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Art as Collateral in a Fickle Market Art and money have long been closely linked, but in the 21st century, it seems, the two have become synonymous. 长久以来，艺术与金钱密切相连，但是在21世纪，这两者似乎成了同义词。 One way to extract the latter from the former is art-based lending, in which paintings or sculptures are used as collateral for loans. Now that the notoriously fickle and opaque art market is seemingly headed toward a downturn, with money tighter and the prices of many artworks lower, will this kind of niche financing become more attractive to collectors? 从艺术中榨取金钱的一个方法是艺术贷款，就是把油画或雕塑用作贷款抵押品。而今，因易变和不透明而臭名昭著的艺术品交易市场似乎正在走下坡路，资金更紧张，很多艺术品价格下跌，那么这种有利可图的融资方式是否会对收藏者具有更大吸引力？ Carlyle Group, the private-equity behemoth, certainly thinks so. In October, the company started Athena Art Finance Corporation, a collaboration with Banque Pictet that would use $280 million of Carlyle equity to enable owners of high-end art to tap the liquidity of their collections. 私募巨头凯雷集团(Carlyle Group)当然这么认为。去年10月，该集团开设雅典娜艺术金融公司(Athena Art Finance Corporation)。该公司与百达银行(Banque Pictet)合作，后者将利用凯雷集团的2.8亿美元，帮助高端艺术品所有者依靠藏品获取流动资金。 Crucially, Athena is offering nonrecourse loans, exclusively secured by art works rather than other assets. Those loans can be attractive to borrowers, because the lender can lay claim only to the art in the event of a default. 最重要的是，雅典娜提供无追索权贷款，只接受艺术品抵押。这种贷款可能对借款者具有吸引力，因为出现违约时，贷款者只能追索艺术品。 Art lenders who have offered full-recourse loans, secured by a range of personal assets, have faced unfavorable publicity. During the financial crisis of 2008-2009, the photographer Annie Leibovitz pledged her four homes and the rights to her images to secure a $24 million loan from Art Capital. She was unable to service the debt, and a high-profile court action ensued. 提供完全追索权贷款的艺术贷款公司要求以一系列私人财产作为抵押，公众形象不佳。在2008年至2009年的金融危机中，为了从艺术资金公司(Art Capital)贷款2400万美元，摄影师安妮·莱博维茨(Annie Leibovitz)抵押了自己的四处房产和肖像权。她无法偿还债务所引发的法律诉讼引起公众极大关注。 “This is an opportunity,” Andrea Danese, a co-founder of Athena and the company’s chief executive, said in a telephone interview. Mr. Danese said there was potentially about $150 billion worth of art in private hands that could be collateralized. He identified three groups to whom his company’s products might appeal. 雅典娜的联合创始人兼首席执行官安德烈·达纳斯(Andrea Danese)在接受电话采访时说：“这是个机会。”他说，私人收藏家手中大约有价值1500亿美元的艺术品可作抵押。他说自己公司的产品可能会吸引三类人。 “First, there are billionaires who put the money into private equity deals, where they make 20 to 25 percent,” he said. “Then there are collectors with, say, $30 million of art they leverage to buy another piece. And thirdly there are the art-rich and cash-poor in their 70s and 80s who don’t want to sell because of capital gains or estate taxes.” “第一类是把钱投到私募股权交易中的亿万富翁，这类投资的收益率为20%至25%，”他说，“第二类是拥有（比如说）价值3000万美元的艺术品的收藏家，他们可以这些艺术品作抵押，去购买别的艺术品。第三类是拥有很多艺术品但缺乏现金的七八十岁老人，碍于资本收益或遗产税，他们不想出售艺术品。” Athena offers loans of at least $1 million over six months to seven years based on a maximum of 50 percent of the low valuation of a collection or artwork. It typically charges annual interest of 7 to 9 percent, including origination fees. 雅典娜提供最少100万美元的贷款，期限为6个月至7年，以一系列或一件艺术收藏品为抵押，贷款额不超过最低估价的50%。它通常收取7%至9%的年利息，包括贷款发放费。 Athena is just one of two big self-financed lenders offering nonrecourse loans secured by art. Falcon Fine Art in London is the other. Since opening in January 2015, Falcon has arranged about $50 million in loans against high-value artworks, again at annual interest rates of about 7 to 9 percent. 雅典娜是两家提供以艺术品为抵押的无追索权贷款的大型自筹资金贷款公司之一。另一家是伦敦的法尔科美术公司(Falcon Fine Art)。从2015年1月创立时起，法尔科已经发放了约5000万美元的针对高价位艺术品的贷款，年利率也是约为7%至9%。 Larger banks, even those with art advisory facilities like Citi Private Bank, offer full-recourse loans to wealthy clients for as little as 2.5 to 3 percent a year, said Paul Ress, the managing director of the art lender Right Capital in London. 伦敦艺术贷款公司Right Capital的总经理保罗·雷斯(Paul Ress)说，更大型的银行，甚至包括拥有艺术咨询部门（比如花旗私人银行部[Citi Private Bank]）的大银行，向富有客户提供完全追索权贷款，年利率仅为2.5%至3%。 “Art lending is quite limited because of the affordability conundrum,” he said. “If you’re a high-net-worth individual, you don’t need to use art solely as collateral for a loan.” “艺术贷款面向的客户群很窄，因为支付能力是个复杂的问题，”他说，“高净资产人士不需要单独用艺术品做抵押来贷款。” But art lenders, like pawnbrokers, can get a boost when markets dip. 但是艺术贷款公司和典当行一样，在市场不景气时就会兴旺。 On Monday in New York, the evening session of Phillips’s “New Now” auction of contemporary art, designed to kick-start the week of the Armory Show, contained a meager 23 lots, 13 of which managed to sell, raising just $1.7 million. The only work that was sold significantly above its estimate was a 1983 Jean-Michel Basquiat drawing of a snarling dog’s head, estimated at $80,000 to $120,000, which drew the night’s top price of $257,000. 周一（3月1日），为了迎接军械库展览会(Armory Show)，菲利普拍卖行(Phillips)在纽约举办“New Now”当代艺术品拍卖会。其中的夜间拍卖会只有23件拍品，其中13件拍出，总拍卖额仅为170万美元。唯一一件拍价明显高于估价的作品是让-米切尔·巴斯奎特(Jean-Michel Basquiat)1983年创作的吼叫的狗头画作，估价为8万至12万美元，拍卖价为25.7万美元，是当晚的最高价。 “There is a process of attrition at the moment. It’s cyclical, and it’s healthy for the market,” said the Los Angeles entrepreneur Carlos Rivera, the founder of Art Rank, a website that uses algorithms to analyze contemporary artists as stocks to be bought, held or sold. “目前市场正在经历一个变冷的过程。这是一个循环，对市场是有益的，”Art Rank网站的创始人、洛杉矶企业家卡洛斯·里韦拉(Carlos Rivera)说。该网站用算法分析当代艺术家的作品，就像分析股票那样，研究是该买进、持有还是卖出。 Mr. Rivera has a new venture, Levart, that — much like the new-age pawnbrokers Borro — aims to provide liquidity at a much lower level of the market than Athena. Levart says it can provide nonrecourse financing within 12 hours, if backed by suitable contemporary works valued at as little as $5,000. 里韦拉开设了一家新公司，名叫Levart，它很像新时代典当行Borro，为比雅典娜针对的市场低端得多的市场提供流动资金。Levart公司称，它能提供12小时无追索权贷款，以合适的当代艺术品做抵押，最低估价5000美元即可。 The monthly interest is a hefty 4 percent for loans under $250,000. But that has not deterred art insiders from using the site to finance profitable short-term resales. 25万美元以下的贷款的月利率很高，达4%。但这并未阻止艺术界人士利用该网站筹资进行利润很高的短期转售。 Levart cites, for example, the $20,000 borrowed by a client to buy “Newz!,” a 2014 painting by the Los Angeles artist Math Bass. The work was then sold at Phillips in November for $81,250 against a low estimate of $25,000, reflecting the original purchase price. Levart举例说，一位客户借了2万美元购买洛杉矶艺术家马思·巴思(Math Bass)2014年创作的油画《Newz!》。去年11月，这件作品以8.125万美元在菲利普的拍卖会上售出，当时的最低估价为2.5万美元——这一估价反应了原始购买价。 If the market does take a serious dip, lenders believe they can play a role in preventing a fire sale. “People don’t want to sell when things are going down in value,” said Tim Hunter, the vice president of Falcon Fine Art, “but they might need to take liquidity out of their collection.” 如果市场确实出现严重下滑，贷款公司相信自己能帮助阻止抛售。法尔科美术公司副总裁蒂姆·亨特(Tim Hunter)说：“当艺术品价格下滑时，人们不想出售，但他们可能需要凭借藏品获取流动资金。” Wealthy art buyers certainly took plenty of liquidity out of their collections last year at Sotheby’s. Throughout 2015, the auction house’s finance division had an average of $733 million of full-recourse loans on its books, generating $65 million of income, according to fourth-quarter results released on Feb. 26. 去年，富有的艺术品买家们无疑凭借自己的收藏品从苏富比获得了很多流动资金。2015年，这家拍卖公司共发放7.33亿美元完全追索权贷款，据2月26日公布的第四季度业绩，这些贷款共产生6500万美元的利润。 Those figures might not seem much compared to the company’s $6 billion in auction sales, but Sotheby’s 2015 auction commissions of $719 million were 5 percent less than in 2014, while income from financing rose 38 percent. 这些数字与这家拍卖行60亿美元的拍卖额相比可能不算什么，但是它2015年的拍卖佣金为7.19亿美元，比2014年降低5%，而贷款利润增长了38%。 For many, art collecting today is all about maximizing returns on an investment portfolio. But an auction in France last month is a reminder of the premium buyers place on collections put together without commercial considerations. 对很多人来说，如今的艺术收藏完全是为了实现投资组合的最大化收益。但是法国上个月的一场拍卖会提醒买家们，不考虑商业收益进行收藏会带来意想不到的益处。 On Feb. 22 and 23, the Paris auctioneer Artcurial sold the collection of Pierre Hebey, a French intellectual property lawyer who died last year at 89. The sale raised 8.9 million euros, about $9.8 million, well above the estimate of €6 million, with 85 percent of the 564 lots sold. Top price was the €845,000 paid for Roberto Matta’s 1938 surrealist painting “Morphologie Psychologique de l’Angoisse.” 2月22日和23日，巴黎的艾德拍卖公司(Artcurial)拍卖法国知识产权律师皮埃尔·埃贝(Pierre Hebey)的收藏品。89岁的埃贝去年离世。这场拍卖共拍得890万欧元，约合980万美元，远高于600万欧元的估价，564件拍品中有85%售出。最高价是罗伯托·马塔(Roberto Matta)1938年的超现实主义画作《不安的心理形态》(Morphologie Psychologique de l’Angoisse)，拍卖价为84.5万欧元。 Hebey, who counted Max Ernst and Marc Chagall among his friends, had been well-positioned to acquire 20th century art. But he was also a lifelong collector of Art Deco, 19th-century bronzes and other antiques, and he could often be found at flea markets around Paris, flashlight in hand, at five in the morning. 埃贝的朋友包括马克斯·恩斯特(Max Ernst)和马克·夏加尔(Marc Chagall)等。他喜欢购买20世纪艺术品。不过他一生也在收藏装饰派艺术作品和19世纪青铜艺术品等古董。他经常早上5点就拿着手电筒在巴黎周边的跳蚤市场转悠。 One of his most striking purchases was Emmanuel Frémiet’s gilded bronze sculpture “Pélican Gastronome,” showing the bird feeding its chicks, commissioned in 1890 by the president of the Banque de France. The Petit Palais museum in Paris bought the work at the Artcurial auction for €76,200. 他令人印象最深刻的一次购买是埃马纽埃尔·弗雷米耶(Emmanuel Frémiet)的镀铜雕塑《贪食的鹈鹕》(Pélican Gastronome)，描绘的是鹈鹕给孩子们喂食。这件雕塑是弗雷米耶1890年受法兰西银行(Banque de France)的总裁委托创作的。巴黎小皇宫博物馆(The Petit Palais)在艾德的拍卖会上以7.62万欧元买下这件作品。 Fabien Naudan, the vice president of Artcurial, explained why he thought buyers were so eager to bid at the Hebey sale. 艾德拍卖公司的副总裁法比安·诺当(Fabien Naudan)讲述了他认为买家们如此热情地在埃比的拍卖会上出价的原因。 “They were trying to buy part of his life,” said Mr. Naudan, who added that Mr. Hebey was motivated as a collector solely by his love of an object. “People are ready to pay much more for this ‘charge émotionnelle.”’ “他们想购买他的一部分人生，”诺当说。他补充说，埃比收藏艺术品完全是出于对艺术品的热爱。“人们愿意多花很多钱来获得这种‘激情充电’。” How much? “Maybe 20 percent,” Mr. Naudan suggested. 多花多少钱？“大概20%，”诺当说。 The financial industry sometimes classifies art as an “investment of passion.” Paradoxically, passion, rather than portfolio planning, seems to be the thing that ensures above-average financial returns. 金融业有时把艺术品归类为“激情投资”。有意思的是，激情似乎比投资计划更能确保获得高于平均水平的经济回报。 |
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