藝術博覽會 熱門好生意
摘錄自：天下雜誌 經濟學人電子報 2013/1/31
2014-01-20 Web only 作者：經濟學人
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| 圖片來源：flickr.com/photos/nearnearfuture/ |
今年的倫敦藝術博覽會預計將有2.5萬人參與，筆者造訪展場之時，交易商不是在講手機，就是三五成群地聚在一起。他們似乎相當緊張；其中一名交易商表示，他可以在一場博覽會中賺取足夠整年花費的收入。
大眾藝術品博覽會的老闆拉姆齊（Will
Ramsay）回憶道，1999年之前，倫敦只有一場定期舉行的現代藝術博覽會。今年，英國將舉行約20場博覽會，全球約為90場。在成功大型活動的帶動之下，專精於手工藝、陶器等其他藝術品的小型博覽會亦有所成長。
此熱潮的解釋之一，即為現代藝術品市場的總體成長。Artprice指出，去年拍賣會上出售的藝術品中，4/5出自20和21世紀。去年11月在紐約舉行的現代及當代藝術品拍賣會上，銷售總額達6.91億美元，輕易打破了先前的記綠。舊藝術品越來越難買之際，新近藝術品的需求也越來越高。
來自俄羅斯、中國和中東的富有移民，亦刺激了倫敦的藝術市場。藝術品交易商沙克特（Kenny Schachter）指出，23年前他從來沒碰過不是西方人的外國買家，現在的情況則完全不同。倫敦新富階級買藝術品的方式也不同，他們大多沒有時間四處逛藝廊，因此，有如大賣場的博覽會更適合他們。
過去，商業藝廊大多昂賴定期造訪的富有英國人，新一代藝術品買家則沒有這樣的忠誠度。藝廊擁有者克利斯提亞（Alan Cristea）表示，現在，前往藝廊的人大多是為了參加活動和被人看見。博覽會和隨博覽會而生的派對，更適合用來吸引他人的目光。
部分藝廊覺得自己的生存空間受到擠壓；寇克街上這個月有7間藝廊遷移以重新出發，今年可能還會有5間藝廊遷移。不過，倫敦藝術博覽會的孟克（Sarah
Monk）認為，有了博覽會之後，藝廊不再需要位於高貴地段；有了國際客戶之外，許多人也可以透過網路或在家中工作。
部分藝術博覽會仍舊要求參展者得擁有自己的藝廊，而越來越多藝廊並非位於倫敦中央區，甚至根本不在倫敦；一名藝廊擁有者表示，他在展場的攤位拓展客戶，其中甚至還有幾名富有客戶造訪他那位於南倫敦的小藝廊。（黃維德譯）
©The Economist Newspaper Limited 2014
The Economist
The
art market
Fairly popular
By The Economist
From The Economist
Published: January 20, 2014
Jan 18th 2014 | From the print edition
The rapid growth of art fairs is changing the way galleries operate.
SHORTLY after The Economist went to press, about 25,000 people were
expected to turn up at the London Art Fair. Your correspondent visited just before,
as 128 white booths were being filled with modern paintings and sculptures.
Dealers clutched mobile phones to their ears or gathered in small groups. They
seemed nervous—as well they might be. "I can earn a year's living in one
fair," said one harried dealer while stringing up a set of lights.
Before 1999 London had just one regular contemporary art fair,
remembers Will Ramsay, boss of the expanding Affordable Art Fair. This year
around 20 will be held in Britain, mostly in the capital. Roughly 90 will take
place worldwide. The success of larger events such as Frieze, which started in
London, has stimulated the growth of smaller fairs specialising in craft work,
ceramics and other things. Art14, which started last year, specialises in less
well-known international galleries, showing art from Sub-Saharan Africa, South
Korea and Hong Kong.
One explanation for the boom is the overall growth of the modern-art
market. Four-fifths of all art sold at auction worldwide last year was from the
20th or 21st century, according to Artprice, a database. In November an auction
in New York of modern and contemporary art made $691m (£422m), easily breaking
the previous record. As older art becomes harder to buy—much of it is locked up
in museums—demand for recent works is rising.
London's art market in particular has been boosted by an influx of rich
immigrants from Russia, China and the Middle East. "When I started 23
years ago I had not a single non-Western foreign buyer," says Kenny
Schachter, an art dealer. "It's a different world now." And London's
new rich buy art differently. They often spend little time in the capital and
do not know it well. Traipsing around individual galleries is inconvenient,
particularly as galleries have moved out of central London. The mall-like
set-up of a fair is much more suitable.
Commercial galleries used to rely on regular visits from rich Britons
seeking to furnish their stately homes. Many were family friends. The new art
buyers have no such loyalty. People now visit galleries mainly to go to events
and to be seen, says Alan Cristea, a gallery owner on Cork street in Mayfair.
Fairs, and the parties that spring up around them, are much better places to be
spotted.
Some galleries are feeling squeezed. Bernard Jacobson runs a gallery
opposite Mr Cristea. The changing art market reminds him of when his father, a
chemist, was eclipsed by Boots, a pharmaceutical chain, in the 1960s. Seven
galleries in Cork Street relocated this month to make way for a redevelopment;
five more may follow later this year.
Yet the rise of the fairs means galleries no longer require prime real
estate, thinks Sarah Monk of the London Art Fair. With an international
clientele, many can work online or from home. Although some art fairs still
require their exhibitors to have a gallery space, increasingly these are small
places outside central London or beyond the city altogether. One gallery owner
says few rich customers ever visit his shop in south London. He makes all his
contacts at the booths he sets up at fairs, which might be twice the size of
his store. "It's a little like fishing," he explains. "You move
to where the pike is."
©The Economist Newspaper Limited 2014
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