ON FIRST GLANCE the painting—by an unknown Dutch artist in the 17th century—seemed unlikely to spark(引发，激起) a bidding war(竞拍大战，竞价战). It depicts two skulls and a handwritten note asking “Uter dominus, uter servus?” (Which is the master, which is the slave?) Yet on June 30th heady(令人兴奋的，冲昏头脑的) bidding at an auction at Christie’s in London pushed the painting’s price to £431,000 ($575,000), about four times the estimate. There is a “yearning for the unusual”, explains Andrew Fletcher, head of Christie’s Old Masters department, who has seen a surge of interest in “the weird and wonderful”.(佳士得老大师部门主管安德鲁·弗莱彻解释说，人们对“奇特之物”有一种“渴望”，他注意到人们对“怪异而精彩”作品的兴趣激增。)
乍看之下，这幅由17世纪一位不知名荷兰画家创作的作品似乎不太可能引发竞拍大战。画面上是两个骷髅和一张手写便条，写着“Uter dominus, uter servus？”（哪个是主人，哪个是奴隶？）。然而，6月30日伦敦佳士得拍卖会上，激烈的竞价将这幅画的价格推至43.1万英镑（57.5万美元），约为估价的四倍。佳士得老大师部门主管安德鲁·弗莱彻解释说，人们对“奇特之物”有一种“渴望”，他注意到人们对“怪异而精彩”作品的兴趣激增。
Old Masters—a centuries-spanning category that includes works typically completed before 1850—have seen new life breathed into them.(老大师——一个跨越几个世纪的类别，通常包括1850年以前完成的作品——如今焕发了新生。) In that same Christie’s auction records were set for six artists, including Sir Thomas Lawrence, an English painter, whose portrait of the Duke of Wellington (pictured above), the general who beat Napoleon, fetched(卖得（某价），拍得) £9.7m. “It’s the most optimistic(乐观的，积极的) moment I can remember in the Old Masters market for some years,” says Mr Fletcher.
老大师——一个跨越几个世纪的类别，通常包括1850年以前完成的作品——如今焕发了新生。在同一场佳士得拍卖会上，六位艺术家创下了新纪录，其中包括英国画家托马斯·劳伦斯爵士，他描绘击败拿破仑的将军威灵顿公爵的肖像画（如上图）拍得了970万英镑。“这是多年来老大师市场最乐观的时刻，”弗莱彻先生说。
The value of Old Masters sales worldwide in 2025 was $1.2bn, 30% higher than a year earlier. But data may not capture the “full story” of the uptick(小幅上升，增长), as many paintings are sold privately, says Patrick Williams, a gallerist(画廊主，画廊经营者) in New York. Younger buyers are showing more enthusiasm(热情，热忱). This year around 16% of bidders in Old Masters sales at Sotheby’s, another auction house, are under the age of 40, nearly triple(几乎是……的三倍) the share(份额，比例) from five years ago.
2025年全球老大师画作销售额为12亿美元，比前一年增长30%。但纽约画廊主帕特里克·威廉姆斯表示，数据可能并未反映出这一增长的“全貌”，因为许多画作是通过私下交易售出的。年轻买家正表现出更多热情。今年，在另一家拍卖行苏富比的老大师拍卖中，约16%的竞拍者年龄在40岁以下，几乎是五年前份额的三倍。
