刘益谦：买下天价名画是为建中国MoMA

choi

Amy Qin, 刘益谦：买下天价名画是为建中国MoMA. 纽约时报中文网 Nov 18, 2015
m.cn.nytimes.com/culture/20151118/t18collectors/

, which is translated from

Amy Qin, Dreaming of an Even Bigger Canvas; The billionaire buyer of a Modigliani revels in his art-world cred. New York Times, Nov 18, 2015.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/1 ... -bigger-canvas.html

Quote:

"Mr Liu [Yiqian] manage to secure 'it' — an oil portrait of an outstretched nude woman by the early-20th-century artist Amedeo Modigliani — at a Christie’s auction in New York on Nov 9. During the tense nine-minute sale, he beat out five opponents by offering $170.4 million with fees, the second-highest price ever paid for an artwork at auction.

" 'Modigliani didn’t make very many nude paintings, and this is one of his best,' she [Liu's wife: WANG Wei 王薇] added. 'It was definitely worth it.' "

Note:
(a) "offering $170.4 million with fees"  

NYT's translation: 以1.704亿美元（含佣金）购得该画
(i) Seller's Commission. Christie's, undated.
www.christies.com/features/guide ... sellers-commission/
(ii)
(A) Buyer's Premium.
www.christies.com/features/guide ... ion/buyers-premium/
(B) Carol Vogel, Christie’s Raises Its Commissions. New York Times, Feb 18, 2013.
artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/02/18/christies-raises-its-commissions-for-first-time-in-five-years/
(iii) Graham Bowley, The (Auction) House Doesn’t Always Win; Christie’s and Sotheby’s woo big sellers with a cut. New York Times, Jan 16, 2014.
www.nytimes.com/2014/01/16/arts/ ... ers-with-a-cut.html

Quote:

"Christie’s, like other auction houses, typically charge commissions to buyers and sellers, which for high-priced works might be an eighth to a quarter of the gavel price.

"In this game, the biggest collectors receive the best deals, which, several in the industry said, has led to an auction house paradox: The pricier the artwork, the lower the profit margin.

(b) Amedeo Modigliani’s "Nu Couché" (1917-1918)
(i) Amedeo Modigliani
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amedeo_Modigliani
(1884-1920l an Italian working in Paris; painting caption: "Nu couché, 1917")

Amedeo is the Italian form of Amadeus (which was the middle name of Mozart).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amadeus_(disambiguation)
(ii) French English dictionary:
* Nu Couché = recycling nude  (translate.google.com)
* nu (adjective masculine; from Latin [adjective masculine] nūdus): "(person): naked, nude"
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/nu
  ^ nu (noun masculine): "(art) nude"
http://dictionary.reverso.net/french-english/nu
* couché (adjective masculine): "lying; in bed"

(c) "the second-highest price ever paid for an artwork at auction"

List of most expensive paintings
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most_expensive_paintings
(d) "Today, he is chairman of the Sunline Group [Co Ltd 新理益集团有限公司] * * * he was also an early investor in Beijing Council International Auction 北京匡时拍卖国际有限公司, an auction company in the Chinese capital
(e) "in 2012, Mr Liu and Ms Wang opened the Long Museum Pudong 龙美术馆浦东馆 * * * In 2014, they opened a second branch, the Long Museum West Bund 龙美术馆西岸馆 * * * a performance-art exhibition curated by Klaus Biesenbach of MoMA and Hans Ulrich Obrist of the Serpentine Gallery in London."

Serpentine Galleries
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serpentine_Galleries
(two galleries linked by the bridge over the Serpentine Lake ['The Serpentine takes its name from its snakelike, curving shape, although it only has one bend': Wikipedia] from which the galleries get their names)
(f) In print but not online, the NYT (English) report points out the top painting commanded in an auction is May 4, 2010 of Nude, Green Leaves and Bust.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nude,_Green_Leaves_and_Bust