Let the art market roar. Norwegian painter Edvard Munch became the most expensive artist at auction Wednesday when his 1895 pastel of a terrified man clutching his cheeks along an Oslo fjord, ’The Scream,’ sold for $119.9 million at Sotheby’s--the most ever paid for a work of art at auction.

　　艺术品市场也疯狂了一次。周三，挪威画家蒙克(Edvard Munch)成了拍卖会上身价最高的艺术家：他在1895年创作的一个版本的《呐喊》(The Scream)在苏富比(Sotheby’s)拍出了1.199亿美元的高价，这是迄今为止单件艺术作品在拍卖会上拍出的最高价格。蒙克的《呐喊》描绘了一个受到惊吓的男子在奥斯陆峡湾旁双手托住脸颊的画面。

　　The purchase surpasses the $106.5 million spent two years ago for Pablo Picasso’s 1932 portraitof his mistress, ’Nude, Green Leaves and Bust,’ as well as Alberto Giacometti’s earlier record of $104.3 million for his 1960 spindly bronze sculpture, ’Walking Man I.’

　　Everett Collection图片：蒙克名作《呐喊》的别样化身这一价格超过了毕加索(Pablo Picasso)1932年为他的情妇创作的肖像《裸体、绿叶和半身像》(Nude, Green Leaves and Bust)在两年前拍出的1.065亿美元的高价，也打破了贾科梅蒂(Alberto Giacometti)1960年创作的青铜雕塑《行走的人》(Walking Man I)拍出的1.043亿美元的纪录。

　　In a dogged contest at the auction house’s New York saleroom, the bidding for Munch’s ’Scream’ began at $40 million and shot up quickly, with five bidders from America and China competing for the sunset-colored portrait. Charlie Moffett, a Sotheby’s specialist who represents American buyers, fielded the anonymous winning bid from a telephone.

　　在纽约苏富比的拍卖大厅里，围绕《呐喊》的一场紧张的争夺战由此开始：此画从4,000万美元起拍，此后价格迅速蹿升，五位来自美国和中国的竞拍者相互竞争这幅日落颜色的画作，代表美国买家的苏富比专家莫菲特(Charlie Moffett)替一位以匿名方式电话竞拍的买家成功拍得这一画作。

　　The work had been priced to sell for around $80 million. Sale prices, unlike estimates, include the auction house’s commission, which is 25% on the first $50,000, 20% up to $1 million and 12% above $1 million.

　　此前这幅作品定下的销售价约为8,000万美元。和估价不同，销售价还包括拍卖行收取的佣金。苏富比按如下比率收取佣金：如果落槌价在5万美元及以下，佣金为落槌价的25%；如果落槌价在50,001美元至100万美元之间，佣金为落槌价的20%；如果落槌价高于100万美元，佣金为落槌价的12%。

　　The sale reflects the trophy-hunting atmosphere currently buoying the global art market, as billionaires around the world vie for the few masterpieces that come up for sale in any given season. Their collective bidding has also helped recalibrate price levels for dozens of top artists.

　　《呐喊》拍出创纪录高价反映了目前提振全球艺术品市场的一股追逐珍品的氛围。在任何一个拍卖季都可以看到全球亿万富豪在争夺待售的寥寥几件杰作。这些富豪集体竞拍的行为有助于抬高数十位顶尖艺术家的身价。

　　Outside the auction houses, artworks have already traded for even more: Five years ago Chicagocollector Stefan Edlis sold his Andy Warhol ’Turquoise Marilyn’ to hedge-fund billionaire Steven Cohen for at least $80 million.

　　在拍卖行外，艺术品的交易价格往往更高。五年前，芝加哥收藏家艾德里斯(Stefan Edlis)将其收藏的沃霍尔(Andy Warhol)的画作《玛丽莲•梦露》(Turquoise Marilyn)以至少8,000万美元的价格卖给对冲基金业的亿万富豪科恩(Steven Cohen)。

　　Dealers say Greek shipping magnate George Embiricos sold his Paul Cezanne painting, ’Card Players,’ to an anonymous buyer last year for at least $250 million. Details of that $250 million sale remain cloudy in part because Embiricos died last fall, and no buyer for his record-settingpainting has since stepped forward. Dealers say the likely buyers include Qatar’s royal family, which declined to comment, and billionaires from Greece and Russia.

　　艺术品经销商说，希腊船王安布里柯斯(George Embiricos)去年将其收藏的塞尚(Paul Cezanne)名作《玩纸牌的人》(Card Players)以至少2.5亿美元的价格出售给一位匿名买家。有关这宗2.5亿美元交易的细节仍然不为人所知，部分原因是安布里柯斯已于去年秋天去世。自那以后，以创纪录高价购得这幅名作的买家一直没有现身。艺术品经销商说，可能的买家包括卡塔尔王室以及希腊和俄罗斯的亿万富豪。卡塔尔王室对此不予置评。

　　’There’s a lot of money out there now, and it doesn’t take many billionaires to push up a price,’ said Edlis, the Chicago collector, before the sale. ’You can only buy so many yachts, and a painting is so much better to look at than a bankbook.’ Edlis said he didn’t plan to enter the fray on the Munch.

　　芝加哥收藏家艾德里斯在卖画之前曾说，市场上的资金非常充裕，并不需要多位亿万富豪争相出价才能推高价格；你总不会买下太多艘游艇，而且跟存折比起来，名画看上去要漂亮多了。艾德里斯曾说他不打算参与《呐喊》的竞拍。

　　Elsewhere in Sotheby’s sale, collectors also chased after a group of works coming from the estateof financier Theodore Forstmann, a pioneer in the leveraged-buyout business. Forstmann was thesenior founding partner of the investment firm Forstmann Little & Co., and chairman and CEO of IMG Worldwide Holdings Inc.

　　在苏富比2号晚上的拍卖中，藏家也在追逐已故金融家福斯特曼(Theodore Forstmann)收藏的艺术品。福斯特曼是杠杆收购业务的先驱，也是投资公司Forstmann Little & Co.的高级创始合伙人，还是IMG Worldwide Holdings Inc.的董事长兼首席执行长(CEO)。

　　Leading this group of colorful, modern paintings and bronze sculptures was Picasso’s $29.2 million ’Woman Sitting in a Chair’ from 1941, and Chaim Soutine’s $9.3 million ’The Hunter of Maxim’s’ from 1925.

　　在这组琳琅满目的现代绘画和铜雕当中，售价最高的是毕加索作于1941年的《坐在扶手椅的妇女》(Woman Sitting in a Chair)，成交价2,920万美元，以及苏蒂纳(Chaim Soutine)作于1925年的《猎人》(The Hunterof Maxim’s)，成交价930万美元。

　　The record-setting Munch was considered a plum as much for its rarity as for its pop-culture ubiquity. One of four versions of ’The Scream’ that Munch created, this version was the only one not in an Oslo museum and the first to ever come up at auction. The image has also been reproduced on everything from ice-cream containers to the villain’s mask in Wes Craven’s ’Scream’ horror films.

　　卖出天价的蒙克作品之所以受到追捧，除了非常稀有以外，也由于它在流行文化中无处不在。蒙克一共创作了四个版本的《呐喊》，周三拍卖的是唯一一个没有被某家奥斯陆博物馆收藏的版本，也是有史以来第一个被拍卖的版本。画中的影像还被复制在各种东西上面，如装冰激凌的盒子，又比如克雷文(Wes Craven)《惊声尖叫》(Scream)系列恐怖片中那位反面角色所戴的面具。

　　’The Scream’ carries its own mystique, having come from the collection of Petter Olsen, a Norwegian real-estate developer and shipping heir who grew up with the work in the living room of his childhood home. His father, Thomas Olsen, a neighbor of Munch’s in the small Norwegian town of Hvitsten, bought the work from the German coffee magnate who likely commissioned it. During World War II, Olsen said his family hid the work along with dozens of other Munch artworks in ahay barn to protect them from the Nazis, who were destroying artworks they deemeddegenerate. Olsen has said he offered up ’The Scream’ now in order to fund a museum of Munch’s work in Hvitsten to open next year.

　　《呐喊》本身也有其神秘色彩。它是挪威房地产开发商、船业继承人奥尔森(Petter Olsen)的藏品之一。在他成长期间，这幅画一直挂在童年时期居所的起居室内。他的父亲托马斯•奥尔森(Thomas Olsen)是蒙克在挪威小镇维斯滕(Hvitsten)的邻居，他从一位德国咖啡大鳄手中买下了这幅作品，很可能是这位咖啡大鳄委托他画的这幅画。奥尔森说，二战期间，他们家把《呐喊》和蒙克其他数十年作品藏在装干草的仓房内，以防纳粹破坏──当时纳粹正在大肆毁坏他们认为低俗的作品。奥尔森曾表示，现在把《呐喊》拿出来拍卖是为了给维斯滕小镇的一座蒙克作品展馆筹资，这座展馆将于明年开放。

　　The work itself depicts a bald, skeletal figure in a blue shirt standing at a popular suicide spot on Oslo’s horseshoe-shaped bay where people could often heard screams from a nearby insaneasylum, according to art historians. Munch’s sister, who had been diagnosed with schizophrenia, was housed in that asylum. (There’s still debate over whether Munch’s character is actually screaming or using his hands to muffle the sound of surrounding screams.)

　　据艺术史学家说，作品本身描绘的是一个身穿蓝色衬衫、骨瘦如柴的秃顶的人站在奥斯陆马蹄型海湾上一个常常有人自杀的地方。在那里，人们常常会听到附近一家精神病院里传出的尖叫声。蒙克被诊断为精神分裂的妹妹就被关在那家精神病院里。（至于画中人物究竟是在尖叫，还是用手捂住耳朵阻挡周围的尖叫声，仍然存在争论。）

　　The third in a series created between 1893 and 1910, Sotheby’s version was created with pastel on rough board and offered in its original frame, which is inscribed with an 1892 poem Munch wrote, which inspired the work. In the poem, he says he was walking beside that fjord when he sensed ’an infinite scream passing through nature.’

　　苏富比拍卖的作品是蒙克在1893年到1910年之间创作的系列作品中的第三幅，用粉蜡笔在粗木板上绘成，和原配的画框一起出售。画框上题写了蒙克作于1892年的一首诗，正是这首诗激发了这幅作品的创作灵感。蒙克在诗中说，他正在海湾旁边行走，突然感觉从大自然中传来连绵不绝的尖叫声。

　　Historians hail Munch for breaking away from the Impressionists who still held sway over the art world in the late 19th century. Instead of playing with light and shadow to capture the world around him, Munch experimented with ways to visualize his own tormented emotions--a shift that helped pave the way for the Expressionists like Egon Schiele along with later AbstractExpressionists like Mark Rothko.

　　19世纪末的艺术界由印象派主宰，而对于蒙克同印象派决裂的做法艺术史学家历来称赞不已。蒙克没有运用光影来描绘他周围的世界，而是通过各种实验将自己痛苦的情绪呈现为视觉。这种转变在某种程度上为席勒(Egon Schiele)等表现主义派以及后来的罗斯科(Mark Rothko)等抽象表现主义派奠定了基础。