本文選擇《經濟學人》雜志2013年9月23日。譯文來自網絡。
原文鏈接：http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21586580-fakes-say-some-interesting-things-about-economics-art-emperors-new-pictures

WHAT makes an artist great? Brilliant composition, no doubt. Superb draughtsmanship, certainly. Originality of subject or of concept, sometimes. But surely true greatness means that the creator of a painting has brought a certain je ne sais quoi to the work as well.
是什么成就了一名偉大的畫家？出色的構圖？高超的畫技？這兩點毋庸置疑。有時也靠創作主題或理念的新穎性。但真正的偉大指的是畫家為作品賦予一種難以描述的特質。

There is, however, a type of person who seems to sait perfectly well what that quoi is, and can turn it out on demand. In 1945, for example, a Dutchman named Han van Meegeren faced execution for selling a national art treasure, in the form of a painting by Vermeer, to Hermann Göring, Hitler’s deputy. His defence was that it was a forgery he had painted himself. When asked to prove it by copying a Vermeer he scorned the offer. Instead he turned out a completely new painting, “Jesus Among the Doctors”, in the style of the master, before the eyes of his incredulous inquisitors.
然而，有這樣一種人，他們似乎能準確把握這個難以名狀的東西，并且能夠按要求把它復制出來。例如，1945年，一位名叫漢·凡·米格倫（HanvanMeegeren）的荷蘭人因將一幅國家藝術珍品，也就是維米爾（Vermeer）的一幅畫作，賣給希特勒的副手赫爾曼·戈林（HermannGöring）而面臨死刑。他辯稱這只是幅贗品，由他本人仿造。當被要求現場模仿一幅維米爾的畫作來證明自己時，他表示十分不屑。在審判者懷疑的眼神下，他以維米爾的風格創作了一幅全新的作品《基督在博學者中間》。

此處例子功能題：作者為何提及荷蘭畫家？

Göring, who was facing a little local difficulty at the time, did not sue van Meegeren. But that has not been the experience of Glafira Rosales, an art dealer in New York who admitted this week that she has, over the past 15 years, fooled two local commercial art galleries into buying 63 forged works of art for more than $30m. She is being forced to give the money back, and is still awaiting sentence.
戈林當時在本國遇到了點麻煩，所以就沒有起訴凡·米格倫。但格拉菲拉·羅薩萊斯（GlafiraRosales）可沒那么好運了。作為紐約的一位藝術品商人，羅薩萊斯于本周承認了在過去的十五年里曾向兩個當地的商業藝術畫廊賣出了63幅假畫，總收益達三千多萬美元。她被強制要求退還所有收入，目前仍在等待法院的判決。

此處細節題，考有關Rosales 的例子內容。

Ms Rosales is guilty of passing goods off as something they are not, and should take the rap for the fraud. But although art forgers do a certain amount of economic damage, they also provide public entertainment by exposing the real values that lie at the heart of the art market.
羅薩萊斯女士因出售贗品獲罪，應承擔相應的刑事責任。但雖然這些藝術品偽造者給他人造成了一定的經濟損失，但他們也通過揭露藝術品市場上核心藝術品的真實價值而娛樂了大眾。

此處詞匯理解題：解釋take the rap。

That art market pretends that great artists are inimitable, and that this inimitability justifies the often absurd prices their work commands. Most famous artists are good: that is not in question. But as forgers like van Meegeren and Pei-Shen Qian, the painter who turned out Ms Rosales’s Rothkos and Pollocks, show, they are very imitable indeed. If they were not, the distinction between original and knock-off would always be obvious. As Ms Rosales’s customers have found, no doubt to their chagrin, it isn’t.
藝術品市場稱偉大的藝術家都是獨一無二的，而這種不可模仿性使得他們的作品都貴得離譜。大多數著名的藝術家都很優秀，這一點毋庸置疑。但像偽造者凡·米格倫和為羅薩萊斯女士偽造羅斯科和波洛克畫作的錢培琛，他們的存在證明了這些藝術家是可以被模仿的。如果不是的話，那真品和贗品之間的差別就會十分明顯。羅薩萊斯女士的顧客就沒有發現其中的區別，難怪事后他們懊惱不已。

此處句子理解題，解釋黑體字部分。chagrin: 懊悔，懊惱。

If the purchasers of great art were buying paintings only for their beauty, they would be content to display fine fakes on their walls. The fury and embarrassment caused by the exposure of a forger suggests this is not so.
如果購買者純粹是因為欣賞畫作的美而去購買它，那么即使是把假畫掛在自家墻上也會心滿意足。但偽造者的曝光所引起的憤怒和尷尬說明了情況并非如此。

Expensive pictures are primarily what economists call positional goods—things that are valuable largely because other people can’t have them. The painting on the wall, or the sculpture in the garden, is intended to say as much about its owner’s bank balance as about his taste. With most kit a higher price reduces demand. But art, sports cars and fine wine invert the laws of economics. When the good that is really being purchased is evidence that the buyer has forked out a bundle, price spikes cause demand to boom.
名貴的畫作被經濟學家稱為地位性商品——這類商品昂貴的價值很大程度是因為其他人無法擁有。不管是墻上的名畫，還是花園里的雕塑，都彰顯著其主人的品位和財富。大多數情況下，價格越高，需求就會越少。但是藝術品，跑車和名酒卻打破了這一經濟學定律。當真正被買下的商品能證明買家的確是花了大手筆時，那么價格的上漲反而會使需求猛增。

All this makes the scarcity and authenticity that underpin lofty valuations vital. Artists forget this at their peril: Damien Hirst’s spot pictures, for instance, plummeted in value when it became clear that they had been produced in quantities so vast nobody knew quite how many were out there, and when the market lost faith in a mass-production process whose connection with the original artist was, to say the least, tenuous.
這個現象說明了商品稀缺性和真實性的重要性。正因為此，藝術品的價格才會持續居高不下。藝術家若忽視這一點，便會自嘗苦果。例如，當達明安·赫斯特（DamienHirst）的現場畫作被大批量生產時，其價格直跌。市場對批量生產過程失去了信心，至少可以說，這樣生產出來的作品和原創者的聯系不再緊密。

Ms Rosales’s career is thus a searing social commentary on a business which purports to celebrate humanity’s highest culture but in which names are more important than aesthetics and experts cannot tell the difference between an original and a fake. Unusual, authentic, full of meaning—her life itself is surely art, even if the paintings were not.
羅薩萊斯女士的一生無非是對藝術行業的嘲諷。這個行業聲稱頌揚人類最崇高的文化，但藝術家的名字卻比美感更重要，而專家卻連真品和贗品都無法區別開來。即使羅薩萊斯女士出售的畫作不是真正的藝術品，但她的一生，不同尋常、萬般真實且意義深刻，充滿了藝術性。