畢加索油畫作品或創拍賣紀錄

A Picasso painting valued at about $140 million is the centerpiece of a new type of auction at Christie’s, combining Modern and contemporary artworks spanning 100 years, that will kick-start its postwar and contemporary sales in New York in May.

5月份，佳士得拍賣公司(Christie’s)的一場新型拍賣會把時間跨度爲一百年的現代和當代藝術作品聚集在一起，其中重頭戲是一幅估價約爲1.4億美元的畢加索油畫。這場拍賣會將爲佳士得紐約戰後和當代系列拍賣會拉開序幕。

Scheduled for May 11, “Looking Forward to the Past” is an evening sale of about 25 lots organized by Loic Gouzer, of Christie’s postwar and contemporary art department. Mr. Gouzer was also the specialist responsible for Christie’s much-hyped “If I Live I’ll See You Tuesday” auction of 35 works by fashionable contemporary names, which raised $134.6 million last May.

“期待往昔”拍賣會(Looking Forward to the Past)定於5月11日晚舉行，將有約25件拍賣品，組織者是佳士得戰後和當代藝術部的盧瓦克·古澤(Loic Gouzer)。他也爲去年5月佳士得大肆宣傳的拍賣會“假如我活着，那就週二見”(If I Live I’ll See You Tuesday)擔任專家，該拍賣會包括熱門當代藝術家的35件作品，共拍出1.346億美元。

Postwar and contemporary has been the biggest-grossing auction category at Christie’s since 2011. But as the prices of works by the most desirable late-20th- and early-21st-century artists rise and rise — Christie’s Nov. 12 contemporary sale in New York took in $852.9 million — certain collectors (and auction house specialists) have been looking over their shoulders at earlier art with a new appreciation of its historical importance and rarity.

從2011年起，戰後和當代藝術成爲佳士得收益最大的拍賣門類。但是隨着最受歡迎的20世紀末和21世紀初藝術家作品價格不斷上漲（去年11月12日，佳士得的紐約當代藝術拍賣會共拍出8.529億美元），某些收藏家（和拍賣公司專家）亦開始回望更早期的藝術品，重新品鑑它們的歷史重要性和罕見性。

“I recently went to the reopened Picasso Museum and was blown away by what I saw,” said Mr. Gouzer, 34, who has collaborated with Christie’s Impressionist and Modern specialists to create the experimental format. “In a world where your latest iPhone is out of fashion in 10 days, everything he did still looked so relevant and fresh.”

“前不久，我去參觀重新開放的畢加索博物館(Picasso Museum)，再次感到震撼，”34歲的古澤說。他和佳士得的印象派、現代主義專家們合作創造了這種試驗性的拍賣方式。“如今，連最新的iPhone十天後都可能過時，而畢加索創作的一切仍然很有價值，讓人耳目一新。”

“Traditionally, people would start by collecting Impressionist and Modern art, and then trickle down to contemporary,” Mr. Gouzer added. “Recently, we’re seeing the contrary. Collectors start with contemporary, and then they start to look for other works that have quality, relevance and freshness.”

“過去，人們通常是先收藏印象派和現代藝術，然後慢慢轉向當代作品，”古澤說，“最近，我們看到相反的做法。收藏者們先收藏當代作品，然後開始尋找其他高品質、有價值、新穎的作品。”

Picasso, who died at 91 in 1973, has nevertheless traditionally been included in auctions of Impressionist and Modern art. But Christie’s said that the broadening client base at the week of contemporary art sales in New York was crucial in persuading an unidentified seller to come forward with Picasso’s 1955 canvas “Les Femmes d’Alger (Version ‘O’),” around which the auction house fashioned its “Looking Forward to the Past” sale. Inspired by Eugène Delacroix’s 1834 Orientalist masterpiece, “Women of Algiers,” this was one of a number of works Picasso produced in the 1950s and 1960s in response to earlier artists he admired. This particular painting was last seen on the market in November 1997, when it was bought by the London dealer Libby Howie, on the behalf of a client, for $31.9 million at Christie’s auction from the collection of the Americans Victor and Sally Ganz.

畢加索於1973年去世，享年91歲，他的作品通常在印象派和現代藝術拍賣會上拍賣。不過，佳士得稱，紐約當代藝術拍賣周的客戶羣在不斷擴大，因此才能勸說未透露身份的賣家同意拍賣畢加索1955年的油畫《阿爾及爾女人（O版）》(Les Femmes d’Alger [Version ‘O’])。佳士得圍繞這件作品組織了“期待往昔”拍賣會。20世紀五六十年代，畢加索以歐仁·德拉克魯瓦(Eugène Delacroix)1834年的東方主義傑作《阿爾及爾女人》(Women of Algiers)爲靈感，創作了《阿爾及爾女人》系列作品，向他欽佩的前輩們致敬。《阿爾及爾女人（O版）》上一次出現在市面上是在1997年11月的佳士得拍賣會，當時它是美國人維克多和薩莉·甘茲(Victor and Sally Ganz)的收藏品，被倫敦交易商莉比·豪伊(Libby Howie)代客戶以3190萬美元的價格買走。

Christie’s new valuation of about $140 million on this opulent Picasso ranks as one of the highest estimates ever put on an artwork at auction. Francis Bacon’s “Three Studies of Lucian Freud,” which sold for a record $142.4 million at Christie’s in November 2013, carried a presale estimate of more than $85 million. Christie’s has guaranteed the seller of “Les Femmes d’Alger (Version ‘O’)” an undisclosed minimum price. It would not specify whether this guarantee had been funded by the auction house or by a third party.

佳士得對畢加索這件華麗作品的最新估價約爲1.4億美元，是拍賣公司對藝術品的最高估價之一。2013年11月，弗朗西斯·培根(Francis Bacon)的《盧西恩·弗羅伊德肖像畫習作三聯畫》(Three Studies of Lucian Freud)在佳士得拍賣會上拍出史上最高的1.424億美元，當時的預估價爲8500萬美元。佳士得已向《阿爾及爾女人（O版）》的出售者擔保了一個未公佈的最低價，不過它不會具體說明這份擔保是由佳士得還是第三方出資。

The seller is a European collector who acquired the work at the Ganz auction, according to Christie’s. Other works in Mr. Gouzer’s sale include a 1950s Mark Rothko abstract, estimated at about $40 million, and a 1902 Monet series painting, at about $35 million. Works by Piet Mondrian, Egon Schiele, René Magritte and Martin Kippenberger will also be included.

據佳士得說，賣家是一位歐洲收藏家，此人在甘茲的拍賣會上購得這件作品。這一次古澤組織的拍賣會上還會有馬克·羅思科(Mark Rothko)20世紀50年代的抽象畫，估價在4000萬美元左右；莫奈(Monet)1902年的系列油畫，估價約爲3500萬美元。另外還有皮特·蒙德里安(Piet Mondrian)、埃貢·席勒(Egon Schiele)、勒內·馬格里特(René Magritte)和馬丁·基彭貝格(Martin Kippenberger)的作品。

“This reassessment of the importance of what’s gone before is fascinating,” said Wendy Goldsmith, an art adviser in London who was the international head of 19th-century European art at Christie’s from 2000 to ’03. Ms. Goldsmith, along with many dealers and advisers, has noted a cooling of demand for the young abstract painters. “There is a feeling that people are already saturated with the new and the young,” she said, “and so they’re looking back.”

“這種對過去作品重要性的重新評估非常吸引人，”倫敦藝術顧問溫迪·戈德史密斯(Wendy Goldsmith)說。2002年至2003年，她曾擔任佳士得19世紀歐洲藝術部的國際主管。戈德史密斯和很多交易商、顧問都注意到人們對年輕抽象畫家作品的需求在降溫。“人們似乎已經擁有足夠多年輕人的新作品，”她說，“所以他們開始回望過去。”

Last week, Mr. Gouzer posted an image of a 1938 Picasso painting of Dora Maar on Instagram. That work will be in his sale with an estimate of more than $50 million. But there are still gaps, Mr. Gouzer said. “I’m still looking for a 1960s Carl Andre.”

上週，古澤在Instagram上發佈了畢加索1938年的油畫《多拉·馬爾》(Dora Maar)的圖片。這幅作品也將出現他的拍賣會上，估價在5000萬美元以上。不過，古澤說，還存在一些空白，“我還在尋找卡爾·安德烈(Carl Andre)20世紀60年代的作品”。