1568年，托斯卡納大公國（Grand Dukedom of Tuscany）的繼承人弗朗切斯科一世·德·美第奇委托藝術(shù)家、建筑師和作家喬爾喬·瓦薩里設(shè)計(jì)了一張桌子。

當(dāng)時(shí)，瓦薩里是佛羅倫薩最負(fù)盛名的藝術(shù)家。美第奇家族已經(jīng)與他進(jìn)行了多次合作，包括繪制維琪奧王宮（Palazzo Vecchio）的壁畫和設(shè)計(jì)烏菲齊（Uffizi）的第一批建筑。

這張桌子采用了名為“pietre dure”（硬石）的鑲嵌技術(shù)，由數(shù)百塊切成薄片的碧玉、天青石等貴重石料構(gòu)成，并以一塊白色大理石作為基座。

打造這張桌子花費(fèi)了超過10年時(shí)間，耗費(fèi)了驚人的成本。倫敦藝術(shù)商本尼迪克特·湯姆林森表示：“作為對(duì)比，當(dāng)時(shí)最偉大的大師提香的畫作都比它便宜多了?！?

這張桌子售價(jià)1,160萬美元——腿部可選

——彭博社

它的價(jià)值如今仍舊高昂。湯姆林森是Robilant and Voena的主管，這家藝術(shù)館在6月28日至7月4日的Masterpiece London藝術(shù)展上展示了其桌面。他表示這張桌子要價(jià)“大約1,000萬歐元”（約1,160萬美元）。目前，桌面放置在一個(gè)新得多的展臺(tái)上。

一張桌子為什么會(huì)這么貴？

湯姆林森解釋道：“這個(gè)價(jià)格分為兩個(gè)部分，首先，你知道它的歷史。”

湯姆林森指的是這張桌子幾乎一直為皇室所有。

由于歐洲君主一直（最終不再）傾向于與堂表親結(jié)婚，因此這張桌子在超過一個(gè)世紀(jì)的時(shí)間里都留在美第奇家族直系成員的宮殿中，起初是佛羅倫薩的Casino di San Marco宮殿，之后又被送到皮蒂宮（Pitti Palace）。

在美第奇家族解體后（最后的本位繼承人安娜·瑪利亞·路易薩·德·美第奇逝于1743年），托斯卡納大公的位置授予了奧地利女大公瑪利亞·特蕾莎的丈夫、神圣羅馬帝國皇帝弗蘭茨一世。他的家族把這張桌子傳了三代。到1800年，桌子被送至附近的維琪奧王宮（考慮到桌面的重量就超過半噸，這可不是件輕松的活）。在此之后，桌子繼續(xù)通過繼承的方式，在波旁-帕爾馬家族流傳下去。

最后，桌子又被搬回皮蒂宮。拿破侖·波拿巴任命妹妹埃莉薩為托斯卡納女大公后，她因此短暫擁有了這張桌子（拿破侖失勢后，她也被迫退位），但之后它又落入哈布斯堡-洛林家族手中長達(dá)40年，然后被交給佛羅倫薩的Opificio delle Pietre Dure，這是宮廷的官方硬石工作室。

1870年，意大利把它賣給了一位名為威廉·斯彭斯的英國藝術(shù)商，后者將其轉(zhuǎn)售給了休·盧普斯·格羅夫納，他將成為第一代威斯敏斯特公爵。這張桌子就此從意大利來到了該家族在倫敦上流住宅區(qū)的大型聯(lián)排房屋Grosvenor House，在這里待了70年。1953年，該家族將桌子拍賣，被一位非皇室的私人買主拍下。

湯姆林森表示：“買下它，你就擁有了這400年來的非凡經(jīng)歷，這很難得。再加上它出自瓦薩里之手，這太不尋常了?！?

這張桌子的價(jià)值不僅在于其擁有者。它本身就價(jià)值連城。桌面超過5英尺長，3.5英尺寬，覆蓋著大塊的瑪瑙、碧玉、天青石和其他石頭。湯姆林森表示：“透明度更高的石頭下面還有銀箔相襯，顯得熠熠生輝。一位專家曾經(jīng)來到這里告訴我：‘你的打光方式完全錯(cuò)了，應(yīng)該將其置于燭光之下?！?

當(dāng)桌子不再是桌子

所以，這張桌子稀有、美麗，不僅桌面寬闊，還有重大歷史意義。不過湯姆林森也欣然承認(rèn)：就一件家具而言，1,160萬美元依舊是天價(jià)。

他表示：“問題在于，對(duì)于一件設(shè)計(jì)品或一張桌子而言，這似乎是相當(dāng)大的一筆錢?！?

不過湯姆林森繼續(xù)道，如果你將它看作藝術(shù)品而非裝飾，這個(gè)價(jià)格似乎忽然就變得沒那么嚇人了。

他表示：“對(duì)于藝術(shù)品而言，它顯得相對(duì)便宜，雖然說起來很荒謬：這仍然是一大筆錢，然而，由于藝術(shù)市場處于歷史上的特殊時(shí)期，價(jià)格沒有封頂，因此相對(duì)而言，它值得這個(gè)價(jià)?！?

湯姆林森建議買家將這張擁有400年歷史的桌子與當(dāng)代藝術(shù)家克里斯多夫·伍爾的畫作進(jìn)行比較，后者最貴的一幅畫“word paintings”在拍賣中賣出了超過2,000萬美元的價(jià)格。他表示：“這桌子實(shí)際上是一件美麗的物品，你不只是買了個(gè)概念。”

藝術(shù)館會(huì)在一個(gè)“有角度的底座上”展示這一桌面。湯姆林森表示：“這樣你就可以看看它，看看環(huán)繞桌子的那圈鑲邊?！?

湯姆林森表示，一些博物館已經(jīng)表達(dá)了興趣，不過這張桌子對(duì)任何財(cái)力雄厚、欣賞美麗事物的人都具有吸引力。

湯姆林森補(bǔ)充道，桌子也很耐用。他說：“你可以放心地把東西放在上面，因?yàn)樗軋?jiān)硬。你沒法在桌面留下刻痕，你可以在上面放個(gè)半身像之類?！?

“我認(rèn)為看到桌子，你很難不讓它發(fā)揮一些功能性的用途?！保ㄘ?cái)富中文網(wǎng)）

譯者：嚴(yán)匡正

In 1568, Francesco I de’ Medici, heir to the Grand Dukedom of Tuscany, commissioned a table designed by the artist, architect, and writer, Giorgio Vasari.

At the time, Vasari was one of the most famous artists in Florence. The Medici family had already enlisted him for projects ranging from murals in the Palazzo Vecchio to the design of the first buildings of the Uffizi.

The table was to be made with an inlay technique called pietre dure (“hard stone”), comprised of a design made from hundreds of thinly sliced, immensely valuable stones such as jasper and lapis lazuli, set on top of a piece of white marble.

It took more than 10 years to build, and cost a spectacular sum. “Putting it in terms of its comparative wealth, you could buy a painting by Titian— the greatest master of his day— for much, much less,” says Benedict Tomlinson, a London art dealer. “At its time, it was a vastly expensive work.”

There’s a table on sale for $11.6 million—legs optional

——Bloomberg

It still is. Tomlinson is a director of Robilant and Voena, a gallery that exhibited the tabletop at the Masterpiece London art fair, which run from June 28 to July 4. The table carries an asking price “in the region of €10 million” (about $11.6 million), he says. Currently, the table sits on a much newer base.

How Can a Table Cost So Much?

“There’s two parts to the price,” Tomlinson explains. “First, you’ve got its history.”

By that, Tomlinson is referring to the table’s nearly unbroken stretch of royal ownership.

Thanks to European monarchs’ enduring (and ultimately devastating) tendency to marry their cousins, the table managed to stayed in the immediate Medici family for more than a century, first in the Florentine palace Casino di San Marco, then in the Pitti Palace.

After the Medicis died out (Anna Maria Luisa de’ Medici, who died in 1743, was the last direct heir), the duchy of Tuscany was given to Holy Roman Emperor Francis I, husband of the Austrian Empress, Maria Theresa. His family then passed the table through inheritance for three further generations; by 1800, it had been moved it to the nearby Palazzo Vecchio. (No small feat, given that the tabletop alone weighs more than half a ton.) After that, it passed, also through inheritance, into the house of Bourbon-Parma.

The table was eventually moved back to the Pitti Palace and—after a brief stint in the hands of Napoleon Bonaparte’s sister, Elisa, whom he’d appointed Grand Duchess of Tuscany (she was forced to abdicate when Napoleon fell from power)—the table returned to the house of Habsburg-Lorraine, where it stayed for 40 years, until it was transferred to Florence’s Opificio delle Pietre Dure, the court’s official pietre dure workshop.

It was subsequently sold in 1870 by the Italian state to a British art dealer named William Spence, who turned around and sold it to Hugh Lupus Grosvenor, who would become first Duke of Westminster. The table was duly shipped from Italy to Grosvenor House, the family’s massive townhouse in London’s Mayfair, and stayed there for 70 years. In 1953, the family put the table up for auction, at which it passed into private, non-royal hands.

“You’ve got these 400 years of extraordinary provenance, which is very hard to find,” says Tomlinson. “And then you combine that with Vasari, and it’s just extraordinary.”

It’s not just about who owned the table, though. There’s the object itself. It’s more than five feet long and three and a half feet wide, and covered in giant pieces of agate, jasper, lapis lazuli, and other stones. “The more translucent stones have silver leaf underneath, so they shine,” Tomlinson says. “I had an expert come in here and tell me, ‘You’re lighting it all wrong, you should be lighting it by candlelight.’”

When a Table Is Not a Table

So the table is rare, beautiful, large, and historically important, but Tomlinson readily acknowledges that $11.6 million is still a tremendous amount of money to spend on a piece of furniture.

“The point is that it seems like an extraordinary amount of money for a design object or table,” he says.

But, Tomlinson continues, if you begin to think about it as a work of art, rather than a piece of decorative art, the price tag suddenly becomes less intimidating.

“For a work of art, it’s comparatively inexpensive,” he says, “which is a ridiculous thing to say: It’s still an extraordinary amount of money, but—because the art market has reached a strange moment in history where there’s no limit to prices—comparatively speaking, it’s good value.”

Tomlinson suggests that buyers compare the 400-year-old table to the price of a painting by Christopher Wool, a contemporary artist whose most expensive “word paintings” have sold for more than $20 million at auction. “It’s actually a beautiful thing,” he says. “You’re not just buying a concept.”

The gallery will exhibit the tabletop at Masterpiece “on an angled plinth,” he says, “so you can look at it and see the lip that goes around the edge.”

Tomlinson says that there’s already been some interest from museums, but the table could appeal to anyone with means and an eye for fine things.

It’s also, he adds, very durable. “You could quite safely put something on top of it, because it’s quite hard. You can’t make a dent in it, so you could put a bust on it or something,” he says.

“I suppose when you look at a table, it’s hard for it not to take on a functional use.”