At this year's 33rd edition of Spain's ARCOmadrid contemporary art fair, it was pretty easy to tell where you stood in the art world hierarchy.

    If you visited over the weekend, you were one of a diminished group of 100,000 or so civilians who forked out between 20 and 40 euros ($27.50 and $55) to bask in art that ran from canonized names like photorealist painter Richard Estes to up-and-comers like Mexican installation artistHéctor Zamora. But if you attended on Wednesday or Thursday, you were likely one of the 400 or so rich folks and art institution bigwigs who'd been invited to Spain, your trip paid in full, in the hopes that you might drop some serious dough on art.

    All major art fairs have VIP programs designed to attract big spenders. But ARCO's dedication of 20% of its 4.5 million euro budget to inviting buyers and promoting the fair overseas shows how Spain's economic crisis -- now more than five years old -- has forced the fair to turn its attention from national museums and modest local buyers to big international collectors.

    "In the years before the crisis, there were a lot of sales to domestic institutions. This has disappeared, and now there are more sales to foreign collectors," said Carlos Urroz, ARCO's director since 2010.

    Spain's art world was whiplashed by the country's bubbly rise and quick collapse. The Spanish art market grew 200% between 2002 and 2007, from 160 million to 480 million euros, only to crash to 271 million euros in 2009, according to a study led by Clare McAndrew, founder of research firm Arts Economics, for Barcelona's Arte y Mecenazgo foundation. The market has recovered only slightly since, hurt in part by the government's increase of its VAT (sales tax) on art works from 18% to 21% in 2012 (up from 16% in 2010).

    "We're doing very badly compared to pre-crisis," said Idoia Fernández, sitting in the white ARCO cube of Madrid's Galería Nieves Fernández, where she is the director. "Last year, if it weren't for foreigners, ARCO would have been a disaster. We sold only one piece to a Spanish collector last year at ARCO, for 3,000 euros."

    It's hard to know how a fair is doing, as many are loath to divulge overall sales numbers. Urroz couches his response in gallery "satisfaction."

    "We don't have sales figures," he said. "We know the level of satisfaction of the galleries, and we are confident this year will be better."

    What numbers are available aren't good. In 2003 and 2004, ARCO's visitor numbers hit a high of 200,000 people annually, but this number fell to 127,500 in 2012 and an estimated 100,000 this year. And big Spanish institutional buyers -- especially ones dependent on government support -- have cut their spending. Take the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, which trimmed its ARCO budget from 927,762 euros in 2010 to 700,000 euros in 2012, 318,999 euros in 2013, and 204,625 euros this year.

    Which brings us back to the international collectors. With local money scarce, ARCO has flown in international collectors and added foreign galleries from Latin America to show those collectors pieces they wouldn't see elsewhere.

    When I walked through ARCO a few hours after it opened on Wednesday, the first collector and industry day, the fair's redefinition appeared to be working. The VAT had been dropped to about 15.5%, and the halls were full of elder gentlemen in expensive casual wear, women of a certain age who'd undergone extreme plastic surgery, and young guys with tight pants and waxed moustaches.

    大家在今年的第33届马德里国际当代艺术展（ARCO）上很容易就能看出参展者在艺术圈中处于哪个等级。

    周末去参展的属于平民群体。这个群体人数大概在10万左右，而且人数正在减少。这群人往往会花费20到40欧元（27.5到55美元）不等的钱购买艺术品。购买的艺术作品范围很广，从圣徒式的名家——如照相写实主义画家理查德•伊斯特斯的画作，到前途无量的新人——如墨西哥装置艺术家埃克托尔•萨莫拉的作品都有。周三或周四的参展者很可能是有钱人或艺术机构的代表，这个群体大约有400人。他们一般都是展览方邀请来的，且所有行程费用都已付清。展览方邀请他们的目的，不外乎希望他们买些大件。

    所有大型艺术展都设有VIP项目，专门吸引大买家。但ARCO却将全部450万欧元预算中的20%都用在了邀请买家及海外宣传上，。它表明，西班牙持续五年的经济危机已经迫使这个艺术展将工作重心从国内博物馆和当地买家转移到国际大收藏家身上。

    “危机发生前，大部分艺术品都卖给了国内机构。但现在这些机构都不买了，国外的收藏家买得更多，”卡洛斯•乌罗斯说。从2010年起，卡洛斯•乌罗斯开始担任ARCO展会的总监。

    西班牙泡沫经济的破灭对艺术行业打击深重。艺术经济研究所（Arts Economics）创始人克莱尔•麦克安鲁为巴塞罗那Arte y Mecenazgo基金会进行过一个市场研究。结果显示，2002到2007年间，西班牙艺术品市场规模从1.6亿欧元增加到了4.8亿欧元，增长幅度高达200%；然而2009年，这个市场一下子跌到了2.71亿欧元。一直到现在，市场才刚刚有所恢复。其中一部分原因在于，政府提高了艺术品的增值税（销售税），将2012年18%的增值税税率提高到了21%（2010年这一税率为16%）。

    “我们现在的状况跟危机发生之前比起来非常糟糕，”马德里Galería Nieves Fernández画廊的主管伊多娅•费尔南德斯坐在ARCO的白色展馆中说。“如果没有外国人来，去年的ARCO简直就是一场灾难。去年在ARCO，我们只卖了一幅画给西班牙国内的收藏家，价格是3,000欧元。”

    由于很多人不愿透露整体销量，因此展会的真实情况很难摸清。乌罗斯表示，他从各个画廊得到的回应是“满意”。

    “我们没有销售数据，”他说。“但我们有画廊的满意度指标。而且我们相信今年的情况会更好。”

    我们得到的数据却并不乐观。ARCO的参展人数在2003和2004年达到了历史新高，每年在200,000人左右。但2012年，参展人数降到了127,500人，今年则估计在100,000人左右。另外，西班牙国内的大机构，尤其是依靠政府资金支持的大机构都削减了开支。以索菲亚王后国家艺术中心博物馆（MuseoNacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía）为例，它2010年在ARCO的预算为927,762欧元，2012年降到了700,000欧元，2013年为318,999欧元，今年则只有204,625欧元。

    我们只好再次把目光投向国际收藏家。由于本土资金短缺，ARCO便邀请了许多国际收藏家来参展，同时还增加了许多拉丁美洲画廊展位，以便向这些收藏家们展示一些他们在别的地方看不到的作品。

    ARCO上周三开展，第一天基本属于收藏家与专业人士。我在参观的几个小时中发现，展会的新策略似乎起到了作用。如今艺术品增值税已经下调到了约15.5%，展馆中随处可见的是身着昂贵便装的高龄绅士、接受过极端整形手术的老年女士，以及穿着紧身裤、胡子打过蜡的年轻人。

    "Since Carlos has run the fair, it's made an enormous step forward. It has become so international. Not just European collectors, but ones from Latin America and the U.S.," said Thomas Krinzinger of Austria's Galerie Krinzinger, who noted that he'd already sold two pieces for between 30,000 and 50,000 euros.

    And it seemed that even some wealthy Spanish buyers had returned.

    Marcia Gail Levine, special projects director at New York's Marlborough Gallery, said that the gallery had already sold four pieces by Juan Genovés for around 100,000 euros and two byManolo Valdés for some 200,000 euros to Spanish and American collectors. "Even though there was a crisis, there are certain artists we have that people in Spain were buying. We weren't hit that bad," she said. To drive home Marlborough's immunity to Spanish flu, gallery president Pierre Levai added that ARCO's generally bad 2012 was an "exceptionally good" year for Marlborough.

    To be sure, the international rich have only grown richer in the post-crisis years, and Marlborough is a high-end giant that "virtually invented the modern art market," according toThe Observer. The story is not the same for the middle class of the art world, which, just like the middle class elsewhere, has been squeezed.

    "The professionals and the rich come the first days to make big buys. If you have 50 million euros and it goes to 40 million, it doesn't change anything. But on the weekend, the people pay 4,000 to 5,000 euros to buy something. That wave is more affected by the crisis," said Juan Ignacio García Velilla, director of the Altxerri gallery in San Sebastián, Spain.

    Idoia Fernández of Galería Nieves Fernández, for one, was saddened by the disappearance of the middle-class buyers who used to buy art at the fair on weekends.

    "The market of younger professionals who would buy art instead of a 800 euro TV has disappeared," said Fernández, who had sold three pieces valued between 2,000 and 14,000 euros when we talked the first day. "We'd extended the market to them in Spain, but it's disappeared. Which is a shame. We had made buying art much more normal."

    Still, things seemed a little brighter, she said. "This year, we've already sold two pieces to Spanish collectors," she said with a laugh. "So we've doubled our Spanish sales."

    “自从卡洛斯开始主管展会后，ARCO有了巨大的进步，变得非常国际化。来的人不只有欧洲的收藏家，甚至连拉丁美洲和美国的收藏家都来了，”澳大利亚克林星格画廊（GalerieKrinzinger）的托马斯•克林星格说道。据他说，他已经以30,000到50,000欧元的价格卖出两件画作了。

    某些阔绰的西班牙买家似乎也在回归。

    据纽约马尔伯勒画廊（Marlborough Gallery）特殊项目主管玛西娅•盖尔•莱文说，这家画廊已向西班牙和美国收藏家售出了4件价格在100,000 欧元左右的胡安•赫诺维斯的作品和2件价格在200,000欧元左右的马诺洛•巴尔德斯的作品。她说：“虽然发生了危机，但我们有知名画家的作品，西班牙人不会不买。因此经济危机对我们没有造成多大影响。”由于马尔伯勒画廊对西班牙的“流感”具有“免疫性”，因此，据画廊董事长皮埃尔•莱瓦伊所说， 2012年参加ARCO的画廊很多都损失惨重，但这一年，马尔伯勒画廊的表现却“出奇的好”。

    据《观察家报》称，经济危机后的几年，国际上的有钱人无疑变得更有钱了。而马尔伯勒画廊是高端艺术品市场的巨头，它“实际上发明了现代艺术品市场”。然而，这个说法对于艺术界的中产阶级来说并不适用。像在世界其它地区一样，这个阶层总是受到排挤。

    西班牙圣塞巴斯蒂安Altxerri画廊主管胡安•伊格纳西奥•加西亚•贝利利亚说：“专业人士和富豪一般在展会头几天到来，而且一出手就是大手笔。如果你的身家只是从5000万欧元变成了4000万欧元，不会有什么变化。但是，周末来的中产阶级顾客一般只会花4,000到5,000欧元购买艺术品，这个消费群体受经济危机的影响最大。”

    中产阶级消费群体的消失让画廊经理人伤心不已，Galería Nieves Fernández画廊的伊多娅•费尔南德斯就是一个例子。经济危机之前，中产阶级人士经常会在周末到展会上选购艺术品。

    “过去年轻的专业人士会将800欧元用来买艺术品而不是电视，但现在这个市场消失了，”费尔南德斯说。我们采访她的第一天，她卖出了三幅作品，价格在2,000至14,000欧元之间。“如果市场还在，我们可能已经拓宽它了。但现在市场消失了。真是可惜，我们当时已经把艺术品消费变成普通消费了。”

    然而情况似乎在变好，她说。“今年到现在，我们已经卖了两幅画给西班牙收藏家，所以算起来，”她笑着说。“我们在西班牙国内的销量已经翻倍了。”（财富中文网）

    译者：朱毓芬/汪皓