「中英」下落不明的梵高画作买主之谜：肖建华扮演了何种角色

Illustration by The New York Times. Fine Art Images/Heritage Images, via Getty Images; Imagno, via Getty Images.
The bidding for Lot 17 started at $23 million.

17号拍卖品的起价是2300万美元。

In the packed room at Sotheby’s in Manhattan, the price quickly climbed: $32 million, $42 million, $48 million. Then a new prospective buyer, calling from China, made it a contest between just two people.
在挤满人的曼哈顿苏富比拍卖行，报价迅速攀升：3200万美元、4200万美元、4800万美元。后来，一名从中国打电话来参拍的潜在新买家将这场竞价变成了两个人的较量。
On the block that evening in November 2014 were works by Impressionist painters and Modernist sculptors that would make the auction the most successful yet in the firm’s history. But one painting drew particular attention: “Still Life, Vase with Daisies and Poppies,” completed by Vincent van Gogh weeks before his death.
2014年11月那场“印象派及现代艺术”晚间拍卖会后来成了苏富比截至当时史上最成功的一场拍卖。拍卖会上尤其引人瞩目的一幅画作是文森特·梵高在去世几周前完成的静物画《雏菊与罂粟花》。
Pushing the price to almost $62 million, the Chinese caller prevailed. His offer was the highest ever for a van Gogh still life at auction.
从中国打电话来参拍的人将出价提高到近6200万美元（人民币3.77亿元）后获胜。他的出价是梵高静物画作拍卖历史上的最高价格。
In the discreet world of high-end art, buyers often remain anonymous. But the winning bidder, a prominent movie producer, would proclaim in interview after interview that he was the painting’s new owner.
在谨慎的高端艺术品世界中，买家通常保持匿名。但在那次竞拍中获胜的著名电影制片人在后来的一次又一次采访中宣称，他就是那幅画的新主人。
The producer, Wang Zhongjun, was on a roll. His company had just helped bring “Fury,” the World War II movie starring Brad Pitt, to cinemas. He dreamed of making his business China’s version of the Walt Disney Company.
制片人王中军当时鸿运当头。他的公司刚刚帮助把布拉德·皮特主演的“二战”题材电影《狂怒》送进中国的院线。他梦想着把自己的企业打造成中国版的华特迪士尼公司。
The sale, according to Chinese media, became a national “sensation.” It was a sign — after the acquisition of a Picasso by a Chinese real estate tycoon the year before — that the country was becoming a force in the global art market.
据中国媒体报道，那笔交易“轰动”了全国。它当时是中国正在成为全球艺术市场主力军的又一迹象。一名中国房地产大亨曾在一年前拍下了一幅毕加索画作。
“Ten years ago, I could not have imagined purchasing a van Gogh,” Mr. Wang said in a Chinese-language interview with Sotheby’s. “After buying it, I loved it so much.”
“十年前怎么可能想去买梵高？”王中军在接受苏富比拍卖行的中文采访时说。“买完梵高的作品后，我这么喜欢。”
But Mr. Wang may not be the real owner at all. Two other men were linked to the purchase: an obscure middleman in Shanghai who paid Sotheby’s bill through a Caribbean shell company, and the person he answered to — a reclusive billionaire in Hong Kong.
但王中军可能根本就不是那幅画的真正主人。另有两名男子与那笔交易有关：一名是通过一家加勒比空壳公司支付了苏富比账单的名不见经传的上海中间人，另一名是这位中间人为之工作的隐居香港的亿万富翁。2014年，时任苏富比亚洲区负责人的程寿康出现在香港的一个仪式上，将梵高的画作交给声称买下它的电影制片人王中军。 Johannes Eisele/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
The billionaire, Xiao Jianhua, was one of the most influential tycoons of China’s gilded age, creating a financial empire in recent decades by exploiting ties to the Communist Party elite and a new class of superrich businessmen. He also controlled a hidden offshore network of more than 130 companies holding over $5 billion in assets, according to corporate documents obtained by The New York Times. Among them was Sotheby’s invoice for the van Gogh.
那名亿万富翁叫肖建华，他曾是中国镀金时代最有影响力的大亨之一，他利用与中共精英和一个新超级富豪阶层的关系，在几十年的时间里打造了一个金融帝国。《纽约时报》获得的公司文件显示，肖建华还曾控制着一个由130多家公司组成、总资产超过50亿美元的隐秘离岸公司网络。苏富比结清梵高画作拍卖费的账单就是开给其中一家公司的。
The secrecy that pervades the art world and its dealmakers — including international auction houses like Sotheby’s — has drawn scrutiny in the years since the sale as authorities try to combat criminal activity. Large transactions often pass through murky intermediaries, and the vetting of them is opaque. Citing client confidentiality, Sotheby’s declined to comment on the purchase.
在那笔交易之后的几年里，随着当局试图打击犯罪活动，盛行于艺术市场和艺术品交易商（包括像苏富比这样的国际拍卖行）当中秘而不宣的做法受到密切关注。艺术市场的天价交易常常通过不透明的中介进行，而对这些中介的审查也缺乏透明。苏富比以为客户保密为由，拒绝对那笔交易置评。
Today, Mr. Xiao is a man who has fallen far. Abducted from his luxury apartment and now imprisoned in mainland China, he was convicted of bribery and other misdeeds that prosecutors claimed had threatened the country’s financial security. Meanwhile, Mr. Wang is struggling, liquidating properties as his film studio loses money each year.
如今，肖建华已跌入深渊。他从居住的豪华公寓被人绑架，目前关押在中国大陆，法院判定他犯有贿赂罪，以及检察官称之为威胁国家金融安全的其他不当行为。与此同时，王中军也在惨淡经营，由于年年亏损，他的制片公司正在清算资产。
And the still life, according to several art experts, has been offered for private sale. For a century after van Gogh gathered flowers and placed them in an earthen vase to paint, the artwork’s provenance could be easily traced, and the piece was often exhibited in museums for visitors to admire. Now the painting has vanished from public view, its whereabouts unknown.
据几名艺术专家称，那幅静物画作已交人进行私下出售。在梵高采来鲜花、将它们放在陶瓶中作画后的一个世纪里，这幅画的出处曾很容易追溯，也曾经常在博物馆展出、供人观赏。现在这幅画已从公众视野中消失，下落不明。
A Painting’s Many Lives
一幅画的前世今生保罗-费迪南德·嘉舍医生在巴黎郊外欧韦的家，1890年梵高在这里画了这幅静物画。 Stephane de Sakutin/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
In May 1890, van Gogh arrived in Auvers-sur-Oise, a rustic village outside Paris. Deeply depressed, he had cut off much of his left ear a year and a half earlier. His stay at an asylum had not helped.
1890年5月，梵高来到瓦兹河畔欧韦，这是位于巴黎郊外一个淳朴的村庄。由于极度抑郁，他曾在一年半前割掉了自己的大部分左耳。在精神病院住了一段时间对他也没有多大帮助。
But within hours of coming to the village, he met Paul-Ferdinand Gachet, a doctor and an art enthusiast.
在来到村庄后的几个小时里，梵高遇到了艺术爱好者保罗-费迪南德·嘉舍医生。
“I’ve found in Dr. Gachet a ready-made friend and something like a new brother,” van Gogh wrote to his sister.
“我发现嘉舍医生就像是一个老朋友，一个新的兄弟，”梵高在给妹妹的信中写道。
The physician encouraged van Gogh to ignore his melancholy and focus on his paintings. He completed nearly 80 of them in two months, including “Portrait of Dr. Gachet,” considered a masterpiece. He produced “Vase With Daisies and Poppies” at the physician’s home and may have given it to him in exchange for treatment, biographers say.
嘉舍医生鼓励梵高不理会自己的忧郁，集中精力作画。梵高在两个月内完成了近80幅油画，其中包括《嘉舍医生的肖像》，这件作品被视为杰作。梵高的传记作者们说，《雏菊与罂粟花》是在嘉舍医生家里画的，也许是作为治疗费交换给医生的。
After van Gogh’s death in July 1890, the painting passed to a Parisian collector, and then, in 1911, as the artist’s fame was rising, to a Berlin art dealer. A series of German collectors owned it before A. Conger Goodyear, a Buffalo industrialist and a founder of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, bought it in 1928. His son George later granted partial ownership to Buffalo’s Albright-Knox Art Gallery, which displayed it for nearly three decades.
1890年7月梵高去世后，这幅画转到了巴黎一名藏家手中，后来随着梵高的名气上升，这幅画在1911年转到柏林一名艺术品经销商手中。布法罗的实业家、纽约现代艺术博物馆创始人康格·古德伊尔在1928年将其买下之前，曾有几名德国收藏家先后拥有过这幅画。古德伊尔的儿子乔治后来将这幅画的部分所有权授予了布法罗的奥尔布赖特－诺克斯美术馆，该画曾在美术馆展出了近三年时间。
In May 1990, capping years of record-breaking prices for van Goghs, a Japanese businessman spent $82.5 million for “Portrait of Dr. Gachet” at Christie’s, then the highest price paid at auction for any artwork.
在梵高画作连续多年创下拍卖价格纪录后，1990年5月，一名日本商人花8250万美元在佳士得拍卖会上买下了《嘉舍医生的肖像》，那是截至当时艺术品拍卖的最高价。嘉舍医生鼓励梵高专注于艺术。画家在两个月内完成了近80幅作品，包括被认为是杰作的《嘉舍医生的肖像》。 Fine Art Images/Heritage Images, via Getty Images
About that time, Mr. Goodyear wanted to sell the 26-by-20-inch still life to raise money for another museum. It failed to sell at Christie’s in November 1990, where it had been expected to fetch between $12 million and $16 million. Soon after, a lower offer was accepted from a buyer who remained anonymous.
大约在那个时候，为了给另一家博物馆筹集资金，古德伊尔想把这幅高26英寸、宽20英寸的静物画卖掉。人们曾预计它能拍出1200万美元到1600万美元之间的价格，但这幅画在1990年11月的佳士得拍卖会上没能卖出去。不久后，一名不愿透露姓名的买家以更低的出价将其买下。
Most of the 400 or so oil paintings van Gogh produced during his last years — considered his best work — are at arts institutions around the world. About 15 percent are in private hands and not regularly on loan to museums. In the past decade, just 16 have been offered at auction, according to Artnet, an industry database. Among them was “Orchard With Cypresses,” from the collection of the Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, which Christie’s sold last year for $117 million to an undisclosed buyer.
梵高晚期创作的400多幅油画被认为是他最好的作品，其中大部分被世界各地的艺术机构收藏。大约15%在私人手里，而且不定期地借给博物馆展出。据行业数据库Artnet的数据，过去十年里，只有16件梵高画作被拍卖，其中包括微软联合创始人保罗·艾伦收藏的《柏树旁盛开的果园》，佳士得去年以1.17亿美元的价格将其卖给了一位匿名买家。
The Producer and the Billionaire
制片人与亿万富翁这幅静物画在香港苏富比拍卖行，拍摄时间是大约在2014年的拍卖会后一个月。梵高在其生命末期创作的作品中，只有少数在拍卖会上售出。 Bobby Yip/Reuters
For a year after the November 2014 auction, Mr. Wang kept the still life at his $25 million apartment in Hong Kong. In October 2015, the film producer was the guest of honor at a five-day exhibition in the city. An amateur artist, he had more than a dozen of his own oil paintings on display.
在2014年11月拍下那件作品后的一年里，王中军曾把它放在他位于香港、价值2500万美元的豪宅里。2015年10月，那幅画曾在香港公开展出了五天，王中军是那次展览的主宾，他也是一名业余艺术家，那次展览还包括十几幅他本人的油画。
But the main attractions were the van Gogh and a Picasso he had recently bought, “Woman With a Hairbun on a Sofa.” Sotheby’s said Mr. Wang had paid nearly $30 million for the work.
但展览会上最吸引人的是那幅梵高画作和王中军在那不久前买下的毕加索作品《盘发髻女子坐像》。苏富比称，王中军为那件毕加索作品花了近3000万美元（约合人民币1.85亿元）。
Until then, Japanese industrialists, followed by American hedge fund managers and Russian oligarchs, had captured headlines for record-breaking purchases. Around 2012, newly rich Chinese buyers, who had benefited from their country’s market-opening policies, came on the scene.
那之前，日本的实业家们，以及紧随其后的美国对冲基金经理和俄罗斯寡头曾以破纪录的竞拍价登上头条新闻。大约在2012年前后，受益于市场改革开放政策的中国新贵买家们出现在拍卖会上。
“All the auction houses really jumped on that,” said David Norman, who headed Sotheby’s Impressionist and Modern art department when the van Gogh was sold.
“所有的拍卖行都对中国卖家的到来迫不及待，”戴维·诺曼说，苏富比拍卖那幅梵高作品时，他是该行印象派及现代艺术部负责人。
Chinese billionaires were often delighted to announce their big-ticket purchases. In 2013, a retail magnate bought a Picasso for $28 million at Christie’s, following up with a $20 million Monet at Sotheby’s in 2015. The same year, a stock investor spent $170 million at Christie’s for a Modigliani.
中国的亿万富翁们往往乐意宣扬他们花大价钱买来的东西。2013 年，一名房地产巨头花2800万美元在佳士得买下了一幅毕加索画作，之后又在2015年花2000万美元在苏富比买下了一幅莫奈画作。同年，一名股票投资者花1.7亿美元在佳士得买下了一幅莫迪利亚尼的画作。2013年，亿万富翁肖建华。去年，他因受贿和擅自动用资金被判刑入狱。 Next Magazine/Associated Press
“It is a combination of vanity, investment and building their own brand,” said Kejia Wu, who taught at Sotheby’s Institute of Art and is the author of a new book on China’s art market.
“这是出于虚荣心，也是为了投资和树立自己的名声，”在苏富比艺术学院任教的吴可佳说，他是一本关于中国艺术市场的新书的作者。
Mr. Wang, 63, basked in the spotlight. In interviews, he spoke of his admiration for van Gogh and the artist’s influence on him. “Few people in the world would buy this kind of painting — there aren’t that many who love Impressionist art this much and can afford it, right?”
现年63岁的王中军曾沉浸在聚光灯下。他多次在采访中谈到他对梵高的欣赏，以及梵高对自己的影响。“这种画全世界没有几个人买。买得起，还又这么酷爱印象派艺术（的人不多），对吧？”
Days after the hammer fell at Sotheby’s, Mr. Wang had told a Chinese publication that he had not bought the painting alone, though he offered no details. Later, he no longer mentioned any partner. “When I saw the painting at a preview, I just felt like owning it — it stirred my heart,” he said in an interview published on Sotheby’s website.
苏富比拍卖行的这笔交易落槌后没几天，王中军曾对一家中国出版物说，那幅画并不是他一个人购买的，但他没有提供任何细节。后来，他不再提及任何人和他一起参与了购买的事情。“就是在看预展的时候，我觉得想拥有，心一动而已，”他在苏富比网站上发表的一篇采访中说。
The high-profile acquisition, made through an intermediary and with the ultimate source of funds remaining a secret, is the kind of transaction governments have been trying to curb in recent years.
近年来，各国政府一直试图遏制这种通过中间人进行、最终的资金来源始终秘而不宣的高调购买。
In one scandal, the United States charged a Malaysian businessman with laundering billions of dollars from a state development fund, using some of it to buy art at Sotheby’s and Christie’s. In 2020, the Senate issued a scathing report on how auction houses and art dealers had unwittingly helped Russians evade sanctions by allowing others to buy art for them.
在一起丑闻中，美国司法部指控一名马来西亚商人把从国家发展基金侵吞的数十亿美元进行洗钱，并用其中一部分在苏富比和佳士得购买艺术品。2020年，美国参议院发布的报告猛烈抨击了拍卖行和艺术品经销商，称它们通过允许他人代俄罗斯人出面购买艺术品，无意中帮助俄罗斯人逃避了制裁。
A spokeswoman for Sotheby’s said it vetted all buyers and, when necessary, enlisted its compliance department for “enhanced due diligence.” Sotheby’s applies worldwide a 2020 European Union rule that requires auction houses to verify the legitimacy of funds.
苏富比的一名发言人说，所有买家都经过了审查，而且在有必要的时候，还会让公司的合规部门对买家进行“增强尽职调查”。苏富比在全球范围内遵循一项2020年的欧盟规定，该规定要求拍卖行核实买家资金的合法性。
While the financial documents involving the van Gogh do not show wrongdoing, the transaction was hardly routine. Soon after the auction, Sotheby’s transferred ownership of the painting to the Shanghai man, neither a known art agent nor a collector, who paid the bill. But in a public ceremony, Sotheby’s handed over the painting not to him or the billionaire who employed him but to the producer, Mr. Wang.
虽然与那幅梵高画作交易有关的财务文件并没有显示不当行为，但那笔交易与常规做法相去甚远。拍卖成交后不久，苏富比将那幅画的所有权转交给了一个上海人，他既没有艺术品经纪人的名声，也不是收藏家，但他支付了费用。但在一个公开的仪式上，苏富比不是将这幅画交给了那个上海人或雇用他的那个亿万富翁，而是交给了制片人王中军。苏富比的发票上写着刘海龙，他是一个生活在上海的普通人，以3.77亿人民币的价格买下了梵高的这幅画。
“There’s a connection to someone who is now incarcerated,” said Leila Amineddoleh, a New York-based art lawyer. “Something unusual is going on.”
“这件事与一名现已被关进监狱的人有关，”在纽约艺术行业担任律师的莱拉·阿明多莱说。“这里面有一些不同寻常的事情。”
‘White Gloves’
“白手套”刘海龙住在上海这座公寓大楼里，他是为梵高作品支付近6200万美元账单的人。 The New York Times
The man Sotheby’s considers the owner of the van Gogh lives in a Shanghai apartment complex where gray tiles and grimy grout frame a weather-beaten door. A mat out front states nine times, in English, “I am an artist.”
苏富比认定的梵高画作主人住在上海的一座公寓楼里，灰色瓷砖和脏兮兮的灰浆框着一扇破旧的门。门前的一张垫子上用英语写了九遍“我是一名艺术家”字样。
The occupant, Liu Hailong, is listed as the sole owner and lone director of the shell company in the British Virgin Islands that paid for the painting: Islandwide Holdings Limited. Other than his date and place of birth, little is known about Mr. Liu, 46.
这栋房子的主人刘海龙被列为英属维尔京群岛一家空壳公司的唯一所有者和唯一董事，它名为全岛控股有限公司 (Islandwide Holdings Limited)，这家公司为这幅画支付了费用。除了出生日期和地点，外界对46岁的刘海龙几乎一无所知。
When a reporter recently showed him the Sotheby’s invoice and a bank wire document and asked whether the signature was his, he said, “Please leave immediately,” and shut the door.
最近，一名记者向他展示苏富比的发票和一份银行电汇文件，问签名是不是他本人的，他说：“你现在马上走。”然后关上了门。
A woman living with him, Zhao Tingting, has her own connection to the jailed billionaire, Mr. Xiao. She was once a top official at a company he co-founded, which had business dealings with relatives of China’s top leader, Xi Jinping.
和他住在一起的赵婷婷与被监禁的亿万富翁肖建华也存在联系。她曾经是肖建华参与创办的一家公司的高层，该公司与中国最高领导人习近平的亲属有业务往来。刘海龙给苏富比的两笔电汇，用于支付梵高画作的费用。
Ms. Zhao, 43, who no longer holds that position, now teaches piano. Asked about Mr. Liu’s purchase of the van Gogh, she responded, “Do you think our house comes close to the price of that painting?”
现年43岁的赵婷婷不再担任这个职位，如今在教钢琴。当被问及刘海龙购买的那幅梵高作品时，她回答说，“您觉得我们家的房子够那幅画的价格吗?”
She and Mr. Liu were “just ordinary little employees,” she said, with no connection to the Tomorrow Group, the collection of companies controlled by the billionaire. “We have no right to make any decisions and no right to know anything.”
她说，她和刘海龙“只是普通小员工而已”，与那位亿万富翁控制的明天集团没有任何关系。“我们没有任何的支配权跟知情权。”
The couple appear to have been “white gloves,” a term used in China to describe proxy shareholders meant to hide companies’ true owners. Among the thousands of pages of records providing details about the Tomorrow Group is a spreadsheet listing dozens of such people. At least four offshore companies were registered in Mr. Liu’s name.
这对夫妇似乎是“白手套”，这个词在中国用来形容代理股东，目的是隐藏公司的真正所有者。在提供“明天集团”详细信息的数以千计页数的记录中，有一份电子表格列出了数十名这样的人。至少有四家离岸公司以刘海龙的名义注册。
Those companies were part of Mr. Xiao’s vast enterprise. He had showed early promise, gaining admission to China’s prestigious Peking University at age 14 and serving as a student leader during the 1989 Tiananmen protests. He sided with the government, an allegiance that would help him become one of the country’s richest men, acquiring control of banks, insurers and brokerages, as well as stakes in coal, cement and real estate.
这些公司是肖建华庞大企业的一部分。他很早就显示出很有出息的样子，14岁就进入了中国著名学府北京大学，1989年的天安门抗议活动期间，他是学生会主席。当时他站在了政府一边，这种忠诚后来帮助他成为中国最富有的人之一，获得了银行、保险公司和经纪公司的控制权，以及煤炭、水泥和房地产公司的股份。
Unlike the many brash billionaires he did business with, Mr. Xiao, now 51, preferred to operate in the shadows, building ties to some of China’s princelings. He settled into a quiet life at the Four Seasons, where a coterie of female bodyguards attended to his needs.
与同他做生意的许多傲慢张扬的亿万富翁不同，51岁的肖建华更喜欢在暗处运作，与中国的一些太子党建立关系。他在四季酒店过着平静的生活，有一群女保镖照顾他。
Why one of his lieutenants paid for the van Gogh is not clear. Mr. Wang, the producer, was among the ranks of China’s wealthiest people, though not nearly as rich as Mr. Xiao.
为什么他的一个手下要买下这幅梵高画作目前尚不得而知。制片人王中军也曾是中国顶级富豪之一，尽管其财富远不及肖建华。
Mr. Xiao’s easy access to money outside China through his offshore network allowed him to bypass the country’s strict currency controls; he may have acted as a kind of banker for Mr. Wang. The documents show that the two men were drawing up art investment plans the same month as the auction, but their joint venture, based in the Seychelles, wasn’t formed until a year later. Meanwhile, the two set up another offshore company, aimed at investing in film and television projects in North America.
肖建华通过他的海外网络很容易在境外获得资金，这使他可以绕过中国严格的货币管制；他可能为王中军充当了某种银行家的角色。文件显示，两人在拍卖的同一个月开始制定艺术品投资计划，但他们在塞舌尔的合资企业直到一年后才成立。与此同时，两人还成立了另一家海外公司，旨在投资北美的电影和电视项目。
There could be another explanation for the payment: Mr. Xiao may have wanted to acquire an asset that could be transported across borders in a private jet, free from scrutiny by bank compliance officers and government regulators.
关于这笔款项可能还有另一种解释：肖建华可能是想收购一项可以用私人飞机跨境运输的资产，从而避开银行合规官员和政府监管机构的审查。
An Abduction, and a Vanishing Act
一场绑架与一件消失的艺术品2017年，肖建华在香港四季酒店公寓遭绑架后送往中国大陆受审。 Anthony Wallace/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
The fortunes of the men connected to the van Gogh purchase began to turn in 2015 with the crash of the Chinese stock market. Mr. Xi’s government blamed market manipulation by well-connected traders, and regulators wrested economic power back from the billionaires. Dozens of financiers disappeared, only to resurface in police custody.
2015年，随着中国股市崩盘，与梵高画作交易相关者的命运开始发生转变。习近平政府指责人脉广泛的交易商操纵市场，监管机构从亿万富翁手中夺回经济权力。数十名金融家失踪后，在警方的拘留所里重新露面。
Art purchases became more discreet. In 2016, Oprah Winfrey sold a Klimt painting to an anonymous Chinese buyer for $150 million.
艺术品的购买变得更加谨慎。2016年，奥普拉·温弗瑞以1.5亿美元的价格将克林姆特的一幅画卖给了一位匿名的中国买家。
By early 2017, Mr. Xiao’s life as a free man was over. One night, about a half-dozen men put him in a wheelchair — he was not known to use one — covered his face and removed him from his Hong Kong apartment. He was taken to mainland China and eventually charged. Prosecutors claimed that his crimes dated back before 2014, the year the van Gogh was sold.
到2017年初，肖建华作为自由人的生活结束了。一天晚上，大约六名男子把他放在轮椅上——大家都知道他不用轮椅——蒙住他的脸，把他从香港的公寓带走。他被带到中国大陆并最终被起诉。检察官声称，他的罪行可以追溯到2014年之前，也就是那副梵高画作被出售的那一年。
He was sentenced last August to 13 years in prison for manipulating financial markets and bribing state officials. The court said Mr. Xiao and his company had misused more than $20 billion.
去年8月，他因操纵金融市场和贿赂政府官员被判处13年监禁。法院说，肖建华和他的公司擅自运用资金1486亿元。
Government officials dismantled his companies in China. At some point, the British Virgin Islands business that bought the van Gogh changed hands and Mr. Liu was removed as its owner.
政府官员拆解了他在中国的公司。在那期间，购买梵高画作的英属维尔京群岛公司易手，刘海龙失去了所有者的身份。
For a while, Mr. Wang, the producer, maintained a high-flying lifestyle, opening a private museum in Beijing in 2017 that showcased the van Gogh and Picasso paintings for a few months.
有一段时间，制片人王中军保持着高调的生活方式，2017年在北京开了一家私人美术馆，把梵高和毕加索的画作展示了几个月。
But the market value of his film studio, Huayi Brothers, vaporized as it backed flops. Mr. Wang let go much of his art collection and his Hong Kong home. Last year the Beijing museum was sold off, along with a mansion tied to him in Beverly Hills.
但他的电影公司华谊兄弟因为制作的片子票房惨败市值蒸发。王中军放弃了大部分艺术收藏和他在香港的家。去年，他在北京的美术馆以及在比佛利山庄的一处豪宅被出售。
Mr. Wang and a spokesman for his company did not respond to multiple requests for comment. Mr. Xiao could not be reached for comment in prison, though a family representative said the billionaire’s wife did not know of any involvement in the van Gogh purchase and was unfamiliar with Mr. Liu.
王中军及其公司发言人没有回应记者的多次置评请求。记者无法联系到狱中的肖建华发表评论，不过一名家庭代表称，肖建华的妻子不知道梵高作品拍卖的事，也不熟悉刘海龙。
Van Gogh’s floral still life — a vibrant painting by one of the world’s most acclaimed artists — hasn’t been seen publicly for years. But there are reports that the artwork may be back on the market.
这副出自世界上最受赞誉的艺术家之一之手、栩栩如生的花卉静物画已经多年没有公开露面。但有报道称，这件作品可能会重新回到市场上。
Three people, including two former Sotheby’s executives and a New York art adviser, requesting anonymity, said the painting had been offered for private sale. Last year, the adviser viewed a written proposal to buy it for about $70 million.
包括两名苏富比前高管和一名纽约艺术顾问在内的三名要求匿名的人士表示，这幅画曾被提议私下出售。去年，这位顾问看到了一份以约7000万美元收购该作品的书面提议。
The art experts did not know whether the painting had sold or if concerns had been raised about the 2014 sale — a purchase by a onetime lieutenant to a now disgraced billionaire linked to a beleaguered film producer who claims the art belongs to him.
这些艺术专家不知道该画作是否已经售出，也不知道是否会有人对2014年的拍卖存在担忧。当时这幅画被一位现已声名扫地的亿万富翁的手下购买，而这位富翁又与一位陷入困境的电影制片人存在联系，后者声称这幅画属于自己。
“Nobody needs a $62 million van Gogh, and nobody wants to buy a lawsuit,” said Thomas C. Danziger, an art lawyer. “If there’s any question about the painting’s ownership, people will buy a different artwork — or another airplane.”
“没人需要一幅价值6200万美元的梵高作品，也没人愿意花钱买一场官司，”艺术律师托马斯·丹齐格说。“如果对这幅画的所有权有任何疑问，人们会购买其他的艺术品——或者另一架飞机。”