My juices are flowing with a quotation of a dealer, Gordon VeneKlasen in Carol Vogel’s Inside Art column in today’s New York Times.  The column dealt with the fact that Christie’s just purchased a contemporary art gallery. They now join Sotheby’s (who recently purchased Noortman Gallery) as auctioneers owning private galleries. “It begs serious regulation.  Auction houses were once the middleman between a willing buyer and a willing seller.  But today, between their mysterious reserves, private sales, third-party guarantees and now this, the lines have become completely (my emphasis) blurred. I wish I could have had that quote, but if you’ve read some of my blogs, that dealer’s comment truly…

I just read in the Antiques and Arts Weekly newspaper that the National Auctioneers Association (NAA) reported that the art and antiques sector of the auction industry “experienced significant growth” of over 9% in 2006 over 2005.  When was the last year dealers as a group reported any, let alone significant growth with year over year results? This report comes at a time when dealers are being forced to liquidate inventory and are not able to aggressively participating in auction buying. In addition, it has been suggested that prices have fallen over the past several years in the middle market, where the bulk of the auction lots are sold.  Dealers…

Try the Internet.  Since the advent of eBay, the growth of the Internet for trading art and antiques has been nothing short of phenomenal. Practically every dealer, auctioneer, and show organizer has developed a site with the expectation that they will find a new and successful means to connect with clients.  However the success on the Internet requires an ability to be user friendly, practical, and imaginative. The opportunities to get it right are challenging but full of promise.  I would dare say that the Internet provides more occasions to connect with a customer than all the shows combined.  Your audience is worldwide, 24/7.  You don’t have to travel and…

Amy Cappellazzo, who is in charge of contemporary art at Christie’s, crowed in a recent interview, “We’re the big-box retailer putting the mom-and-pops out of business”. (The New Yorker Magazine-TEMPTATIONS OF THE FAIR Miami virtue and vice, by PETER SCHJELDAHL, Issue of 2006-12-25 and posted 2006-12-18) This is a statement about an area of the market that is strong for dealers, just think about the impact this Christie’s (and I would think Sotheby’s) auctioneer’s business plan must have on weaker segments of the art and antiques trade.  It’s a hard statement to ignore, but of course dealers and their elitist representative organizations around the world still have their heads in…

Dealers in the antiques business got a reality check in today’s New York Times. On the front page of the House & Home section (where decorators and their clients grope over what is trendy) the antiques trade was embarrassed by its sorry state. The measures used by the writer to describe the dire state of dealers reveal just how dysfunctional the market has become. Dealers going out of business and liquidating at auction, prices falling about 30% since 2002, “Über” reproductions, and most damaging, antiques are out of fashion are the trend highlights. I can understand why an interior designer might prefer the repro route; the mark up is much…

There are very few jobs that one could think of as being hobbies and hobbies one could only imagine as a job.   Well, I feel in a very enviable position because that is what makes this industry very special to me.   Having an interest in the decorative and fine arts is formed by emotion. The emotion of the work’s creator can evokes a passion in an individual who enjoys possessing that creativity.  A chair is a chair, but it’s function and design is left to the imagination of an artist in all times.  Isn’t a chair made in ancient Egypt the same genus as a chair made by Gio…

(SOME THOUGHTS I HAD BACK IN 2002.  THIS WEEK CHRISTIE’S  JUST MATCHED SOTHEBY’S RECENT BUYER’S PREMIUM INCREASE) When all the trials and tribulations of the Sotheby’s-Christie’s affair are sorted out and dissipate, one key element of the entanglement should emerge.   How could they be allowed to operate in a manner that would be the envy of any other industry? Collusion on commissions is not really the correct indictment against them. All industries have some benchmark and manner of receiving a commission or fee.  The real issue is the grave conflict of interest they fashioned with the buyer’s premium. In the late 1970’s, they created the buyer’s premium, which now drives…

It’s time for me to stop belly aching about the auctions for a moment and reflect upon what I think is the most significant trend in the decorative arts market in the last 5-10 years.   The dominance of the decorative arts from the second half of the 20th and even 21st Century in the last decade has had a monumental effect on everyone in the industry. If one were to look at a pie chart of the styles being sold 25 years ago, the percentage of classical French and English styles would stand out as the order of the day.   In 2006, those 2 styles are clearly being overwhelmed…

See if you can follow me!  I am a dealer and you ask me a price on something in my store. I give you my price and you say OK, I’ll buy it.  I then say it isn’t really my price, I want $100.00 more.  Would trust me as a dealer? Now let me phrase this incident differently.  I am an auctioneer and I start the bidding at a price.  You then bid and the auctioneer immediately raises your bid.  No one bids beyond the auctioneer’s price and he declares the item will not be sold (bought in). Now, my question to you is who is deceiving the buyer, and…

In my prior blog, I made a statement that auctions as now practiced “in my mind are illegal, manipulative, deceptive, and full of conflict of interest”.   For me to break this down would take a text book full of examples, but I will try to analyze this statement in small packets in my blog format. The most obvious problem is the conflict of interest.  A buyer’s premium is now the preferred method of revenue income for any auctioneer; it is non-negotiable and the rate can be periodically raised with not so much as a whimper from buyer who pays it.  It is a great business model. But that device is…