亞洲買家搶購印象派繪畫

Asian buyers snapped up Impressionist paintings at Sotheby’s spring auction in New York, buying three of the sale’s top five lots, including a Vincent Van Gogh landscape, and making up about one-third of the $368.3m raised.

亞洲買家在紐約的蘇富比(Sotheby’s)春季拍賣會上搶購印象派繪畫，買下五大頂級拍品中的三件，包括一幅梵高(Vincent Van Gogh)的風景畫，並在3.683億美元的拍賣總額中佔到大約三分之一。

Art collecting has soared in Asia in recent years, mainly led by a new breed of ultra-wealthy Chinese collecting both classical and contemporary pieces and building private galleries in China.

近年藝術收藏在亞洲一下子風靡起來，主要受到新一代中國超富裕收藏家的拉動，他們收集古典和現代作品，並在中國建立私人畫廊。

According to a report by the European Fine Art Foundation, China was the world’s joint second largest art market in 2014 with a 22 per cent share of sales, alongside the UK.

根據歐洲藝術基金會(European Fine Art Foundation)的一份報告，中國和英國並列2014年全球第二大藝術品市場，各佔22%的銷售份額。

Sotheby’s sale, which kicked off the spring auctions, saw 69 lots go under the gavel. An unidentified Asian collector paid $66.3m for Van Gogh’s “L’Allée des Alyscamps” (pictured), a rich-hued depiction of an autumnal scene painted in 1888 shortly before the Dutch artist sliced off his ear.

蘇富比的這場拍賣會揭開了春季拍賣的序幕，共有69件拍品。一位不願透露姓名的亞洲收藏家支付6630萬美元買下梵高的《阿里斯康的小路》（L’Allée des Alyscamps，見上圖），這幅色調豐富的秋季景象畫於1888年。畫作完成之後不久，這名荷蘭藝術家割下了自己的耳朵。

The auction, which included five works by Claude Monet, achieved the second-highest result in Sotheby’s history for any auction of impressionist and modern art. The November 2014 New York sale brought in $422.1m.

本次拍賣包括莫奈(Claude Monet)的五件作品，拍賣總額在蘇富比歷屆印象派和現代藝術拍賣會上排名第二。2014年11月舉行的紐約拍賣會達到4.221億美元的拍賣總額。

The Van Gogh achieved the highest price at auction for a work by the painter since 1998.

上述梵高作品的拍價是這位畫家的作品自1998年以來在拍賣會上拍出的最高價。

Chinese buyers — like the Japanese before in the late 1980s — are proving big fans of the Dutch painter.

中國買家——就像上世紀80年代末的日本買家那樣——正證明自己是這位荷蘭畫家的忠實粉絲。

Last November Wang Zhongjun, a Chinese film producer, bought Van Gogh’s “Still Life, Vase with Daisies and Poppies”, for $61.8m, more than its $30m-to-$50m estimate.

去年11月中國電影製片人王中軍以6180萬美元買下梵高的《靜物，插滿雛菊和罌粟花的花瓶》(Still Life, Vase with Daisies and Poppies)，遠遠超出3000萬至5000萬美元的估價。

“L’Allée des Alyscamps” last sold for $11.8m in 2003. It was first owned by the proprietors of the café where Van Gogh lodged in the city of Arles and was later held in a private collection in Japan.

《阿里斯康的小路》上一次出售是在2003年，成交價爲1180萬美元。這幅畫作最初的主人是梵高在法國南部阿爾勒市(Arles)寄宿的咖啡館的業主，後來被日本的一個私人收藏家買下。

For over a third of the works it was the first time they had gone on sale in half a century. Others included one of Claude Monet’s water lilies series of paintings while his 1905 impressionist painting “Nymphéas” sold for $54m.

超過三分之一的作品是半個世紀以來首次拍賣。其它作品包括莫奈的睡蓮系列畫作之一，他的1905年印象派繪畫《睡蓮》(Nymphéas)以5400萬美元落槌。

Pablo Picasso’s “Femme au chignon dans un fauteuil” went for $29.93m while Marc Chagall’s “Crépuscule ou la maison rouge” was sold for just over $5m.

畢加索(Pablo Picasso)的《Femme au chignon dans un fauteuil》拍得2993萬美元，而馬克•夏卡爾(Marc Chagall)的《Crépuscule ou la maison rouge》拍得500萬美元多一點。

Other artists whose works were included were Paul Klee, Edgar Degas, Wassily Kandinsky and René Magritte.

其它畫作出自保羅•克利(Paul Klee)、埃德加•德加(Edgar Degas)、瓦西里•康定斯基(Wassily Kandinsky)和勒內•馬格利特(René Magritte)等藝術家之手。