俄羅斯富翁和畢加索女兒與一位中間商的紛爭
MONACO — In what appears at first glance to be a simple, magnanimous act, a Russian billionaire is poised this week to return two Picassos, valued at $30 million, to the artist’s stepdaughter, who says the works, both portraits of her mother — Jacqueline Roque, Picasso’s second wife — were stolen from her.
摩納哥——乍看之下，這是一個淳樸而崇高的行爲——本週（9月20日至9月26日），一位俄羅斯億萬富翁準備把兩幅價值3000萬美元的畢加索畫作還給這位藝術家的繼女。後者聲稱，這兩幅她母親（畢加索第二任妻子傑奎琳·羅克[Jacqueline Roque]）的肖像畫是從她那裏偷走的。
The businessman, Dmitry E. Rybolovlev, owner of one of the world’s most valuable art collections, said in an interview last week that he bought the works in good faith in 2013, without any hint that there was a question about their title.
商人德米特里·E·雷博洛夫列夫(Dmitry E. Rybolovlev)擁有一批世界上最爲值錢的藝術品。上週接受採訪時，他說，2013年，他秉承誠信原則買下這兩幅畫，完全不知道歸屬權有問題。
“I feel solidarity with her, especially because there is a strong emotional link between the portraits of her and her mother,” Mr. Rybolovlev said in the interview from his penthouse apartment here overlooking the Mediterranean.
“我認同她的主張，特別是考慮到她和母親肖像之間具有強烈的情感聯繫，”雷博洛夫列夫在俯瞰地中海的頂層公寓裏接受採訪時說。
But Mr. Rybolovlev’s decision is much more than just a chivalrous, expensive gesture. The man from whom he bought the portraits, Yves Bouvier, is also Mr. Rybolovlev’s adversary in what has become perhaps the largest feud in the art world today. And by returning the art in such a public fashion, he is drawing attention to their broader fight.
但是，雷博洛夫列夫的決定絕不僅僅是因爲慷慨正直。他是從伊夫·布維耶(Yves Bouvier)那裏買到這兩幅肖像畫的。後者是他的對手，他們之間的爭執可能是當今藝術界最高量級的。雷博洛夫列夫以如此公開的方式歸還藝術品，引起人們對他們更大爭鬥的注意。
For the past year, Mr. Rybolovlev has been battling Mr. Bouvier in courtrooms in Paris, Monaco, Singapore and Hong Kong in a dispute that has shed light on some of the murkier corners of the international art market. He has accused Mr. Bouvier, who helped him amass his collection, of fraud by overcharging him as much as $1 billion for multiple pieces of art.
在過去的一年裏，雷博洛夫列夫在巴黎、摩納哥、新加坡和香港的法庭上與布維耶對峙，這些糾紛反映出國際藝術市場較爲陰暗的一面。布維耶曾幫助他收集藏品。他指控布維耶詐騙，在多件藝術品上共多收了他10億美元。
Karen Boyer, a New York art adviser, said the dispute was “being watched pretty widely.”
紐約藝術顧問卡倫·博耶(Karen Boyer)說，這場糾紛“得到了廣泛關注”。
“A movie could be made out of it,” she added.
“都能拍成電影了，”她補充說。
The feud began last year, Mr. Rybolovlev said, when by chance he met an art adviser over lunch during a Caribbean vacation and discovered that — in a purchase arranged by Mr. Bouvier — he had paid $118 million for a Modigliani painting that a hedge fund billionaire, Steven A. Cohen, had sold for only $93.5 million.
雷博洛夫列夫說，爭執始於去年，當時他在加勒比地區度假，午餐時無意中遇到一位藝術顧問，發現按照布維耶的安排，他支付1.18億美元購買了一幅莫迪利亞尼(Modigliani)的油畫，而那幅畫原來的主人、對衝基金億萬富翁史蒂文·A·科恩(Steven A. Cohen)當時的售價僅爲9350萬美元。
Now, by returning the Picassos as planned in Paris on Thursday, Mr. Rybolovlev is supporting Picasso’s stepdaughter, Catherine Hutin-Blay, whose theft claim is being investigated by French officials.
雷博洛夫列夫計劃週四（9月24）在巴黎歸還畢加索的肖像畫。他想通過此舉支持畢加索的繼女凱瑟琳·於坦-布萊(Catherine Hutin-Blay)。法國警方正在調查這樁盜竊案。
But Mr. Bouvier complains he is being unfairly attacked by an art-world insider who understands the rules completely. He says he believed he had legally purchased the Picasso works, and their return, he said, is being staged only to embarrass him.
不過，布維耶說，他遭到一位完全瞭解規則的藝術界內部人士的不正當攻擊。他說，他堅信自己購買畢加索那兩幅作品的行爲是合法的；他還說，雷博洛夫列夫歸還作品只是爲了讓他難堪。
“It’s a pure media show,” said Mr. Bouvier, 52, who nonetheless was ordered by the French court to deposit the price of the portraits while the inquiry progresses.
“這純粹是演給媒體看的，”52歲的布維耶說。不過，法國法院要求他在調查期間上繳這兩幅肖像畫的價款。
Though it is his work as an art dealer and adviser that has drawn fire from Mr. Rybolovlev, Mr. Bouvier, a Swiss businessman, is better known as a man who runs an expanding network of freeports, the largely tax-free storage depots where wealthy collectors now store so many of their treasures.
雖然布維耶是作爲藝術交易商和顧問引發雷博洛夫列夫攻擊的，但這位瑞士商人經營的龐大自由港網絡更爲出名。那些自由港主要是免稅儲藏庫。如今，富有的收藏家們在這些儲存庫裏存放了很多寶物。
The dispute would be noteworthy if it were only a clash of giant egos. But Mr. Rybolovlev says his goal is larger. Sitting in his Monte Carlo home, Mr. Rybolovlev, a trim, reserved man of 48, announced with clinical detachment his hope of focusing attention on the often opaque nature of transactions in the art market, where buyers often do not know the identity of sellers.
如果這場糾紛只是兩個非常自負的人之間的衝突，那它可能不是這麼值得關注。但是雷博洛夫列夫說，他的目標更大。48歲的雷博洛夫列夫身材修長、矜持寡言，他在位於蒙特卡洛的家中以冷靜超然的態度聲稱，他希望人們關注藝術市場交易的不透明性，在這裏買家經常不知道賣家的身份。
“If the market were more transparent, these things wouldn’t happen,” he said.
“如果藝術市場更透明，就不會發生這些事了，”他說。
The two men met in 2003, when Mr. Bouvier began helping Mr. Rybolovlev with his collection. Trained as a physician, Mr. Rybolovlev made his fortune in the production and export of potash fertilizer after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Forbes currently estimates his worth at more than $8 billion. Through family trusts, he has bought a Greek island, Monaco’s soccer team and real estate around the world, including Donald Trump’s former oceanfront home in Florida.
2003年，布維耶和雷博洛夫列夫相遇，前者開始幫助後者收集藝術品。雷博洛夫列夫學醫出身，蘇聯解體後，他依靠鉀肥生產和出口而聚集起財富。據《福布斯》(Forbes)估計，目前他的資產超過80億美元。通過家族信託，他買下了一座希臘小島和摩納哥足球隊，並在世界各地購買房產，包括唐納德·特朗普(Donald Trump)在佛羅里達海岸的舊居。
He has also spent nearly $2 billion on art, relying often on Mr. Bouvier’s contacts to obtain works by El Greco, van Gogh, Matisse and others.
他還花費近20億美元購買藝術品，大多是通過布維耶聯繫，包括埃爾·格雷科(El Greco)、梵高(van Gogh)和馬蒂斯(Matisse)等人的作品。
Mr. Bouvier is known as the “king of the freeports” because he is the main operator or lead private investor in three of the half-dozen or so major freeports that are known to specialize in art. His private transportation company and high-tech warehouses in Switzerland, Luxembourg and Singapore draw business from wealthy collectors who want to store and trade their possessions privately with tax advantages.
布維耶以“自由港之王”聞名，因爲他是三個專門儲存藝術品的大型免稅倉庫的主要經營者或主要私人投資者。這樣的大型倉庫共有六個左右。他在瑞士、盧森堡和新加坡經營的私人運輸公司和高科技倉庫對富有收藏傢俱有吸引力。那些收藏家想在這些地方儲存和私下交易藏品，享受稅收優惠。
In these roles, he circulates on the global art circuit, building a network of contacts that he puts to work for his art-buying clients, like Mr. Rybolovlev, who was his biggest. “That is the way of the art market,” said Mr. Bouvier, a wiry man who wore sneakers to an interview at a Geneva steakhouse. “It’s a hunt for information.” And those who collect it, he said, expect to be paid.
布維耶憑藉自己的這些身份在全球藝術界周旋，建立聯絡網，爲購買藝術品的客戶服務，雷博洛夫列夫就曾是他最大的客戶。身體結實的布維耶穿着帆布鞋在日內瓦的一家牛排館裏接受採訪時說，“藝術品市場就是這樣，關鍵是搜尋信息。”他表示，能搞到信息的人自然希望拿到酬勞。
Larry Gagosian, the New York art dealer, is among those who question whether Mr. Bouvier should be both storing and selling art since running a warehouse gives him privileged information about collectors’ art holdings.
有些人質疑布維耶既儲存又出售藝術品的做法是否正當，因爲經營倉庫讓他擁有了解收藏者藝術品持有情況的特權。紐約藝術品交易商拉里·加戈西安(Larry Gagosian)就是質疑者之一。
“I’d consider it a terrible conflict of interest and would never keep art long term in the warehouse of a dealer,” Mr. Gagosian said.
“我認爲那樣做存在嚴重的利益衝突，我永遠不會把藝術品長期放在交易商的倉庫裏，”加戈西安說。
Mr. Rybolovlev acknowledges, though, that he had full confidence in Mr. Bouvier during a period when, by his account, they spent much time together on his private Greek island or in the soccer stands at Monaco.
不過，雷博洛夫列夫承認，有一段時間，他對布維耶完全信任。據他所述，他們在他的希臘私人小島或摩納哥的足球看臺上共度過了許多時光。
Though Mr. Bouvier acknowledges socializing with Mr. Rybolovlev, he says the two were not close. “I never spoke to him directly for more than two minutes on the ski lift,” said Mr. Bouvier, who noted that they communicated through translators because the Russian businessman spoke little French or English.
布維耶雖然承認與雷博洛夫列夫有往來，但表示兩人並不是特別熟。布維耶提到，因爲這位俄羅斯商人幾乎不會說法語或英語，所以他們只能通過翻譯交流。他說，“在滑雪纜車上，我從未直接對他說話超過兩分鐘。”
Everyone agrees their relationship suddenly soured late last year as they argued over payments and disputed the terms under which they were doing business. Mr. Rybolovlev says he had believed Mr. Bouvier was acting as his intermediary in their transactions, negotiating the best price and taking a 2 percent fee, based on the purchase price.
所有人都同意，去年年底，他們因報酬和交易條款發生爭執，關係突然惡化。雷博洛夫列夫說，他本來以爲布維耶在交易中擔任中介角色，談出最佳價格，然後拿走購買價2%的中介費。
In emails to the Russian’s adviser, Mr. Bouvier appeared to portray himself as negotiating hard terms or, in one example, urging Mr. Rybolovlev to make a speedy purchase because “the seller is very old and has a heart condition.” Mr. Bouvier, though, said it was always clear that he was operating as an independent seller who could buy the art and resell on his own terms and charge Mr. Rybolovlev what the market would bear.
在給雷博洛夫列夫顧問的郵件中，布維耶似乎表現出強硬的談判態度，催促雷博洛夫列夫快速購買，因爲“賣家年紀很大，有心臟病”。不過，布維耶說，自己是獨立賣家這一點一直很明顯，他購買藝術品，然後自行轉賣，向雷博洛夫列夫收取市場價。
Last January, Mr. Rybolovlev filed a criminal complaint in Monaco, asserting that his trusted adviser had been secretly marking up the works that he obtained on the collector’s behalf. Mr. Bouvier was arrested but released on bail, and the case is still unresolved.
去年1月，雷博洛夫列夫在摩納哥提起刑事訴訟，指控他所信任的顧問暗自擡高以收藏者名義獲得的藝術品的價格。布維耶因此被捕，不過獲得保釋，此案尚未判決。
Mr. Rybolovlev also went to court in Singapore, where Mr. Bouvier lives, to freeze $1.1 billion of Mr. Bouvier’s assets. But a court there lifted the freeze.
雷博洛夫列夫還在布維耶居住的新加坡起訴他，導致布維耶財產中的11億美元遭到凍結。但當地的一個法院解除了凍結。
“It is at least doubtful, even if not wholly incredible, that the respondents genuinely believed that the remuneration for Mr. Bouvier’s services was limited to the 2 percent fee that the respondents plainly knew they were paying him,” the judge in the case wrote.
“原告真的認爲布維耶的服務報酬最多就是他所知道的自己支付的2%，這一點至少值得懷疑，雖然這並非完全不可思議，”此案的法官寫道。
Their latest skirmish involves the two portraits of Roque, who committed suicide in 1986. In testimony to French investigators earlier this year, Ms. Hutin-Blay, 67, said she had entrusted the gouache portraits of her mother and other works to a business partner of Mr. Bouvier’s to store for her in a vault outside Paris.
他們的最新衝突涉及羅克的兩幅肖像畫。羅克1986年自殺。今年早些時候，67歲的於坦-布萊在給法國警方的證詞中說，她把母親的水粉肖像畫等作品委託給布維耶的一位商業合作伙伴，存放在巴黎郊區的一個倉庫裏。
Several years later, she said, an art restorer who worked for Mr. Bouvier’s company in the Geneva Freeport, told her that the painting had been brought there, restored and sold to Mr. Rybolovlev.
她說，幾年後，一位在日內瓦免稅港布維耶的公司工作的藝術品修復專家告訴她，那幅畫被帶到了那裏，修復後賣給了雷博洛夫列夫。
In March, Ms. Hutin-Blay filed a legal complaint asserting that her property had been stolen.
今年3月，於坦-布萊提起法律訴訟，聲稱財產被盜。
For his part, Mr. Bouvier said that while he never met Ms. Hutin-Blay, he had believed intermediaries were representing her in the sale. Documents show he wired $8 million for the Picasso portraits in 2010 to the Nobilo Trust, of which, he said, he believed she was a beneficiary.
布維耶說，雖然他從未見過於坦-布萊，但他之前相信，中間人是代表她拍賣。資料顯示，2010年，他花費800萬美元從諾比洛信託公司(Nobilo Trust)購買了幾幅畢加索肖像畫。布維耶說，他認爲於坦-布萊是那個公司的一位受益人。
“I am not crazy,” he said. “I’m not going to sell stolen art to someone who has bought 2 billion in art from me. He was my biggest client. I am not a fool.”
布維耶說，“我又沒瘋。我不會把一件偷來的藝術品賣給一個從我這裏買了20億美元藝術品的人。他曾是我最大的客戶。我又不傻。”
But Ms. Hutin-Blay’s lawyer in Paris, Anne-Sophie Nardon, said that Ms. Hutin-Blay had never authorized the sale of the paintings or received the money. She declined further comment and would not discuss whether Ms. Hutin-Blay did have a relationship to the Nobilo Trust.
不過，於坦-布萊在巴黎的律師安妮-索菲·納爾東(Anne-Sophie Nardon)說，於坦-布萊從未授權拍賣那些畫，也沒有收到錢。她拒絕進一步評論或討論於坦-布萊與諾比洛信託公司是否有關係。
After they turn over the paintings on Thursday to Ms. Hutin-Blay’s lawyer, Mr. Rybolovlev’s representatives said, they expect French police investigators to take custody of them to authenticate the paintings and await the outcome of the judicial proceedings. But he said he was taking this step now because “I understand her emotional state.”
週四（9月24日），雷博洛夫列夫的代表們把那兩幅移交給於坦-布萊的律師後說，希望法國警方保管這些畫並鑑定真假，他們會等待審判結果。不過雷博洛夫列夫說，他現在這樣做是因爲“我理解她的心情”。
“It was a personal act of betrayal,” he said.
“這是個人背叛行爲，”他說。
Mr. Bouvier’s French lawyer, Ron Soffer, pointed out that Mr. Bouvier had not been charged with a crime. Mr. Bouvier himself seemed unbowed during the interview last week, as he rummaged through a shopping bag full of documents that he said showed how unfair it was to suggest he had sold Mr. Rybolovlev stolen Picassos.
布維耶的法國律師羅恩·索弗(Ron Soffer)指出，布維耶沒有獲罪。在上週的採訪中，布維耶本人似乎也不打算認罪。他翻尋一個裝滿文件的購物袋。他說，那些文件表明，說他把被盜的畢加索作品賣給雷博洛夫列夫是多麼不公平。
“Just till now, I have been a gentleman,” he said. “But from now on, I am the resistance and I will reveal the truth.”
他說，“直到這一刻，我都是紳士。但是從今往後，我要當反抗者，我要把真相揭露出來。”
