出手最闊綽的。很多人都知道，他是一位出租車司機出身的傲慢的億萬富翁，在蘇富比(Sotheby’s)的一場拍賣會上以3630萬美元買下一個小小的明代瓷杯，後來還曝出他用這件古董喝茶的照片，引起一片譁然。

Ms. Wang is known as the driving force and general director behind the couple’s Long Museum, which has two branches in Shanghai. Over more than 20 years, the two have amassed an extensive collection of mostly traditional and contemporary Chinese art, much of it on display in the museums.

這對夫婦在上海擁有兩家龍美術館，王薇是美術館的幕後推手和總監。在過去20多年裏，這對夫婦收集了大量藝術品，大多是中國古代和當代藝術品，其中很多在這兩家美術館展覽。

Days after their latest blockbuster purchase, Mr. Liu and Ms. Wang were back at it, flying to Beijing to attend the fall sales of a top auction house, China Guardian. They said their goal was to transform the Long Museum into a world-class destination that could compete with the likes of the Museum of Modern Art and the Guggenheim Museum in New York.

在他們最近這次引起轟動的購買之後數日，劉益謙和王薇又要出手了。他們飛到北京，參加頂級拍賣公司中國嘉德的秋季拍賣會。他們說，自己的目標是把龍美術館變成一個能與紐約的現代藝術博物館(Museum of Modern Art)和古根海姆博物館(Guggenheim Museum)相媲美的世界級博物館。

And nothing, Mr. Liu said, says world class quite like a Modigliani nude.

劉益謙說，沒什麼比莫迪利亞尼的裸體畫更能稱得上是世界級的了。

“Every museum dreams of having a Modigliani nude,” Mr. Liu said. “Now, a Chinese museum has a globally recognized masterpiece, and my fellow countrymen no longer have to leave the country to see a Western masterpiece. I feel very proud about that.”

劉益謙說：“哪個世界級美術館不想收藏莫迪利亞尼的裸體畫啊？買這個作品能讓中國美術館藏有一件世界名畫。今後我們的國人不用走出國門欣賞西方藝術品。這對我來說是一個比較有自豪感的事情。”

He added, “The message to the West is clear: We have bought their buildings, we have bought their companies, and now we are going to buy their art.”

他還說：“我們向西方傳遞的信息很明確：我們買人家的樓了，我們買人家的公司了，現在在買人家的藝術品。”

With his acquisition of the nude, a 1917-18 canvas known as “Nu Couché,” that message certainly seems to have gotten across.

通過買下這幅名爲《側臥的裸女》(Nu Couché)的油畫（創作於1917年至1918年），他肯定把這個信息傳遞了出去。

“This purchase was a proclamation of his arrival,” said Thomas Galbraith, managing director of auctions at Paddle8, an online auction house. “Anyone in the art world who didn’t know his name knows it now.”

在線拍賣公司Paddle8的拍賣管理總監托馬斯·加爾佈雷思(Thomas Galbraith)說：“這次購買是在宣告他的到來。藝術界之前不知道他名字的人現在都知道了。”

Mr. Liu’s rise is a classic rags-to-riches tale of post-Mao China. Growing up in a working-class family in Shanghai in the 1960s and ’70s, he said, he knew early on that he wanted to go into business. After dropping out of middle school, he began selling leather handbags, then saved enough money to buy a taxi.

劉益謙的發家史是後毛澤東時代典型的白手起家的故事。20世紀六七十年代，他在上海的一個工人家庭長大。他說，他很早就知道自己想從商。中學輟學後，他開始賣皮包，然後攢錢買了輛出租車。

In 1983, he was still eking out a living as a small-time businessman when he met Ms. Wang, who was working as a typist at Shanghai Normal University.

1983年遇見王薇時，他還是靠做小生意勉強爲生，當時王薇是上海師範大學的一名打字員。

By the late 1980s, with China’s economic liberalization in full swing, Mr. Liu’s fortunes turned as a series of stock market investments he had made began to take off.

到80年代末，隨着中國經濟全面放開，劉益謙之前投資的一系列股票開始飆升，他的命運出現了轉折。

Today, he is chairman of the Sunline Group, a holding company based in Shanghai whose interests include chemicals, pharmaceuticals, real estate development and a financial unit. In addition to owning a stake in a pharmaceutical company, he was also an early investor in Beijing Council International Auction, an auction company in the Chinese capital started by one of Ms. Wang’s friends. According to Forbes, his assets in 2015 totaled $1.22 billion.

如今，他是上海新理益集團的董事長。該集團的業務包括化工產品、藥品、房地產開發和金融。除了在一家制藥公司持有股份，他還是北京匡時拍賣國際有限公司的早期投資人之一，這家位於中國首都的拍賣公司是王薇的一個朋友創立的。據福布斯排行榜，2015年，劉益謙的總資產爲12.2億美元。

“His decisions might seem very risky, but people forget he has spent his whole career assessing risk in the capital markets,” said Dong Guoqiang, chairman of Beijing Council and a longtime friend of the couple.

北京匡時拍賣國際有限公司的董事長、這對夫婦的老朋友董國強說：“他的決定可能看起來很冒險，但是你別忘了，他的整個事業就是評估資本市場的風險。”

China’s art market was still in its nascent stages when Mr. Liu and Ms. Wang began going to auctions and buying art in the early 1990s. Over the years, what started as a hobby became an obsession.

20世紀90年代初，劉益謙和王薇開始去拍賣會購買藝術品，當時中國的藝術市場仍處於萌芽期。最初那只是他們的愛好，現在他們癡迷其中。

While Mr. Liu preferred collecting traditional Chinese artworks and objects, Ms. Wang focused on acquiring art from the Cultural Revolution era and, later, contemporary Chinese art and art from throughout Asia. They began to collect Western artists as well, and their holdings now include work from Jeff Koons’s mirror-polished sculpture series.

劉益謙更喜歡收藏中國傳統藝術品和物件，而王薇專注於購買“文革”時期的藝術品，後來喜歡上中國當代藝術品和整個亞洲的藝術品。他們也開始收藏西方藝術家的作品，包括傑夫·昆斯(Jeff Koons)光亮的雕塑系列。

Several years ago, Ms. Wang, a self-proclaimed “art fanatic,” came up with the idea of opening a museum so they could show their collection to the public. But first, she needed to persuade Mr. Liu.

幾年前，自稱“對藝術癡狂”的王薇產生了設立博物館的想法，這樣就能向公衆展示自己的藏品。但是首先，她需要說服劉益謙。

“All of our friends were buying private planes, and he said he wanted to buy a plane, too,” she said. “I refused. I said let’s just put in some more money and start a museum. It will be good for Shanghai, and it will be good for the country.”

她說：“之前他想買飛機，其他朋友都在買飛機。我說不行。我們把這個錢去做一個美術館。這美術館會對上海也好，對整個國家也好。”

So in 2012, Mr. Liu and Ms. Wang opened the Long Museum Pudong, one of many private museums that have begun in Shanghai in recent years as the local government tries to transform the city into an international cultural capital.

2012年，劉益謙和王薇開設了龍美術館浦東館。它是近些年上海開始出現的諸多私人博物館之一，因爲上海市政府致力於把這座城市打造成國際文化之都。

In 2014, they opened a second branch, the Long Museum West Bund, part of a government-sponsored project to develop a waterfront cultural corridor in Shanghai that includes private museums, a large entertainment complex, and soon, the headquarters for DreamWorks’ new Chinese joint venture animation studio.

2014年，他們開設了第二個分館——龍美術館西岸館，它是上海市政府開發的河畔文化走廊的一部分。這個文化走廊包括私人博物館、大型娛樂中心，以及即將亮相的夢工廠新合資動畫公司的總部。

Exhibitions range from a large show of revolutionary art to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II to a performance-art exhibition curated by Klaus Biesenbach of MoMA and Hans Ulrich Obrist of the Serpentine Gallery in London.

他們的博物館舉辦各種各樣的展覽，既有慶祝“二戰”結束70週年的革命藝術品大型展覽，也有由現代藝術博物館(MoMA)的克勞斯·比森巴赫(Klaus Biesenbach)和倫敦蛇形畫廊(Serpentine Gallery)的漢斯·烏爾裏克·奧布里斯特(Hans Ulrich Obrist)策劃的行爲藝術展。

Although they received a discount from the government for the land in the West Bund area, Ms. Wang said, almost all of the operation costs — about $9.5 million for both museums this year, she estimated — are undertaken by her and her husband.

王薇說，雖然他們購買西岸那塊地時，政府給了一點優惠，但是幾乎所有的運營成本都由她和丈夫來承擔。她估計，今年這兩座博物館的運營費約爲950萬美元。

“I think the rest of my life and money will be dedicated to building up this museum,” Mr. Liu said, taking a puff of a cigarette. (The couple plan to open a third branch, in the southwest city of Chongqing, next year.)

劉益謙吸了一口煙說：“我覺得我下半輩子和財產會花在美術館上。”（他們打算明年在重慶市的西南部開設第三家博物館。）

Cai Jinqing, president of Christie’s China, said the couple represented the “best example” of this generation of Chinese art collectors.

佳士得中國區總裁蔡金青說，這對夫婦是這一代中國藝術收藏家的“典範”。

“They started with collecting what they know, Chinese art, then broadened to Asian art, and are now embracing Western art,” Ms. Cai said.

蔡金青說：“他們從收藏自己熟悉的中國藝術品開始，然後擴展到亞洲藝術品，現在正在接受西方藝術。”

But few collectors in China publicly flaunt their wealth the way Mr. Liu and Ms. Wang do, particularly as the government wages a crackdown on extravagance. Mr. Liu, who is still an active stock trader, said he was not concerned about the crackdown, stating that he acquired his money through legal and legitimate means.

但是在中國，幾乎沒有哪位收藏家像劉益謙和王薇這樣公開炫耀自己的財富，尤其在政府打壓奢侈之時。劉益謙仍是一位活躍的股票操盤手。他說，他不擔心那種打壓，稱自己的錢都是通過合法途徑獲得的。

Many have criticized the couple for profligacy and a perceived lack of taste. In discussions about them, the term “tuhao,” a popular Chinese term for crass nouveaux riches, is frequently tossed around.

很多人批評這對夫婦肆意揮霍，缺乏品位。在關於他們的討論中，“土豪”這個詞經常出現。

“I am definitely a tuhao,” Mr. Liu said defiantly. “But at least this tuhao is bringing a masterpiece back to China for the Chinese people to enjoy.” Mr. Liu said that he had no plans to sell the painting.

劉益謙輕蔑地說：“我是一個土豪。最起碼，土豪把這座作品帶回中國來了，不需要去國外看了。”劉益謙說他沒打算賣掉這幅畫。

There is another, more personal, benefit to the acquisition: airfare. Ms. Wang confirmed that, as in the past, she and Mr. Liu would be using their American Express card to pay for the Modigliani. That way, with the cardholder’s points they accrue, their whole family — the couple, their four children and two grandchildren — can continue flying for free.

購買這幅畫還有一個更私人的益處：機票。王薇承認，和過去一樣，她和劉益謙將使用他們的美國運通卡支付莫迪利亞尼油畫的費用。那樣的話，他們全家人——這對夫婦、四個孩子和兩個孫子輩——都可以繼續用卡上的積分免費乘坐飛機。

“We are on a one-year payment plan for the painting,” Ms. Wang said. “If we had to pay cash upfront, that would be a little difficult for us.”

王薇說：“那幅畫我們是分期付款。用現金支付對我們來說還是比較緊張。”

She added: “I mean, who has the money for that?”

她補充說：“哪裏有錢還能這樣？”