掠奪還是保存 那些追尋中國文物的美國人

Karl E. Meyer and Shareen Blair Brysac have written a rollicking account of the acquisition of Chinese art and antiquities by Americans who came to China in the 19th and 20th centuries and took back vast collections from caves, palaces and the back rooms of dealers in Beijing. In “The China Collectors: America’s Century-Long Hunt for Asian Art Treasures,” the authors describe how lovers of Chinese art roamed the country hunting for sculptures, wall panels, furniture, porcelain and paintings that are now housed in important museums in the United States. Some of the artworks they tried to send back were ruined in the process.

卡爾·E·梅耶(Karl E. Meyer)和沙林·布萊爾·布萊薩克(Shareen Blair Brysac)此前的寫作已經對19世紀與20世紀來華收購中國藝術品和古董的美國人作了生動的刻畫，這些美國人從洞穴裏，宮殿裏，還有北京商人的密室裏拿走了大量的藏品。在《中國藏家：美國追尋亞洲藝術珍寶的百年》(The China Collectors: America’s Century-Long Hunt for Asian Art Treasures)一書中，二人描繪了這些熱愛中國藝術的人如何在中國各地遊蕩，搜尋雕像、壁畫、傢俱、瓷器，還有畫作，這些珍品現在都收藏於美國各大展覽館。一些藝術品還在運輸過程中被損毀了。

Whether their forays represented a rapacious plundering of China’s past or the fortuitous preservation of antiquities that might otherwise have been destroyed by war or greed in China is a theme of constant debate. Mr. Meyer, a former editorial writer for The New York Times, and Ms. Brysac, a documentary producer with a degree in art history, straddle the fence on that question. They have plumbed personal papers, historical records and memoirs of the main characters to piece together a startling tale of Americans who went to great lengths to obtain the artifacts that became part of a booming trade in the United States and Europe. In an interview, they described their findings:

他們的侵襲究竟是算作對中國歷史的瘋狂掠奪，還是說在無意中讓文物能夠得以保存，使其免遭戰火和貪婪之人的損毀，一直以來都是爭議的焦點。梅耶和布萊薩克在這個問題上也莫衷一是。梅耶此前是《紐約時報》一名社論作家，布萊薩克則是一名擁有藝術史學位的紀錄片製片人。他們研究了很多個人文件、歷史記錄，還有一些主要人物的回憶錄，以此拼湊出了一部關於一羣美國人爲了得到藝術珍品而長途跋涉的驚人故事，這些藝術珍品日後都成爲了歐美火熱交易的一部分。在此次採訪中，他們聊起了自己的研究成果。

Q. What was the inspiration for “The China Collectors?”

問：這本《中國藏家》的靈感是什麼？

Ms. Brysac: We had been invited to be members of St. Antony’s, a graduate college at Oxford. However, we needed a project. In 1997, while we researching our first joint book, “Tournament of Shadows” on the Great Game in Asia, we had uncovered files in the Harvard archives relating to the acquisition of the great “Empress” frieze from Longmen in China, now in Kansas City. The correspondence between Laurence Sickman, then a scout for the newly founded Nelson Gallery in Kansas City, and his Harvard mentor Langdon Warner was exceptionally frank — to summarize: “Go for it!” This was off our topic then. But in 2012, we looked into it and discovered that provenance research on Chinese art was in its infancy, and there were many archives that had not been mined. We were sure we had a book.

布萊薩克：我們當時被邀請前去聖安東尼學院——哈佛一家研究生院——學習，我們就需要一個項目。早在1997年，我們在爲第一本合著的書《陰影之旅》——那是一本關於亞洲大博弈的書——做研究的時候，我們就在哈佛檔案堆裏發現了那些和收購“皇后禮佛圖”(the great “Empress”frieze)相關的文件，當時是在中國龍門收購的，現在浮雕保存在堪薩斯城。勞倫斯·希克曼(Laurence Sickman)是當時堪薩斯城新成立的納爾遜畫廊(Nelson Gallery)的探員，他與其哈佛導師蘭登·華納(Langdon Warner)在信件中寫得異常直白，簡單地說就是：“快去拿！(Go for it!)”但當時這些東西和我們的題目不相干。而在2012年的時候，我們又仔細看了看，發現關於中國藝術品來源的研究還在初始階段，還有很多檔案還無人處理。我們當時就很確信我們可以寫本書了。

Q. One of the most remarkable episodes is about Langdon Warner and the Dunhuang caves. The use of cloths soaked in thick glue applied to the walls to remove murals sounds so crude. How did that work? Where are the murals now? Where is the Tang Dynasty bodhisattva that he pried from its base?

問：提到蘭登·華納，最有趣的一件事情是關於敦煌莫高窟的。他們在牆上用被黏稠膠水浸透的布來取下那些壁畫，聽起來很原始。是怎樣能拿下來的？現在那些壁畫在哪裏？那座被他從底座撬走的唐代菩薩現在哪去了？

Ms. Brysac: The method the Harvard art historian Langdon Warner used for removing the paintings in 1924 was based on that developed for detaching frescoes in Europe. But the Dunhuang paintings were not true frescoes. The techniques the Chinese artists used on the cave surfaces were quite different. Although Warner followed the best practices of the time, the caves were icy, the hot glue froze and became unworkable, so pigment remained on the walls when the strips were removed. Then he had to transport the 12 painting fragments and the Tang bodhisattva for 18 weeks in a springless cart, wrapped in his underwear.

布萊薩克：哈佛藝術史學家蘭登·華納在1924年移除這些畫作的方法，是基於歐洲移除溼壁畫的方法改進而來的。但敦煌的壁畫並不是真的溼壁畫。中國藝術家們在穴壁上用的技法很不一樣。儘管華納按照的是當時最好的辦法在處理這些壁畫，但洞穴裏很冷，那些熱膠水凍了起來就沒法用了，所以那些布被拿起的時候後，畫色還殘留在牆上。然後他用襯衫包起這12片壁畫和那座唐代菩薩，用一輛顛顛簸簸的馬車運着它們，走了整整18個星期。

By the time they reached Cambridge, where they are now in the Harvard Art Museums, they were in a very bad state of preservation, and the conservator had a difficult time removing the glue-soaked pigment. Only five of the fragments and the bodhisattva sculpture are in good enough condition to be exhibited. However, the Getty Conservation Institute is now involved in the preservation of the Dunhuang material, including the remaining cave paintings.

等到它們被運到坎布里奇(Cambridge)，也就是它們現在被保存的哈佛藝術展覽館(Harvard Art Museums)的時候，它們保存的狀況非常糟糕，文物管理人員費了好大功夫才移動了那些被澆水浸透了的壁畫。其中只剩下五片壁畫和那座菩薩雕像保存足夠完好，得以展出。但現在蓋蒂保護研究所(Getty Conservation Institute)也參與了這些敦煌文物，包括這些殘存壁畫的保護。

Q. Laurence Sickman, who later became the director of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, was involved with some of Warner’s exploits. Could you explain?

問：勞倫斯·希克曼後來成了納爾遜-阿特金斯藝術博物館(Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art)的總監，他也參與了華納的探險之旅。能說說他嗎？

Ms. Brysac: Warner had had his eye on the Longmen caves in Henan Province since 1909, but he had been unable to obtain funding from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, where he was then working, to explore them. The grottoes contain thousands of Buddhist statues. Both the French scholar Édouard Chavannes and the American collector Charles Lang Freer had them photographed between 1907 and 1911, and soon, dealers using Chavannes’s images in China and Europe were sending local peasants out to hack away at the unguarded sculptures.

布萊薩克：早在1909年，華納就盯上了河南的龍門石窟，但他當時沒法拿到波士頓美術館(Museum of Fine Arts)的資金去進行發掘，他當時在那家展覽館工作。龍門石窟裏有着數千座佛像。法國學者愛德華·沙瓦訥(Édouard Chavannes)和美國收藏家查爾斯·朗·弗利爾(Charles Lang Freer)在1907至1911年間給這些佛像拍了照片，不久之後，中國和歐洲的商人們就開始按着沙瓦訥的照片，僱一些當地的農民去把這些無人照看的佛像盜走。

Three Harvard-trained scholars, Warner, Sickman and Alan Priest, a curator at the Metropolitan Museum, had fixed upon what Priest described as the “Elgin Marbles of China,” two friezes from the Binyang cave showing the donors, Empress Wenzhao and the Emperor Xiaowen, with their courtiers. Sickman made notes and rubbings of the Empress frieze while it was still intact in 1931. But by late 1932, fragments — bits of hands, heads — began to appear in Beijing antique shops. When Sickman revisited the caves in 1933, he wrote Warner that “whole figures had been chipped from walls and niches.” What should he do?

華納、希克曼還有當時大都會藝術博物館(Metropolitan Museum)的館長阿蘭·普利斯特(Alan Priest)，這三名哈佛畢業的學者，把目光鎖定到了龍門石窟賓陽洞的兩條浮雕上，它們被普利斯特稱作是“中國的埃爾金大理石雕”，描繪了建洞施主文昭皇后和孝文帝，以及他們的使臣。在1931年皇后禮佛圖還完好的時候，希克曼對該浮雕做了記錄和臨摹。但在1932年末——一些浮雕的手、頭——開始出現在北京的古董商店內。在希克曼1933年再次造訪石窟時，他對華納寫道，“整個人像都被從石壁和壁龕里弄下來了。”他該怎麼辦呢？

The Fogg and the Nelson agreed together to provide funds to acquire all the pieces and reassemble them in Kansas City. Priest and the Met acquired the other pieces from a Beijing dealer who was then commissioned to acquire the remaining heads directly from the site. Sickman continued to express regret over the looting at the site. “I would give almost anything if it [the Empress frieze] had never left the Pin-Yang cave.”

福格藝術博物館(The Fogg)和納爾遜藝術博物館於是同意一同出資，買下所有殘片並將其帶到堪薩斯城重新組裝。普利斯特和大都會藝術博物館從一個北京商人那裏買下了所有其他的殘片，他當時被委託從洞窟直接買下剩下的頭像。希克曼此後一直對這次搶掠表示後悔。“如果能讓它（皇后禮佛圖）從未離開賓陽洞，我願意付出幾乎一切。”

Q. C.T. Loo was the leading dealer of Longmen sculptures. What happened to his collection? And what about the Longmen grottoes? What condition are they in?

問：盧芹齋()是龍門雕像的最主要經銷商。他的藏品最後怎麼樣了？龍門石窟呢？它們現在是什麼狀況？

Ms. Brysac: C.T. Loo is viewed by the Chinese as the archvillain who abetted the destruction of their cultural heritage, because, unlike the American and Canadian curators, he was native-born. Loo conducted a mail-order business providing photos to dealers who then hired local peasants to steal sculptures now in many collections in the United States and Europe. He was an early supporter of the Kuomintang, so was well connected with Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalist Chinese and was able to get artwork out of the country, thus skirting China’s export laws. His Chinese inventory was confiscated by the Chinese Communists when they took over, but his galleries in New York and Paris continued to sell his stock. Upon his retirement, his New York gallery was taken over by Frank Caro. As to Longmen caves, they are now protected as a Unesco World Heritage site.

布萊薩克：盧芹齋被中國人看作是一個煽動毀壞他們文化古蹟的大壞蛋，因爲，和那些美國和加拿大的收藏家不同，他是一箇中國人。盧芹齋當時的生意是信件預定式的，他提供照片給經銷商，然後他們再僱傭當地農民去偷出那些雕像，現在那些雕像很多都收藏在歐美。他是國民黨的早期支持者，和蔣介石的國民黨人關係很好，所以能夠繞過中國的出口法律，把很多藝術品運出國。在國民黨掌權後，他的很多中國藏品被沒收了，但他在紐約和巴黎的藝廊還繼續出售他的藏品。在他退休的時候，他的紐約藝廊被弗蘭克·卡羅(Frank Caro)接手了。至於龍門石窟，它現在被聯合國教科文組織列爲了世界文化遺址。

Q. Some American diplomats at the turn of the 20th century seem to have felt no qualms about taking out huge caches of Chinese art treasures. Herbert Squiers, the first secretary at the United States Legation, loaded up rail cars with artworks and then sold them to buy a 700-ton state-of-the-art yacht. Was there no shame at that time?

問：在20世紀初，一些美國外交官好像對於拿走大量中國文化遺產沒有絲毫不安。赫爾伯特·斯奎爾(Herbert Squiers)，時任美國公使館一等祕書，運走了幾個火車車廂的藝術品，然後賣了它們，買了一架700噸的時髦遊艇。那時候就沒有點羞恥心嗎？

Mr. Meyer: There was a developing sense of shame. As we write, by 1901, “looting had become bad form; at least a pretense of virtue was expected.” Thus, when The New York Times questioned the Metropolitan Museum about accepting donations from Squiers in 1901, an unnamed spokesman responded, “The Metropolitan Museum of Art does not accept looted art,” and since Squiers was “a gentleman without question,” it would be presumed his works “had been honestly got.”

梅耶：當時也有一絲羞恥感在慢慢發酵的。我們在書裏寫道，到1901年的時候，“搶掠已經變成了一件壞事；至少也要裝得有一點道德感。”因此，當《紐約時報》在1901年質疑大都會藝術博物館接受斯奎爾的捐贈時，一位未具名的發言人迴應稱，“大都會藝術館不接受搶掠來的藝術品，”但因爲斯奎爾“無疑是一位紳士，”所以我們認爲他的捐贈是“正當得來的。”

As the years passed and disorders gripped China, even the pretense of virtue lessened. When Squiers auctioned his prizes a decade or so later, the sale catalogs underscored the imperial provenance of key works.

而隨着時間流逝，中國陷入動亂，即使是那種虛僞的道德感都被削弱了。當十多年後當斯奎爾將他的藏品拍賣時，那次的出售目錄無疑突顯了關鍵藏品的帝國主義來源。

Q. You write that the Chinese government has basically depended on the art market to restore treasures to China. Chinese collectors pay large sums to bring back porcelain, sculpture, paintings. But might this approach change, and China demand that American museums return artworks?

問：你寫道中國政府至今很大程度上是依靠藝術品市場來將這些珍寶帶回中國。中國的收藏家花了大筆的錢纔將那些瓷器、雕像、畫作帶了回來。這種方式會發生變化嗎，中國會要求美國的博物館歸還藝術品嗎？

Mr. Meyer: To date, Beijing has yet to formally demand the restitution of objects now in American museums. It has relied instead on market tools to secure recovery of disputed works at auctions, or through private sales, using as proxies either private collectors or the state-owned Poly Group. But yes, museum curators and directors are on the alert for changing signals.

梅耶：目前來說，北京方面還沒有正式要求歸還這些收藏於美國博物館的珍品。中國一直依賴於市場工具拿回這些有爭議的藝術品，或是通過拍賣，或是私人出售，他們用私人收藏家或是國有的保利集團(Poly Group)等代理人來進行這些操作。但沒錯，博物館的館長和總監們都對在警惕、留心這種變化。

As best as we could determine, the likely response to any formal demand would be, one, that the museum has a valid sale receipt and export license for objects acquired before 1970, the cutoff date for importing antiquities; two, that the work has been better protected and preserved than if it remained in situ; three, that yielding on legal grounds would fix a precedent for a swarm of other demands. Finally, four, if the original sale transaction now looks bad, it accorded with common practices over the era. For example, curators argue, though the reputed purchase of Manhattan from Native Americans for $24 now looks bad, should we now give them the island?

我們現在最多能確定的就是，任何正式的請求可能只會得到這樣的答覆：第一，博物館擁有1970年之前所購買物品的有效的出售收據和出口憑證，1970年是進口古董文物的切割日期；第二，這些文物和如果留在遺址現場相比，得到了更好的保護和保存；第三，如果在法理上讓步，會立下一個先例，繼而引來一大堆其他的要求。最後，第四，即使說一開始的這些交易看起來不好，但它們也是符合當時的慣例的。比如，博物館員們會說，那次從美國當地人手中買下曼哈頓的著名交易只花了24美元，如果那次交易也看起來不太好的話，我們要不要把這座島還給他們呢？

But we at least owe an honest account of the original sale, as our book tries to offer regarding Chinese collections.

但的確，我們至少還缺少一個對這些初期買賣的一個公正的描述，在關於中國藏品這部分，這也是我們這本書旨在努力提供的。

Q. Is there unease at some American museums with substantial Asian collections that one day they may have to return some of their favorite things to China?

問：那麼對於一些收藏了大量亞洲藏品的美國博物館來說，他們有沒有感到一絲不安？即某天他們可能要把一些他們最珍愛的藏品歸還給中國呢？

Mr. Meyer: Museum officials worry that they may have to return some prizes to China, but opportunities also beckon for extended loans, swaps and other collaborative ventures. Chinese visitors now constitute the fastest-growing segment of cultural tourism, and flocks of mainland students are now enrolled in major U.S. universities. Against this, insiders credibly complain about a hard-driving mercantilism on the part of Chinese cultural officials seeking to maximize profits in loan programs. But, taken as a whole, the horizons are bright.

梅耶：博物館的官員們當然擔心有一天他們要把一些藏品還給中國，但是關於一些延期貸款、置換、合資的機會也會隨之而來。目前中國的參觀者在文化旅遊業裏是增長最迅速的羣體，而且成羣的中國大陸學生也在美國主要大學就讀。而與之相反，業內人士據信也在抱怨中國文化官員身上來勢兇猛的重商主義，他們一直想要將貸款項目利潤最大化。但總的來說，前途是光明的。

Q. Your book comes out as the Robert H. Ellsworth collection, considered to be one of the finest private collections of Asian art, has been auctioned in New York for more than $131 million. What does that sale say about the desirability of Chinese antiquities in the United States, and in China?

問：在你們的新書面世之際，羅伯特·H·埃爾斯沃斯(Robert H. Ellsworth)的藏品在紐約賣出了1億3千100萬美元，他的藏品被認爲是關於亞洲藝術最好的私人藏品之一。這次拍賣你們認爲有沒有說明中國文物在歐洲和中國的受追捧程度呢？

Mr. Meyer: The Ellsworth sale, in our estimate, is the last of its kind in America, and probably the West in general. It is no longer possible for a private person to assemble a collection of such magnitude. Times are long past when Chinese art was an underpriced bargain, when foreigners could shop in the mainland, and when collectors were still at the kindergarten level in their knowledge of Asian art. Robert Ellsworth was at once an innovative, pioneering dealer and a serious scholar. The sale totals may tell us a lot about the present and future of China collecting.

梅耶：埃爾斯沃斯的這次拍賣，按我們的估計，應該是在美國，甚至可能在整個歐洲的最後一次這種拍賣了。對於一個私人藏家來說再也沒有可能收集到這個量級的藏品了。那些中國藝術品還是低價買賣，外國人能夠在大陸進行收購，而且藏家們關於亞洲藝術的知識還停留在幼兒園階段的老日子一去不復返了。羅伯特·埃爾斯沃斯曾是一個敢於創新的先驅商人，還是一個嚴肅的學者。這次拍賣的總價可以告訴我們很多關於中國收藏界現今與未來的事情。