卡塔爾酋長1.794億美元拍下畢加索世界名畫

A billionaire Qatari sheikh dubbed "the man who bought London" was reportedly the anonymous bidder who snapped up a Pablo Picasso masterpiece that smashed the world auction sale record.
一個被冠以“能買下倫敦的人”稱號的億萬富翁卡塔爾酋長是拍下巴勃羅·畢加索名畫的神祕買主，這次交易創下了世界拍賣行的新記錄。

There has been intense speculation about the identity of the buyer who placed the winning $179.4 million (￡116 million) telephone bid for Les Femmes d'Alger at Christie's in Manhattan earlier this month.
對於這位通過電話競標，於本月初在曼哈頓克利斯蒂拍賣行以1.794億美元（合計1.16億歐元）拍下《阿爾及利亞女人》的買主，外界一直在猜測其身份。

Art world sources have now told the New York Postthat the painting was acquired by Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani, the former Qatari prime minister.
“藝術世界來源”告訴《紐約郵報》：該油畫被賈西姆·阿勒薩尼收入囊中。他是卡塔爾前外交部長。

Qatar's ruling Al Thani clan has been pursuing an international artwork buying spree as it aims to turn the small energy-Rich emirate into a global cultural power ahead of the 2022 World Cup.
統治卡塔爾的阿勒薩尼家族近來狂熱收購世界藝術名作，打算在2022年世界盃前夕將這個能源富足的小酋長國打造成國際文化強國。

But Les Femmes d'Alger may never be displayed publicly in Qatar to avoid offending Islamic sensibilities because it depicts women's breasts, even though they were painted in the artist's highly stylised cubist form.
但是，爲避免伊斯蘭敏感話題，《阿爾及利亞女人》在卡塔爾可能永遠不會被公開展示。因爲油畫中有女人的胸部，儘管藝術形式是高度抽象的立體畫。

It could instead remain at one of the sheikh's multi-million pound homes in London or New York, the newspaper reported.
據報道，該幅名畫可能就保存在這位酋長位於倫敦或紐約的百萬豪宅中。

The Anglophile royal earned the nickname of the "man who bought London" after going on a buying spree in the city with his personal fortune and as head of the Qatar Investment Authority.
作爲卡塔爾投資局局長，在倫敦用其私人財產瘋購名作後，這位親英派的酋長皇族成員獲得了“能買下倫敦的人”的暱稱。

The state agency invested in Harrod's, the London Shard, Sainsbury's, Barclays and the Stock Exchange, while the Anglophile royal bought three apartments in the One Hyde Park development.
卡塔爾國家機關還投資了哈羅德百貨公司、倫敦碎片大廈、塞恩斯伯裏超市、巴克萊銀行和英國證券交易所，而這位酋長國皇室成員則單獨買下了海德公園一號的三座公寓。

He is also currently renovating a mansion on Manhattan's Upper East Side that he bought for $47 million in 2012.
最近他還翻修了曼哈頓上東城的一座公館。該公館是他在2012年以4700萬美元買下的。

Members of the royal family have used their oil and gas wealth to buy several masterpieces in recent years. Some were bought for private collections while others were acquired for a new national museum that will show off its art treasures when it opens next year.
近年來，不少卡塔爾皇室家族成員使用本國的石油和天然氣財富購買了名作。有的作爲私人收藏，其它的作爲新國家博物館的收藏，一年後開館時其藝術珍寶可令人大開眼界。

Sheikha Mayassa bint Hamad al-Thani, the sister of Qatar's emir, was initially reported to have been the buyerof the artwork that was previously the most expensive sold at auction a Francis Bacon triptychthat went under the hammer for $142 million in 2013.
梅薩公主是卡塔爾埃米爾的妹妹，弗朗西斯·培根的一副三聯畫在2013年以1.42億美元賣出，成爲當時該拍賣行有史以來最貴藝術品。最初媒體報道梅薩公主是該藝術品的買主。

But art world sources later said that the buyer who has not been officially identified was Elaine Wynn, the co-founder of a Las Vegas casino empire.
但“藝術世界來源”後來發表聲明，稱非官方證實的買主其實是伊蓮·懷恩——拉斯維加斯皇家賭場的聯合創始人。

Sheikha Mayassa, then head of the Qatar Museums Authority, previously bought "The Card Players" by Paul Cezanne last year for a reported $250 million in a private sale the highest-price paid for a painting at the time. Her family has also spent heavily on works by Mark Rothko, Richard Serra, Roy Lichtenstein, Francis Bacon, Andy Warhol and Jeff Koons.
據報道，作爲卡塔爾博物館館長的梅薩公主，去年從一個私人收藏家手裏以2.5億美元的創紀錄高價買下保羅·塞尚的名作《玩紙牌的人》。她的家人同時還重金購買了馬克·羅斯科、理查德·塞拉、李奇登斯坦、弗朗西斯培根、安迪·沃霍爾和傑夫·昆斯等名家的畫作。

There was also speculation that the buyer of the Picasso this month might have been Asian as money from that continent, notably China, fuelled a record-breaking week of sales of nearly $2 billionat Christie's and Sotheby's in New York.
曾經有推測表示，本月這幅畢加索的名畫可能是一名亞裔人士購買的，因爲從亞洲，尤其是中國匯出的錢款創下了克利斯蒂拍賣行和紐約索斯比拍賣行一週近20億美元交易的新紀錄。

The Qatar embassy did not reply to a request for comment and the government rarely discusses the purchases of its ruling royals.
卡塔爾大使館沒有作出相關回應，該國政府也很少討論其統治家族的購買行爲。

Vocabulary

sheikh: 酋長
spree: 狂熱行爲
cubist: 立體派的
Anglophile: 親英派的