富二代能不能撐起藝術一片天

James Merrill was born rich, as he said, “whether I liked it or not”. His father Charles, who co-founded brokerage firm Merrill Lynch, had given him a trust fund. It bought James time. Free from the need to earn, he conducted seances with the spirit world and wrote poetry. In a new biography, Langdon Hammer describes how Merrill’s transcripts of 40 years of seances morphed into the great 560-page poem, “The Changing Light at Sandover”.

詹姆斯•梅利爾(James Merrill)生來富有，正如他所說的“不管我喜歡與否”。他的父親查爾斯(Charles)與人聯合創建了券商美林(Merrill Lynch)，他給了詹姆斯一隻信託基金。這給詹姆斯贏得了時間。由於不需要賺錢，他開始與亡靈世界對話、寫詩。在一部新的傳記中，蘭登•漢莫(Langdon Hammer)描寫了梅利爾的40年通靈會筆記如何變成一部偉大的560頁詩集：《桑多弗變換着的光》（The Changing Light at Sandover)。

Merrill, who died in 1995, is an early example of what you might call a HNWI artist (after the wealth managers’ acronym for “high net worth individual”). HNWI art is going to become much more common. That will help the next generation answer a pressing question: what to do with the growing tribe of HNWI heirs?

梅利爾於1995年去世，他是一個人們可能稱之爲“高淨值人士”（財富經理的專業用語）藝術家的早期例子。高淨值人士藝術將變得更爲普遍。那將有助於下一代人回答一個緊迫的問題：該拿人數日益增多的高淨值人羣的繼承人怎麼辦？

Because art rarely pays, each society has to find a way to fund artists. In the Middle Ages, kings acted as patrons. Until the financial crisis, American universities routinely gave poets teaching jobs. And now we have HNWI heirs.

由於藝術很少足以維持生計，因此每個社會都必須設法資助藝術家。在中世紀，國王充當贊助者。在此次金融危機之前，美國大學經常給詩人一份教師工作。如今我們有了富二代。

Most HNWIs missed the crisis. Since 2008, their numbers have grown at a compound annual rate of 10 per cent, according to Capgemini’s World Wealth Report. In 2013, there were 13.7 million HNWIs worldwide with investable assets of at least $1m.

多數高淨值人士沒有受到金融危機的影響。根據凱捷集團(Capgemini)的全球財富報告(World Wealth Report)，自2008年以來，他們的人數以每年10%的複合率增長。2013年，全球共有1370萬位高淨值人士，其可投資資產至少有100萬美元。

Of course, 90 per cent of HNWIs are just scraping by — mere “millionaires next door”, with assets of only $1m-$5m, says Capgemini. Still, if the average HNWI has two children, then even factoring out humbler HNWIs, that still leaves several million heirs who won’t need to work for money. These people will need to answer the James Merrill question: what to do with all that education, ambition and time? We will need to keep them occupied.

當然，凱捷表示，90%的高淨值人士只是勉強符合標準，只不過是“鄰家的百萬富翁”，其資產僅有100萬至500萬美元。然而，如果高淨值人士平均有兩個子女，那麼即便剔除較爲寒酸的高淨值人士，仍會有數百萬富二代不需要爲了謀生而工作。這些人需要找到“詹姆斯•梅利爾問題”的答案：所有那些教育、雄心和時間該投入什麼地方？我們需要讓他們有事可做。

Previous generations didn’t have this problem. Historically, most HNWIs were aristocrats who considered activity vulgar and, anyway, had a penchant for drinking their wealth. Frequent revolutions helped winnow their tribe: a Russian prince might end up driving a Parisian taxi. Hefty inheritance taxes winnowed further.

之前幾代人沒有這個問題。歷史上，多數高淨值人士是貴族，他們將任何經濟活動斥爲粗俗，再說他們本來就傾向於花天酒地。多次革命幫助這個人羣進行了篩選：一位俄羅斯王子到最後可能在駕駛一輛巴黎出租車。鉅額遺產稅對這個人羣進行了進一步的篩選。

But, for now, life is kinder to HNWIs. Their children therefore need to decide what to do. One billionaire’s son told me he saw no point in following his father into moneymaking. In fact, few HNWI heirs are itching to wake up early and do boring entry-level jobs. “Inherited wealth is a mixed blessing,” billionaire philanthropist Sigrid Rausing told The Irish Times. “Unconsciously, it can feel like all types of professions are not for you.”

然而，就目前而言，生活對於高淨值人士比較友好。因此他們的子女需要決定做什麼。一位億萬富翁的兒子告訴我，他認爲繼承父業、忙於賺錢毫無意義。實際上，幾乎沒有富二代願意很早起牀，做枯燥的入門級工作。“繼承財富是一件好壞參半的事情，”億萬富翁慈善家西格麗德•羅辛(Sigrid Rausing)告訴《愛爾蘭時報》(Irish Times)，“下意識裏，你可能會感覺所有的職業都不適合你。”

Some HNWI heirs will devote their lives to philanthropy. However, this is usually a waste of time. It’s smarter to donate to an existing charity (as Warren Buffett gives to the Gates Foundation) rather than setting up your own organisation that will need a learning curve and probably duplicate work that others do better.

一些高淨值人士的繼承人會畢生投入慈善事業。然而，這通常是浪費時間。更爲明智的做法是把錢捐給現有的慈善組織（就像沃倫•巴菲特(Warren Buffett)向蓋茨基金會(Gates Foundation)捐贈一樣），而不是創辦自己的慈善組織，後者需要學習曲線以及很可能是重複性的、其他人做得更好的工作。

Some HNWI heirs will buy political offices. Others will waste their lives like old-style aristos. But most want high-status work that leaves scope for long holidays. Art is the obvious solution.

一些富二代會用錢買公職。還有一些人會像昔日的貴族那樣虛度光陰。但多數人想要高地位的工作，有大把時間度假。藝術是顯而易見的出路。

Some HNWI heirs will become artistic patrons. Rhapsody, the literary magazine for United Airlines’ first-class and business passengers, is a mechanism for converting HNWI wealth into fees for serious writers.

一些富二代將變成藝術贊助人。面向美國聯合航空(United Airlines)頭等艙以及商務艙乘客的文學雜誌《Rhapsody》，提供了一個機制，幫助將高淨值人羣財富轉化爲給嚴肅作家的報酬。

Other HNWI heirs will make bad art. A friend once asked the daughter of a famous European family the ultimate middle-class question: “What do you do?” She replied: “I make combustible art.” “Err, what?” asked my friend. “I make sculptures,” she explained, “then I burn them.” “I’d like to see some one day,” he said politely. “You can’t,” she replied patiently. “I burn them.”

還有一些高淨值人士的繼承人會創作糟糕的藝術。一個朋友曾向一個出身歐洲名門的女子提出終極的中產階級問題：“你做什麼的？”她回答：“我創作可燃藝術。”“呃，什麼？”我的朋友問。“我創作雕塑”，她解釋道，“然後燒了它們。”“我希望有一天看到您的一些作品，”他禮貌地說。“你不會看到，”她耐心地回答，“我會燒了它們。”

But some HNWI art will be good. HNWI artists have time to hone their talent, and won’t dissipate it in hack work like us plebs. When I joined the FT as a graduate trainee in 1994, I was told that somebody called Alain de Botton had been offered the same job the year before. But De Botton — whose banker father left him a trust fund reportedly worth £200m — had decided to write books instead. He insists he never touched his dad’s money. Still, it presumably made artistic life feel secure.

但一些高淨值人士的藝術將是優秀之作。高淨值人士藝術家有時間磨練才華，而且不像我們這些常人這樣把天分耗在打工上。1994年，當我作爲畢業實習生加入英國《金融時報》時，我被告知，前一年，一個名爲阿蘭•德波頓(Alain de Botton)的人曾經獲得這份工作。但德波頓決定出書，他的銀行家父親留給他一隻信託基金，據報道價值2億英鎊。他堅持說，他從未碰過父親的錢。話雖如此，這樣的財力後盾想必讓他的藝術生涯有保障。

Similarly, American writer Andrew Solomon (whose ultra-HNWI father Howard was a pharmaceutical mogul) could afford to spend 11 years writing his book Far From the Tree. Other contemporary HNWI artists include Brazilian film-maker Walter Salles, from an old banking family, and posh English novelist Edward St Aubyn. His books recount an unhappy childhood on a big estate. That will become a classic theme of HNWI art. This may seem a limitation. But when the educated middle classes dominated artistic production, they, too, left out most of life. George Orwell lamented the scarcity of “proletarian novels”. De Botton notes that even middle-class working life rarely features in literature. Most literary characters, he complains, “fall in love and have sex and . . . never go to the office”. Being a HNWI with time to rectify these matters, De Botton visited many offices to research his book on work. HNWI art has its drawbacks. But it will keep a lot of potentially dangerous people off the streets.

類似的，美國作家安德魯•所羅門(Andrew Solomon)或許有條件花費11年撰寫他的著作《那些與衆不同的孩子》(Far From the Tree)，他的父親霍華德(Howard)是一位超高淨值人士、一位醫藥業大亨。還有一些高淨值人士當代藝術家，包括巴西電影製片人沃爾特•薩勒斯（Walter Salles，來自古老的銀行業家族）以及優雅的英國小說家愛德華•聖•奧賓(Edward St Aubyn)。他的小說講述的是巨大莊園裏的不快樂童年。這將成爲高淨值人士藝術的經典主題。這似乎存在侷限性。但當受過教育的中產階級主宰藝術創作時，他們也遺漏了人生的大部分主題。喬治•奧威爾(George Orwell)曾哀嘆“無產階級小說”的缺乏。德波頓指出，就連中產階級的工作生活也很少出現在文學作品中。他抱怨道，多數文學人物“相愛，然後做愛……從來不去辦公室”。身爲一個有時間矯正這些問題的高淨值人士，德波頓拜訪了很多辦公室，爲他有關工作的著作進行研究。高淨值人士藝術有其缺陷，但它會讓很多潛在危險的人遠離街頭。