苏富比新晋大股东陈东升其人其事

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，中国大亨陈东升在电视上瞥见欧洲富丽堂皇的拍卖行里的情景，并由此着了迷。1987年，当梵高的一幅《向日葵》(Sunflowers)在伦敦卖出3990万美元（约合2.6亿元人民币）时，艺术与财富的结合给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.”

“西方上流社会的一种高雅游戏是那么的遥远、那么的神秘、那么的高贵、那么的典雅，对于像中国这样一个还没有摆脱革命的国家，一个经济落后的国家，那样的电视画面里的情境反差太大，相离甚远，”陈东升在他的回忆录中写道。

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.

但现在，他已经成为了苏富比拍卖行(Sotheby's)的未来的主要参与者，而长期以来，苏富比一直是他的模仿对象。这证明他和中国已在艺术商业领域崛起，成为了业内的重要力量。

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.

陈东升担任董事长和首席执行官的泰康人寿上周透露，经过一连串的买入后，该公司已成为苏富比的最大股东，持有后者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.

“这是该市场全球化最明显的标志，”纽约咨询公司彼得雷乌斯集团(Petraeus Group)的艺术品市场顾问托马斯•加尔布雷思(Thomas Galbraith)说。

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.

长期以来，陈东升一直是中国艺术品和古董市场的一个实力强大的参与者。泰康的最大股东是陈东升1993年参与创立的中国嘉德国际拍卖有限公司。

“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.

陈东升两年前对中国的一家报纸表示，“我要做中国的苏富比，再造中国的文化贵族。”迄今为止，他尚未公开评论过有关苏富比的公告。

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.

尽管心怀对高端文化的志向，现年58岁的陈东升自己却是共产党贵族中地位不算显赫的一员。其父是一名人民解放军军人，其妻孔冬梅是毛泽东的外孙女。他把拍卖称作是一项保护中国遗产的爱国事业，但他也支持当代艺术。他倡导市场的力量，但却在需要让心存戒备的监管机构站在自己一边的商业领域——艺术品拍卖和保险——确立了自己的地位。

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.

在北京和香港设有画廊的北京艺门的总监马芝安(Meg Maggio)表示，如果对陈东升和他的团队不以为意，认为他们只是有现金没专业知识的新手，则颇为愚昧。

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

“陈东升满怀抱负，有着巨大的能量，”马芝安说。“这些人根本不是新手。他们是老练、精明的艺术界老手。”

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.

苏富比在中国有自己的业务，包括在北京和上海的办公室。此外，苏富比还在香港设有办公室，在那里同嘉德和其他拍卖行展开竞争。

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.

中国的艺术品投资者和画廊老板表示会进一步观察，看泰康在苏富比的持股，会在多大程度上转化成两家公司，或许还包括嘉德之间的合作。

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

“这可能会让苏富比在中国获得一个重要的盟友，”马芝安说。“嘉德也需要强劲的海外表现。”

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，已经对可能会进入苏富比董事会的人员有了想法。而如果陈东升被任命为董事，在公司的运作上他将不需要他人的指导。上世纪90年代初辞去一家官方杂志的编辑职务并投身拍卖行业时，他照搬了苏富比的一概细节。他借了一部摄像机，现场观摩了苏富比在香港举行的一场拍卖，并偷偷录下了拍卖过程。

“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.

“就怕被人家说，腿打抖，手打颤地偷偷拍，”他在2014年出版的回忆录中写道。回到北京后，他和同事对视频进行了详细的研究，细致到号牌的设计。

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

在接下来的几十年里，随着中国的新富人群创造出了一个兴旺的艺术品市场，嘉德繁荣发展。

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，苏富比和嘉德有充分的理由互帮互助。中国经济放缓，艺术品销售也一样。德勤(Deloitte)的一份报告显示，2015年当代中国艺术品成交额同比下降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.

在适应变化的竞赛中，嘉德被有着国有资金支持的保利拍卖领了先。后者在超越一众竞争对手的同时，也引发了业内对其不透明的不安。德勤的报告显示，保利通报其2015年的成交额同比增长19.1%，而嘉德则宣布其成交额下降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.

前述艺术品市场顾问加尔布雷思表示，就苏富比而言，它在中国的业务被佳士得(Christie's)领先，因此需要一座更强大的桥梁，去争取那里的潜在顾客。2013年，佳士得击败苏富比，成为首个获准在中国独立开展业务的国际拍卖行。

“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.”

“苏富比输掉了进入中国市场的战斗，客观地说输得很惨。但这件事可能会帮助他们赢得这场战争，”他说。“尽管嘉德在国际业务上落后于保利，但这项协议在一夜之间改变了局势。”

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，中国境内的拍卖行必须要适应富裕的艺术品买家不断变换的品味。在收集藏品时，他们越来越把目光投向海外。加尔布雷思说，这里的买家似乎正在重复日本和其他一些国家出现过的模式，即最初把重点放在国内的艺术品上，然后扩大关注范围。

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，出租车司机出身的亿万富翁、艺术品收藏家刘益谦，在佳士得在纽约的一场拍卖中以1.704亿美元（约合10.8亿元人民币）的价格，购得阿梅代奥•莫迪利亚尼(Amedeo Modigliani)的一幅女性裸体画。主要的当代艺术展巴塞尔艺术展(Art Basel)也试图通过每年在香港举办一次展览，吸引更多的中国买家。

“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.

“因为出国旅游、受教育和工作的经历，人们的品味不断变化，”佳士得中国区执行董事蔡金青说。

“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.”

“对国际艺术品的兴趣升温是一个非常非常强劲的趋势，”她说。“选择佳士得或苏富比时，口碑和品牌价值对中国顾客的吸引力非常大。”

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.

泰康不是唯一一个希望从苏富比赢取更多价值的投资者。彭博社(Bloomberg)报道称，新加坡公司盛大支付(Shanda Payment Holdings)于5月获准增持。两年前，一直是苏富比最大股东的对冲基金第三点(Third Point)奋力试图调整苏富比的管理层。

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.

但陈东升把自己塑造成了一个态度严肃、目光长远的赞助人。泰康人寿在北京东北部一个展馆密布的地区经营着自己窗明几净的当代艺术展厅。嘉德则委托德国先锋派建筑设计师奥勒•舍伦(Ole Scheeren)在紫禁城的步行距离范围内修建一个艺术中心。

“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.”

“企业家是伟大艺术的守护神，”陈东升去年说。“没有商业就没有艺术。因为艺术没有价值大家不会去欣赏。”